Tech Companies Should Perform a Public Service

"The USO understands the importance of a private message to a lonely spouse, the impact of photos on children missing their father, and the urgency of legal documents awaiting a soldier’s signature."
-- Smiles Over Miles Sponsorship Kit

One item that can play a key role in almost every high-tech company’s marketing program is public service. Aside from the intended, obvious and important benefits to society, public service campaigns offer some unique opportunities for you as a marketer:

You can showcase tangible benefits in a big way. If you really can do something better, faster and cheaper, then what better way is there to show that than in public service?

Campaigns tend to be highly integrated. It is usually not a stretch to involve multiple marketing tactics, touch points, and channels -- giving you much more leverage than might be the case if you just, oh say, hold a webinar to introduce your next product.

Free advertising. Speaking of leverage, that’s what you get with the publicity a public service campaign can generate if it addresses a genuine public need. In fact, now the press has an even more legitimate reason to cover you, because if they don’t then they would deny others the benefit you are providing.

Third-party endorsements. Public service campaigns, by definition, are public. Which means you will probably need approvals and advice just in the process of getting the program off the ground mechanically. That approval and advice can often be used as endorsements.

For some creative inspiration, check out this recruitment kit from my client, SenditCertified -- designed to help attract sponsors for a program the company is running with the USO. What you see here is an eBook version of the physical package.

SenditCertified makes a messaging platform that lets you send email in a secure way on the public Internet with just a web browser. What’s really cool is that you can even “write” your email as a video (and include up to 10 file attachments) of almost any size. So, let’s say you are a soldier deployed in Afghanistan and you want to send a video home to your kids. You can use anyone’s laptop with a camera and you’ll have complete privacy. No more worrying about the bad guys intercepting private messages and building a database. And no more standing in line back at base waiting to use the “approved” PC.

So the campaign is to provide free SenditCertified accounts to all deployed military personnel. Brilliant, yes? I wish I had thought of it. I’m just glad I had a role writing the copy.