Last month the "Movember" cause dominated social media. Barely a day went by without the media picking up on the progress of celebrity "Mo’s", stories about how companies were supporting the cause, and opinions were shared about how bristly, or preened, our men looked. Our research, conducted between the 1 and 25 November, counted 1.6 million English language posts. This represents an increase of 111 per cent on the previous year. 
 
There’s no doubt that Movember ruled our headlines and our social networks, but how can corporates get a piece of the action and attach their brand to a cause in order to raise the company profile? It has reached such a level of awareness that, much like the Royal British Legion’s Poppy campaign for Remembrance Day, the brand of the appeal is dominant. Understanding the interplay between the appeal and the underlying cause is a vital piece of insight for brands – it will help dictate the messaging, tactics and tone of voice they use to communicate their association.
 
We’ve identified a few characteristics organisations may want to replicate in their own cause marketing programmes. A campaign should appeal to people’s egos by portraying participants as "in the know" about topical events. It should pull on our heart strings by emphasizing its commitment to a particular cause – either through education or by communicating the brand’s own involvement in the cause. It should also appeal to our sense of fun and nostalgia; in Movember’s case it harks back to a time when moustaches were popular. And in a society often noted for its lack of community, it should provide an opportunity to feel included, and share a sense of camaraderie with the "in-crowd".
 
For this same reason, brands need to think twice about being too nakedly commercial. We find that consumers lash out against brands associating themselves with causes when they sense they are cashing in on the phenomenon, rather than supporting the charitable causes behind it. Regardless of whether these views reflect reality, it does call for a messaging strategy that emphasises CSR. It also goes without saying that branded social media properties like Facebook and Twitter pages should be re-skinned to reflect the brand’s association with the cause.
 
Movember is a brand that exists to encourage participation and, in so doing, to promote a cause. Brands need to ensure they are seen as being unswervingly committed to it, if they are to truly benefit from the association. Movember is such a phenomenon that the real challenge for brands is to break through the general chatter around the topic, so they can be seen to be making a clear and tangible contribution to the cause. Brands that draw on the right insights, and put them to use in the right way, stand to benefit immensely as Movember continues its inexorable conquest of the male upper lip.