Research indicated that the most impactful CSR programs are based on a mission relevant to the company's consumer base. The development of Cricket Cares focused on three value pillars:
•Elevate Communities – Aid communities in times of crisis, devastation and hardship.
•Empower Youth – Educate youth on how to protect themselves from cyberbullying in this age of advanced technology while also supporting arts education.
•"Hero-Make" People – Enable community leaders and influencers to generate smiles through unforgettable surprise and delight executions nationwide.
The Cricket Cares strategy sought to be:
•Grounded in the business – Cricket's work in the community should amplify what the business is trying to accomplish in the marketplace, building goodwill and ensuring that community investments make customers more receptive to brand interactions and marketing messages.
•Integrated with and rooted in social media – Media coverage is an important metric, but it's not the only one. Cricket Cares evolved from viewing success through only a media impression lens to telling stories through owned channels and brand ambassadors.
•Headquarters driven, frontline oriented – Headquarters enables the frontline to become the face of Cricket's humanitarian efforts. All efforts should be led by the frontline or include their participation. As the everyday deliverers of the brand's value, those on the frontline should be the ones representing the company when Cricket Cares touches customers.
The plan measured ROI through:
Within only a year's timeframe, Cricket Cares kicked off numerous meaningful CSR activations working directly with local sales teams, high profile influencers and external organizational partners. A few of the most memorable include:
•Revitalizing Communities: In collaboration with not-for-profit Rebuilding Together, Cricket Cares invested in revitalizing landmarks in five key Cricket markets.
•Cyberbullying Summits: Leveraging the company's sponsorship of WWE, Cricket Cares holds ongoing anti-cyberbullying education summits surrounding its four flagship wrestling events (WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series and Royal Rumble) that are joined by local youth organizations and feature WWE Superstars such as John Cena and Sheamus.
•Mattresses to Harvey Survivors: Listening to the needs of the community, Cricket Cares and hip-hop artist Trae tha Truth delivered brand new mattresses to families in Houston to assist with disaster relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, resulting in significant coverage by traditional news outlets and throughout social media. Many families were sleeping on lawns and concrete uncarpeted floors following the floods, and Cricket tackled this unmet need.
•Christmas Shopping Sprees for Families Affected by Natural Disasters: Partnering with local organizations like the Salvation Army, hip-hop artists Paul Wall and Lil Keke, and social media star Athena, Cricket provided $1,000 shopping sprees for families affected by the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, and by the wildfires in California. These stories saturated local news outlets in each market.
•Changing the Life of a Child Left Homeless by Harvey: Houston hip-hop star and Cricket Brand Ambassador Paul Wall joined Cricket Cares to surprise a Texas Southern University faculty member with a $4,500 check and additional gifts to assist with the adoption of a child left without care due to natural disasters. The story also saturated local news outlets and reached media markets outside the state of Texas.
The winning tactic in each activation has been the integration of Hero-Making: an understanding that the best brands take a backseat and enable greatness in its customers and advocates. By allowing them to be the heroes of the story, Cricket Cares empowers the people who know their communities best and have a profound grasp of what is needed and when it's needed. Each activity above and others not listed exceeded ROI metrics well beyond expectations, garnering local to national media exposure as well as viral social media impact.
Mattresses: Frontline employees in the trenches informed Cricket of families sleeping on lawns and carpet-less floors and could not sleep indoors due to forming mold. That presented a big opportunity to provide mattresses and bedding to families and literally elevate them from the ground. The brand worked with a locally owned furniture company and a school called YES Prep! with 1,000 displaced families to target the mattresses to people with the greatest needs.
Shopping Spree: The same school provided employees names and stories of three homeless students who would not have a viable Christmas due to their economic circumstances - some caused by Harvey. Employees took those students to the Galleria Mall on a massive shopping spree for them and their families, producing incredible coverage from major network affiliates (see supporting video material).
Adoption: Through employee networks, the story of a university professor trying to raise money to adopt a young child left homeless by Harvey was brought to Cricket's attention. Employees made up of the local sales team presented the new mom with $4,500 and baby supplies and served as the face of a media campaign that generated 50,000,000 media impressions nationwide.
The CSR initiatives around relief contributed to a program that generated 232 traditional media hits and 641,372,949 total impressions in 2017. Cricket dominated CSR share of voice with 57 percent of total CSR coverage, while competitors Boost Mobile, MetroPCS and Virgin Mobile shared the remaining 43 percent.
