Campaign: 50 states for good

Tom’s of Maine is a Colgate-Palmolive company known for using natural ingredients and supporting communities.

In 2009, ZAAZ, part of the Wunderman network, and Cohn & Wolfe helped Tom’s of Maine launch ‘50 states for good’. The initiative invites consumers to submit charity projects for consideration and then vote on those deemed most worthy. The five projects receiving the most votes are awarded $20,000 each by Tom’s of Maine. ZAAZ created a web-based program to enable consumers to vote and charities to apply for the scheme. Cohn & Wolfe developed an online campaign to promote the program.

The campaign was a tremendous success, demonstrating the company’s commitment to community action and raising awareness about the charities that took part. More than 2,000 charities from all 50 US states applied for the initiative and more than 280,000 votes were received by Tom’s of Maine. The campaign generated nearly 80 million impressions, increased traffic to the Tom’s of Maine website by over 300% and doubled the number of people signing up to the company’s newsletter.

Because of the positive response from customers and charities, Tom’s of Maine has decided to rerun the initiative every year. The 2010 initiative will build on the previous year with the addition of a volunteer component.