Author Archives: Tara Greco

Reading Between the Lines: CR Messages in the Super Bowl Ads

For a long time, companies have tried to make statements with Super Bowl ads by being trendy, clever or quirky. As viewers, we’ve come to expect goofy beer spots, celebrity cameos and “arrival statements” from newcomers (remember those pets.com ads with the dog sock puppet?). Most of the Super Bowl commercials are presented with a “wink-wink-nudge-nudge” tone, so to stand out, a commercial has to have a clear, solid message coupled with compelling imagery. In a straw poll of the APCO CR team, a few of those stand-out commercials in 2012 tapped into broader themes of responsibility and shared value. Among the most notable spots:
Posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Communicating CR | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Applying Moneyball Logic to Managing a Corporate Volunteer Program

Spring training is right around the corner, so I thought it would be appropriate to dig into an analogy thrown out by Taproot’s Aaron Hurst at the 2011 BSR conference in San Francisco. Aaron compared the recent innovations in corporate volunteer practices to Moneyball. If you’ve read the book or seen the movie, you know the story: Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane revolutionized MLB roster management by employing a new approach to analyzing a player’s value. The “data nerds” have created a system that is more efficient and less risky, leading to improved performance for a franchise on the field and the balance sheet.
Posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Technology and CR Volunteerism & Service | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Universities Need to Protect Their Brands, too

Athletic conference realignments altering cherished rivalries within college sports. Alleged acts of pedophilia by coaching staff against children in their care. Compliance violations and a range of sometimes controversial penalties assessed against member schools. This is the context for which the NCAA and several of its marquee institutions enter into the previously hallowed football bowl season. Lack of preparation and poor decision-making have resulted in several senior administrators becoming a part of the anticipated December unemployment statistics instead of leading their schools or departments. This will indeed be a winter of unprecedented criminal investigations, litigation and adverse media coverage. As daily stories regarding the aspects of these events have unfolded on our TV screens and social media, several friends and journalists have called to ask how or if any of this could have been possibly prevented. Of course, no one can fully prevent horrendous judgment committed by individuals within an institution if a person is intent on engaging in morally reprehensible or criminal acts. However, more than ever before, boards of directors of corporations and university trustees are asking their senior executives to ensure that their institutions have a fresh crisis plan and that all the requisite stakeholders in the enterprise are equipped to operationalize it when the inevitable mayhem visits their doorstep.
Posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration Communications What's Next for CR | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

World AIDS Day 2011: Prevention as the New Great Hope

Today marks another World AIDS Day. APCO’s Linda Distlerath has been working in this field for decades and shares her thoughts on how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. Having worked in the HIV/AIDS field for more than 20 years, I find myself each December 1 – World AIDS Day – reflecting on how far we have come in tackling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic and contemplating what the future will bring. This past year marked the 30th anniversary of the first reports from U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of unusual cases of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and pneumocystis pneumonia in gay men, both later recognized as opportunistic infections associated with HIV infection and diagnostic of full-blown AIDS. Hence, 1981 is seen as the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in terms of public attention to a frightening and previously unknown infectious threat. Over the next 15 years, much effort was focused on the scientific, clinical and epidemiological aspects of HIV infection and AIDS with significant investment by the U.S. government through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the CDC among other government agencies, along with the research-based pharmaceutical industry. But 1996, the 15-year mark of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, was a watershed year for science, the industry and people living with HIV/AIDS, at least in the United States, Europe and other health resource-rich regions. In that year, the notion of the “triple-combination cocktail” of antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV infection – taking viral load to undetectable levels for prolonged periods – came to life, and indeed brought life back to those ravaged by AIDS.
Posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Community Engagement What's Next for CR | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

BSR Conference Highlights

Two colleagues and I attended the 2011 BSR Conference a few weeks ago in San Francisco. As usual, the conference provided inspirational speakers, engaging sessions and thought-provoking ideas to consider. This year’s theme was “Redefining Leadership.” The BSR team effectively organized the presentations and discussions around this topic, and participants were able to address leadership from a variety of angles. There were a few items that jumped out for the APCO team that we want to share with SP readers. You may also want to scroll through our tweets from the conference.
Posted on Wednesday, November 16th, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Business Alignment/Integration Communicating CR CR in North America | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Marketing Your Company’s Commitment to Shared Value

Did you see this piece in October’s Ethical Corporation? In it, author Peter Knight takes Tom’s Shoes and other companies to task for tying their marketing strategy to a higher social purpose—positing that society and companies were better off in the days of checkbook philanthropy focused on the CEO’s pet charities. Well, I couldn’t disagree with him more.
Posted on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Communicating CR Philanthropy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Corporate Philanthropy = R&D

I was just in NYC and it was a quick-turnaround trip, so unfortunately, I didn’t have time to shop. When I head back to the Big Apple in a few weeks, I’m going to carve out some time for a side trip to SoHo to check out this new concept from Nordstrom: Treasure&Bond. Why am I sharing this tidbit with Shared Purpose readers?
Posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Cause Marketing Philanthropy What's Next for CR | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Skills Based Volunteerism on a Whole New Level

Did you see this Chronicle of Philanthropy article a few weeks ago? Food engineers and food scientists at General Mills began a volunteer project in 2009 to package and donate meals for kids in Malawi schools. The response was overwhelming, which inspired them to think bigger.
Posted on Thursday, August 18th, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Philanthropy Volunteerism & Service | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Using Social Media to Communicate Corporate Responsibility

There is no doubt that in recent years, the way in which most people consume and share information has been completely transformed by social media. Recognizing this, many companies now use social media to interact with consumers and stakeholders to broadcast their messages and one of the most interesting ways they are using social media is to drive participation, enthusiasm and awareness of their corporate responsibility efforts. At the National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS) in June, I attended a session called “How Social Media Can Advance Your EVP and CSR Efforts” that provided terrific insights and examples of companies that are using social media in creative and meaningful ways.
Posted on Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Communicating CR Community Engagement Technology and CR Volunteerism & Service | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Top 10 Takeaways from the National Conference on Volunteerism & Service

The APCO team left New Orleans with our bags full of information and our heads full of ideas. Here are our the lessons learned from this year’s NCVS. We’re already looking forward to next year in Chicago! The New Orleans spirit is a force greater than any hurricane. The commitment to rebuild and repair the city has not wavered, and the city’s do-it-yourself approach has been driving the rebirth. Branford Marsalis said it best in the opening plenary: “We have a lot of different kinds of music here, and the sound is perseverance.”
Posted on Thursday, June 16th, 2011 By Tara Greco
Catogories  Volunteerism & Service | Tagged , , | Leave a comment