It's already been a month since the Boston Marathon bombing. It was a harrowing day (and week with the ensuing manhunt), which I recounted in my newsletter and on the For Momentum blog. In the days following the...

There's isn't a more endangered business than independent bookstores. Margins are low and competition from Amazon -- never mind, everyone else -- is fierce. Still, some bookstores are doing more than just surviving. They're thriving, thanks to marketing smarts and a lot of hard work.

Take...

Like most Democrats, I was disappointed with President Obama's performance during the debate last week. But I felt a lot better about his chances in November after I saw the two-minute trailer for the new Steven Spielberg movie Lincoln. It aired right after the debate.

The trailer is powerful, and better than the first one released in early September. This second attempt, entitled Unite, focused on the tough decisions leaders have to make to bring about difficult but necessary change.

Spielberg has said that he's releasing the movie mid-November on purpose. He doesn't want to influence the election. But the Lincoln movie trailer will. Instead of giving us a two-hour plus historical drama to sip on, the trailer serves a pro-Obama shot straight up. 

The trailer has a compelling, modern tone. Troops in the Middle East and the missing Twin Towers are just two images injected into Lincoln's wartime world. The larger message is difficult times demand a strong and moral leader that will stay the course.

A bunch of things came to mind as I watched the trailer.

• Entitled Unite, the trailer says "There are those who unite us." That was Obama's yet to be fulfilled promise to voters four years ago.


• Lincoln freed the slaves, which set in motion the election of the first black president.


• Lincoln was -- and is in the trailer -- a strong proponent of federal powers, which Obama shares and which contrasts sharply with Romney's refrain during the debate to "Let the states decide."


• Lincoln had a tough fight for reelection but ultimately swayed voters that during difficult times it's best not to "change horses in midstream." Obama is trying to accomplish the same feat.

You may think that most Jersey Shore-watching Americans know very little about Lincoln. They may not know he was born in Kentucky, but they know and admire Honest Abe. In a 2011 Gallup poll of the greatest presidents, Lincoln ranked ahead of modern presidents Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy and was second only to Ronald Reagan. Obama ranked seventh, right behind FDR.

I also think your average debate-watching American knows more about the Civil War, and the issues that led to it, than any other American war except World War II. In short, Lincoln will resonate with viewers and voters.

The day after the presidential debate I was speaking to a group in Denver and showed them the trailer. I asked if it helped either candidate. Almost everyone agreed that it was pro-Obama -- although some gave Romney the nod as his party is (at least in name) the party of Lincoln.

Last night, Lincoln had its worldwide opening at the New York Film Festival. Tomorrow, Spielberg and the film's star, Daniel Day-Lewis, will participate in a live chat on the film.

The rest of us will have to wait until after the election to see the movie. But 37 million Americans watched the debate last week, after which the trailer aired. Who knows how many more times it will air during the three remaining debates.

Combined, the two Lincoln movie trailers have over 6 million views on YouTube and will get millions more before the election. That means a lot of voters will be drawing positive parallels between the two "uniters," Lincoln and Obama.

Come Election Day, Americans will recall their greatest Republican president and re-elect a Democrat....

There's so much to learn from Menchie's Frozen Yogurt and their cause marketing fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association that this will have to be the first of several posts. Their program is...

Susan G. Komen founder Nancy Brinker via Jason Pier/Flickr[/caption

October is such a busy month for breast cancer fundraising that it's called Pinktober because of all the pink ribbon products and events that benefit...

The Beatles were right: money can't buy you love. But it can buy us a better world, which might explain why consumers are setting aside their own interests in favor of products and services that put others first.

There are shoes from TOMS, donation-only cafes from Panera and even chewing...

The latest promotion from beauty brand Elizabeth Arden combines cause marketing with Pinterest. I was struck by how easy it is to execute a cause marketing promotion on Pinterest -- and that Elizabeth Arden was a darn good teacher

This is how it works:

Step 1: Recruit a Company...

For Watch City Brewing Company's owner Jocelyn Hughes and brewers Aaron Mateychuk and Kelly McKnight, it all started with a desire to help a family that...

I write a lot about the important role emotion plays in cause marketing. If you don't lead with emotion, you're toast. I also talk a lot about mobile technology, which will be a key driver of cause marketing in the years ahead. But here's the rub: Emotion and smartphones...

You gotta love this QR code marketing program from Planned Parenthood of Greater Northwest. They distributed 55,000 condoms to colleges in western Washington state with QR codes that when scanned went to a sex check-in site called...

One site I'm committed to spending more time on in the new year is the virtual pinboard Pinterest. It's easy to use, powerfully visual, populated with cause marketing-loving women and growing like crazy. 4,000 percent in six months!

The heavy presence of women 25-44 on...

Here are my picks for the best local cause marketing programs of 2011. My criteria for picking these promotions wasn't based on dollars raised, but on how well they represented the potential for local cause marketing. In short, these programs inspired me and made me proud to be a cause...

The Arby's Foundation, the giving arm of Arby's Restaurant Group, the second largest sandwich shop chain in the United States, did something last week that rivals the good deeds of Santa Claus himself. It gave Share Our Strength's (SOS) No Kid Hungry campaign $2 million dolllars.

Arby's customers kicked...

I love Christmastime! There's classic music like Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, time with friends and family (minus grandma), lots of delicious baked goods from my wife and, yes, presents!

I've already gotten some great gifts: five cause marketing promotions that keep me believing in the spirit...

Radio Shack reminds me of a lot of the local, scrappy nonprofits I work with. The Shack is big -- nearly 4,500 company-operated stores -- but it has a local feel to it. Maybe it's because you'll find them in local malls, strip malls and downtown business districts.

With competitors...

Whatever challenges, misfortunes and problems you faced this year, I bet you still have something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving. Maybe it's just the fact that you're alive!

I know I'm thankful for a lot of things. After all the important stuff, I'm thankful for...

I've talked a lot about the coming of mobile payments and their intersection with cause marketing on both my blog and at speaking appearances. It's something I'm really excited about. But up to now there hadn't been any sign in the water of this huge beast that would...

I'm fascinated by the whole food truck phenomenon. We have a number of food trucks here in Boston and I just finished watching The Great Food Truck Race on The Food Network. I'm also in Los Angeles all week for the Blogworld Expo and am hoping to sample some...

At almost $7 billion in sales, Halloween is a frighteningly successful holiday -- second only to Christmas in consumer spending. But for fundraisers, Jack Skellington's Halloween is #1.

Halloween is social. Halloween isn't the family holiday that Thanksgiving and Christmas are. Parents parade their kids out in...

I love zombie films.

I can't get enough of them, especially around Halloween when the shadows from the leafless trees take on ominous shapes. Yikes!

While you may not share my love for the semi-dead, you might agree with this: most of us are surrounded by these mute, will-less, dumb,...