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RockCorps: Give 4 hours, get 1 ticket

Two of the key questions brand managers and agency folk are asking themselves right now are “how can my marketing dollar add value to my customers lives as well as shift core brand metrics” and “how can my brand be a good citizen of the world”.

This isn’t to say we’re all becoming altruistic. Rather, consumers are demanding more from brands and voting with their dollars. Brands wishing to remain competitive need to step up and deliver, or watch more forward-thinking competitors differentiate and pass them by. If the net product is that the world is filled with interesting and useful branded initiatives, then everybody wins. I suppose it’s a nice example of market economies ending up in the right place, eventually.

With that in mind, I love the idea of RockCorps.

Starting in the mid-90’s, the Greenbucks Foundation held free concerts in Telluride, Colorado with a twist: to get a ticket to the event, you needed to help clean up the space beforehand.

Seeing a bigger opportunity, in 2005 they partnered with Boost Mobile to take the idea nationwide: 4 hours of community service = 1 free concert ticket. By 2007, the RockCorps was hitting 11 cities in the U.S., and so far has involved 35,000 youth to generate 140,000 hours of community service.

It’s a brilliant idea, and a great way for a brand to differentiate in the extremely competitive music and cause marketing spaces, with a direct impact to the community. There’s also a long-term benefit to introducing youth to the idea of volunteering: according to the Guardian, 35% of the participants volunteered again within 12 months.

Orange RockCorps: Give, to get given

Now for 2008, RockCorps is partnering with mobile operator Orange to bring the concept to the UK as Orange RockCorps. The first gig is on September 26th at the famed Royal Albert Hall and stars Busta Rhymes. To earn tickets, volunteers can help at one of 50 projects being organized around London, covering everything from school regeneration to helping the homeless.

There are times when partnering or sponsoring an existing initiative provides much less value to the brand than starting a grassroots initiative of your own. However, I think this partnership is a great move for Orange, and a fantastic example of brand marketing giving something of value both to people and their communities.

RockCorps was a proven model in the U.S. and was looking for brand partners to extend its reach into additional markets. Orange comes on board and uses it’s marketing clout and expertise to blow it out in the UK, and reaps the rewards. From a consumer’s perspective, they won’t know that it didn’t start with Orange in the first place, and even if they did I’m sure they wouldn’t care.

As appropriate for the audience, Orange has also delivered the full complement of social media supplements for RockCorps, including an Issuu newsletter, a MySpace page, a Facebook brand page, a Twitter page, and an Orange RockCorps Last.fm profile.

It’s interesting that the Facebook group has 1,316 fans while the Myspace page only has 79 friends. Given MySpace’s music focus and that they are a corporate partner for the program you would’ve expected the reverse. Goes to show the value in covering all your community space bases.

I’m not sure I qualify as “youth” any more, but I’m thinking of giving it a go. Anybody else in? If you still need convincing, here’s a timelapse of the first event in action:

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brand, cause marketing, differentiation, engagement, green, innovation, marketing, music, partnership, social, value