When a company aligns with an initiative the benefits its own interests, then the reason behind the philanthropy is obvious to the market. That doesn’t mean it’s not as important, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. The people quickly see that you are TRULY behind the initiative and aren’t just using it as a ploy. Therefore, they too can get involved for their own reasons without feeling like the company is benefiting directly from them.

Brand citizens are eternally wary of the corporations that exist. They don’t want to be sold. They want to make their own decisions based on the facts. It’s their choice and they know it. Therefore, when a brand is more transparent with it’s operations people tend to flock towards it.

One such example of a charitable intiative that benefits the brand is Haagen-Dazs’ Help the Honey Bee campaign. Not only have they put out a honey flavored vanilla ice cream (which is super yummy), but they have actively built an awareness website and developed multiple ways for folks to get behind the cause.

They benefit because of honey bees’ pollination and natural sweetner manufacturing. The world benefits because we need bees and they are disappearing! It works hand in hand, and everyone wins, including the brand Haagen Dazs.

Haagen Dazs Help the Honey Bee campaign benefits everyone including the brand itself.

Take it from this kid who came up with a kick-ass strategy that satisfied a simple, practical problem with the most elegant and simple solution in the world. What might have been otherwise obvious to most hockey players, this kid contemplated how design played a role in his situation, then used that very principle to defeat a simple problem by the same means.

What's next—grass-colored uniforms for soccer players? Wood plank shorts for basketball?

This kid’s answer is the kind that wells up a little kung-fu feeling in you when you realize how perfectly elegant the solution to the problem was–and that nobody TO DATE had found it.

Such as in business. Such as in marketing. If you subscribe to Occam’s Razor—the philosophy essentially that the simplest solution is usually the right one—you can appreciate the net-camo solution even more.

Point is: there are endless solutions dangling out there for brands to take advantage of and that will make them more competitive in their markets. It makes the case for what we’ve always known (and built a business on) that good thinking defeats big budget spends any day of the week. Sometimes the best solutions are nearly free.