Company: Macy's
Cause: Youth
Partners: Make-A-Wish Foundation 
Website: www.macys.com/believe

Program of Action

For the fourth year in a row, Macy’s teams up with Make-A-Wish Foundation to launch their Believe holiday campaign.  Young and old shoppers alike are encouraged to write a letter to Santa (stamped and addressed to Santa at the North Pole) and drop them off at Believe Stations in the official R.H. Macy Santa Mail letterboxes located throughout Macy’s stores.  For each letter stamped, addressed and received by Santa, Macy’s donates $1 (up to $1 million) to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helps grant wishes of terminally ill children.

Best Practices

The inspiration to Macy’s unique theme “a million reasons to believe” is a historical story that matches the values of Make-A-Wish Foundation.  The campaign is inspired by a letter sent to the editor of the New York Sun in 1897 asking if Santa was real.  The theme of sending a letter emphasizes the importance of believing in something, which correlates with Make-A-Wish Foundation’s mission to provide hope for children who only want their wishes to come true. 

Macy’s Believe campaign site engages consumers online and off by asking shoppers to create a letter with resources provided such as letter templates, background themes, font colors, etc. Once decorated, they can send their letters to the North Pole through letterboxes located at Macy’s stores.   In addition to engaging consumers in a creative way, these attributes also bring an imaginative approach to the campaign for children and shoppers to actually send a letter to Santa.

This year, Macy’s took a leap and not only engaged shoppers online but developed a mobile application for the holiday campaign called Believe-o-Magic.  As research states, people are spending more time on their mobile phones than ever before and global app downloads are expected to be at 29 million this year compared to the 9 million in 2010.  The app allows consumers to take part in the campaign at any place, as well as, take photos from the Macy’s in-store frame and share via email or social media sites. 

Though the values and mission of Make-A-Wish Foundation match the campaigns theme, perhaps next year Macy’s can integrate wish stories from the organization.  Adding wish stories from children can benefit Macys Believe campaign and grab consumer’s attention through a deeper emotional aspect.  

Program Outcome 

Macy’s Believe holiday campaign ends on the night of December 24 and has so far received 965,928 letters.  Shoppers have a few days left to reach Macy’s goal of 1 million.  We encourage you to visit www.macys.com/believe and join in the spirit of Believe and make children wishes come true!

Your CM Aficionados,

Amy and Kassie