From its humble beginnings at a pub in Melbourne, Australia, it has grown into an annual global event with over 6 million supporters. It involves growing mustaches to raise funds and awareness for men’s mental health, prostate, and testicular cancer research.
Research shows that 70% of consumers care if their brand is addressing social or environmental issues, so why not take action this November with a Movember marketing campaign? With these 10 tips, we explore how to do that authentically by striking the right balance between marketing your product and raising awareness for this social cause.
1. Share Your Story
According to the American Cancer Society’s key statistics, 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Chances are, you or someone close to you will have a story to share about this condition. Sharing these stories and peeling away the stigma associated with cancer and its effects on men’s lives is what Movember is all about. Your marketing campaign will be much more authentic if it is centered around the personal experience of you or someone close to you.
As a marketer, you can drive up brand engagement by organizing live events or Q&A sessions featuring your story, or reaching out directly through a personalized email to your customer mailing list. Take a look at our list of the best marketing tools to maximize the efficiency of your campaign.
2. Post Progress Pictures
The core of the Movember movement has always been image-driven. Mo Bros show solidarity by not shaving throughout November, and the—sometimes silly—progress pictures of everyone’s unruly Movember ‘staches are what keeps the movement going.
Sharing pictures of you and your work team is a fun, whimsical opportunity to show that you care and a chance to put out a stream of posts on your social media platform(s) of choice. Recurring social media posts draw more attention to your brand, especially when they are authentic and for a good cause. So share those progress pics, and have fun with it, all while driving brand engagement.
3. Reach a Wide Audience
To make the most of any event-driven marketing campaign, it is important to reach out to as many people as possible. Most businesses have a huge list of customers with contact information on file. Some of these clients may not have been contacted for months or even years. Movember, being a cause we can all rally around, is a great opportunity to reach out to those clients and reintroduce yourself. Share your personal story and your progress, and invite them to pass the message on while reminding them of your brand.
How you maximize your audience will depend a lot on your chosen channel. If your campaign is primarily on social media, it might make sense to hire some outside help.
Social media specialists working on a freelance basis are a great way to supplement your existing staff during a seasonal campaign. They can write well-tailored social media posts and provide their expert advice on how to best run a Movember-themed campaign. Freelance job boards, such as Fiverr, are great places to hire professionals like this.
For email marketing, automation and scheduling are your best friends. You can use an email marketing service to build email templates, schedule emails to be sent out automatically, and automate follow-ups. We recommend HubSpot as an affordable and effective email marketing platform, but if you want more options, take a look at our list of the best email marketing tools.
4. Celebrate Your Audience’s Content
Sending a message out to your audience is easy, but getting them to engage with it is what makes a campaign successful. Once you start seeing retweets, sharing, and forwarding of your message, you know you are on the right track.
The key is to keep the campaign fun and interactive. Movember fosters a type of fun content creation with a very low entry bar. Anyone with a mustache, real or fake, can contribute with photos and stories of their own. Create content that encourages your audience to share, like, or comment. This will raise awareness of the movement itself while increasing engagement with your brand through user-generated content. An engaged customer is a loyal customer, so focus on celebrating your audience’s content as well as your own to make the most of your Movember marketing campaign.
5. Craft your Call to Action
At the core of the Movember movement is the drive to give. Raising awareness is important, but the goal is fundraising, so craft your call to action with that in mind.
Movember tackles multiple issues, so pick the cause most relevant to you and your business. For example, if you share a story about prostate cancer with your audience, make sure to provide an avenue for them to give to a charity in that area. Fundraising is at the center of this movement, and it should be at the center of your campaign as well.
6. Host a Charity Event
Engage with your local community by hosting an event at your place of business. If you are running a small business, a direct connection with your community is what separates you from the multinational corporation down the street. Use this campaign to strengthen that connection, build your network, and bring people together for a good cause.
If you represent a larger organization, events are an opportunity to build your network and create goodwill around your brand.
The nature of the event can vary depending on your industry, but BBQs, dinner parties, and Movember-themed parties are always a hit.
7. Match Donations
Matching every donated dollar with a gift of your own is a tried and tested strategy because of its authenticity. It is a great way to raise awareness and support the cause while building goodwill for your brand.
According to recharity.ca, matching gifts results in a 71% increase in audience engagement. This can be a great way to reach and engage as many people as possible. Just keep in mind that this strategy can be a little too successful. Ensure you have a strict budget in mind beforehand.
8. Be Authentic
One of the things that separate Movember from other charitable campaigns is just how creative and original it can be. At its core, the whole movement thrives on community interaction: users engaging with each other, sharing fun, silly mustache-themed content, all while supporting a good cause.
In the spirit of this campaign, don’t be shy to try something new. For example, the French multinational JCDeceaux ran a “pash rash” campaign, where a bus stop kiosk would scan men’s faces, and if their mustache was bushy enough it would dispense a cream-designed to relieve rashes caused by kissing a face with a bushy mustache.
Creativity and fun drive successful Movember campaigns the world over. There is no single right way to run a Movember campaign, so don’t hold back from being creative.
9. Choose a Cause that Motivates You
This one might seem very obvious, but find a cause that you are personally invested in. If it feels like your campaign is just about reaping benefits instead of working for the cause, it might be time to reevaluate.
Fortunately, Movember represents a very wide umbrella of causes—almost everything related to men’s health. If the aspect that you are currently focused on does not personally move you, look around and find another one that does.
Running a serious marketing campaign within a short time frame can be exhausting, especially when it happens on top of your other daily duties. A cause that motivates you will help maintain your morale and keep your campaign authentic.
10. Have Fun
The key driver behind Movember’s success, which has led to 18 years of popularity and the engagement of 6.5 million people, is that mustaches are funny. There's just something whimsical and hilarious about them, and the whole movement thrives on this. So when you’re engaging with your audience and building your brand, don’t forget: you are here to have fun too. Fun is infectious. If your audience sees you are having fun, then they will have fun too. Moreover, they will see your brand as an authentic one.
Authenticity, especially in today’s content-saturated society, is crucial to a successful marketing campaign. According to Forbes, as many as 86% of people factor in authenticity when choosing what brand to go with. Foster a fun relationship with your audience, and you will have your conversion, your brand engagement, and your successful Movember marketing campaign.
In Conclusion
Movember is about bringing people together. It's about showcasing your funny and creative side while supporting a good cause alongside your community. So reach out to as many people as possible—with the right marketing tools—to truly make the most of your Movember marketing campaign.
