NEW YORK The music video for Radiohead's "All I Need" begins with slow, somber musical beats and a split screen revealing images of children. One side shows a child waking up, dressing for school and eating breakfast. The other, youngsters living in dingy conditions and toiling in a sweatshop.

The last shot pairs the one boy back from school removing his kicks with a boy assembling the last pieces of a strikingly similar sneaker in a factory. The tagline: "Some things cost more than you realize."

"All I Need," which debuted earlier this month on MTV properties worldwide, ends with an MTV logo. It was created for MTV Exit (End Exploitation and Trafficking), a multimedia initiative launched in Europe in 2004 by Viacom's MTV Europe Foundation, an independent charity based in London. The effort includes the distribution of anti-human trafficking information at Radiohead's concert tour in North America, Europe and Asia, which kicked off in West Palm Beach, Fla., this month.

MTV Exit -- which recently expanded into Asia -- also plans to release an animated film on human trafficking later this year, as well as produce other live events.

The network's efforts illustrate the growing use of branded-entertainment as a way to distribute corporate-responsibility campaigns, which are geared to creating deeper relationships with do-gooder consumers. Other brands using this tactic include Boost Mobile, the Microsoft Network and Virgin Mobile USA.

"Content creates an emotional bond with the consumer. It [forges] a connection between the brand message ... and the viewer in a way that a 30-second ad can't do," said Bill Hilary, president of Interpublic Group-owned Magna Global Entertainment.

Gayle Troberman, head of digital marketing at Microsoft's consumer marketing group, added that social responsibility branded-entertainment marketing: "is going to be the next big wave of content and marketing investments."

MSN has taken an innovative approach with its new Web portal -- which launches next month—WhatOnEarthIsGoingOn.msn.com. It's a partnership with U.K.-based company What On Earth Is Going On, which focuses on socially relevant marketing initiatives. Users on the portal can connect to global brands based on their interests and passions.

"It will be a curated site that celebrates different projects," said David Alberts, founder of What On Earth.

One such project will involve a partnership with Filmaka.com, a destination for filmmakers seeking to get their talent showcased for Hollywood decision makers. What On Earth will work with brands to create topics for short films. Alberts offered water as an example, with a theme of "What is the value of a glass of water?" Submissions will be narrowed down to 15 finalists by peer voting and a panel of judges, with the shorts being shown on both sites.



"It's a way to get people thinking, and start a discussion in an entertaining and involving way," said Alberts.

Boost Mobile seized an opportunity to build its brand while achieving a greater good through a partnership with RockCorps, a marketing and production company that touts the "social business" model. RockCorps aligns with numerous nonprofits that focus on volunteer projects for 14- to 24-year-old urban youths, such as last year's park cleanup in New York's Hell's Kitchen. The pay-off: a free ticket to a volunteers-only concert given by big-name acts. (Last year's concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall included Ludacris and Busta Rhymes.)

Chris Ernst, senior manager of strategic alliances for Boost, said the company -- which works under the aegis of Boost Mobile RockCorps for the volunteer program -- takes a subtle approach to branding at the shows "so it's authentic and not corporate overkill." He explained there's very little product display on-site and free merchandise is limited as well. (Attendees received branded hats, shirts and work gloves at the volunteer projects.)

RockCorps, which orchestrates the concerts, is expanding to London in August with another wireless carrier, Orange, with plans to go deeper into Europe in the future. "We have found in the nonprofit world these 14-24-year-olds are basically under-asked," said Grady Lee, co-founder and COO of RockCorps. "Nobody really asks for their help. It's a powerful moment in somebody's life and there's a great opportunity to put a brand right in there in that moment so that the brand is seen as a tool in improving themselves and their community."

The campaign, which began in 2005, has been so successful that Boost Mobile RockCorps recently hired marketing agency Red Robot to expand the volunteer projects into the action-sports realm. For instance, cleanup projects geared towards skate parks and beaches kicked off in Los Angeles last week and are running through June 20. The concert will be held in Los Angeles' Gibson Amphitheater on June 20, though the acts have yet to be announced.

Red Robot CEO Tom Flanagan said the agency captures a lot of valuable research and development for the brands that work with RockCorps. During the community cleanups, kids are asked about their thoughts on the brands involved while being filmed (the resulting films are sometimes shown on cable). One of the questions posed is, "Does this make you think differently about the brand?" During the concerts, volunteers can use Boost phones to send text messages that appear on the wide screen with the artists.

Ernst said Boost measures the results several different ways: by number of volunteers, number of people attending the events, and the reach of ads on radio and television and in print that encourage kids to volunteer and tell them about the concerts.

"All of these numbers of impressions correlate to a value and that is translated into cost per thousand and the overall ROI," said Ernst. "The tricky thing with this is [translating] it into sales was never the direct goal." Although kids are given a postcard with a value proposition, such as 15 percent off of a Boost phone, "it's never a hard pitch," Ernst added. "We don't say: 'Hey, sign up for this event and by the way, you are not going to get your paintbrush until you buy a phone.'"



Virgin Mobile USA, a division of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which created the Virgin Festival in 2006, sized up the marketing opportunities associated with its concert by going green in 2007.

The 2008 festival will be held Aug. 9-10 in Baltimore with acts such as The Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson and Kanye West. Jill Okawa, manager of pro-social marketing, Virgin Mobile USA, declined to give specifics, but said certain initiatives from 2007 will be brought back, including stations with volunteers on hand to show people the difference among trash, compost and recycling.

Okawa emphasized the success of an area of the festival dedicated to educating concertgoers on environmental issues. "We did some surveys and found that our green educational area was one of the highest trafficked areas at the festival. We also saw that the environment itself was one of the issues that people cared about the most," she said.

Similar to Boost's strategy, Virgin, according to Laura Jordan, director of events and sponsorships at Virgin Mobile USA, opts for subtle branding, such as logo integration into things like stage scrims. Concertgoers can also text comments throughout the day that appear on screens on the stage. Although all festival merchandise features the logo, "we work hard to highlight the bands and the excitement of the overall festival branding," said Jordan.

Okawa added that after seeing last year's data ,"we definitely felt like what we did was relevant and had an impact."

Consumers, noted Okawa, have come to expect this type of activity from their favorite brands. "Our customers want to be engaged in important issues as well," she said.

MTV has historically felt a responsibility to educate its audience about social issues affecting their lives, said Simon Goff, campaign director at MTV Exit. "I think as a broadcaster there's a responsibility there. You've got millions of young people's eyeballs watching your channel," he said. And in recent years, Goff added, MTV has begun to think more strategically about how it can build those messages.

The challenge, of course, is for brands to ensure that their approaches and messaging are seen as authentic. (Whether branding at a concert is subtle, for instance, is a subjective call.) One recent study on the effects of cause marketing on consumers, "Good," from Self magazine, found that "people buy products as a reflection of how they want to see themselves," according to Kimberly Anderson Kelleher, vp and publisher of Self. It also learned that sincerity remains a challenge for marketers, no matter their good intentions. In the study, consumers were concerned that a company show real commitment to a cause, not just create a onetime event.

"Isn't that always the challenge in anything that is branded?" asked Michael Yudin, managing director of Carat Entertainment and president of MY Entertainment Co. "It's about handling the creative so it gets the message across and you don't feel like you are pimping it, but you are really helping it."