Procter & Gamble (P&G) began donating bottles of Dawn dish liquid and a share of Dawn revenues to help clean up animals caught in oil spills 30 years ago. In 2009 the brand team wanted to leverage that heritage to build sales - publicizing its good works and pledging USD 1,00 of every Dawn purchase to wildlife.

We faced multiple challenges: identifying an appropriate cause, creating partnerships with appropriate wildlife organizations, securing a celebrity spokesperson, creating an online community to engage directly with wildlife supporters, generating national media coverage and, importantly, motivating consumers to buy Dawn and activate their wildlife donation.

Once we identified marine wildlife as a cause that really needed Dawn’s help, we created a cause-related Facebook community, forged partnerships with two important marine wildlife advocacy groups, enlisted Minnie Driver as our spokesperson and launched widespread media outreach. At the same time, P&G introduced special edition Dawn bottles with wildlife labels that direct people to www.dawnsaveswildlife.com, where they can to activate their one dollar per bottle donation.

The results to date: over USD 300k in consumer donations in the first few months, 18k-plus Facebook fans and over 300 million impressions via national media.

In September 2009, Procter & Gamble introduced special edition Dawn bottles with wildlife labels that direct people to www.dawnsaveswildlife.com and we launched our outreach programme.

• We created the Dawn Everyday Wildlife Champions Facebook fan page with news, links, events and videos of IBRRC and MMC rescues.

• We created an online advocacy panel to direct consumers to the movement.

• We enlisted wildlife activists and bloggers to deliver Dawn’s message online.• We filmed Minnie Driver feeding and caring for wildlife at the MMC and used the footage in both traditional and online advertising.

• We enlisted directors from the IBRRC and MMC as third-party experts to speak about Dawn’s contributions to wildlife and the one dollar donation.

• We secured a Brandweek exclusive announcing the Everyday Wildlife Champions programme and Dawn’s in-store donation effort.• We launched a national media tour of top-tier outlets with Minnie Driver.

Objective: Build engagement with 10,000 consumers via social media Result: The Everyday Wildlife Champions Facebook page has more than 18,000 fans solely through PR efforts (no marketing support).Objective: Drive $500k in consumer donations through purchase Result: In just a few months, the campaign has already generated more than $300K in consumer donations.Objective: Use wildlife group partners to connect mainstream and wildlife communities.Result: Anecdotal feedback from leading cause experts reports Dawn "upped the ante" and "reached the hearts of consumers by empowering them – through purchasing products or devoting their FB status".Objective: Generate national awareness of Dawn’s 1 bottle = 1 dollar for wildlife via online donation activation.Result: Generated over 312MM impressions through national TV, print and online exposure. Triggered mentions on major wildlife blogs such as inbirdrescue.com and birderslounge.comStimulated consumer advocacy, e.g., “Tell everyone about the Dawn donation to wildlife - 1 dollar per bottle”. -(consumer Wanda Ringwold).