Unusual, too, is the way the business model marries corporation to cause.

“This is built like a licensing company that has created a concept and licensed it to some of the most outstanding marketers in the world, and the profits go to charity,” Hessekial says. That's a far cry from “the traditional model that has business getting together with a non-profit to create a [marketing] program that benefits both.”

Shriver put it even more succinctly in an interview in The New York Times.

“We don't want anyone to be thinking, ‘I'm not making money on this thing,’ because then we failed,” he says. “We want people buying houses in the Hamptons based on this because if that happens, this thing is sustainable.”

Cordua won't say how much licensees pay, but says the fees are “a relatively small amount, enough to cover operating costs and salaries for RED's 11 staffers, including project managers with high-powered marketing backgrounds.” (RED never handles donations; funds go directly from licensees to the Global Fund each quarter.)

What kind of marketing support do licensees get? On Thanksgiving Day, RED ran a prime-time ad roadblock on all the cable networks of its media partner Viacom. They included MTV, Comedy Central and Country Music Television.

The 90-second spot showcased RED's “Manifesto,” a paragraph written by the Boston ad shop Modernista: “You buy RED products, brands send money to Africa for anti-AIDS medication.” (Medved blasted the manifesto, saying, “I've seldom read such obnoxious promotional material for any commercial enterprise.”)

The TV spot also ran on the Times Square billboard outside Viacom's headquarters. And RED took over MySpace for the day, launching a page that has since drawn 500,000 friends.

Another benefit to licensees is that they get a chance to work together.

The five U.S. licensees meet every other month to find ways to collaborate. And the meetings apparently have been fruitful.

For example, Converse has started selling its shoes in Gap stores, displaying them in 200. Plans to bring Converse to Gap were underway before RED rolled around, but the cause gave the two iconic brands “a way to make a louder statement together,” Archambault says.

This is a great way to “show customers that we're offering something new.” The two firms are talking now about expanding distribution.

RED also gives licensees a promotional platform. Armani ran special window displays in its 124 stores worldwide on World AIDS Day on Dec. 1 and hosted radio broadcasts, parties and celebrity appearances. In the U.K., the stores had an evening of shopping for American Express RED cardholders.

And Motorola has launched Studio RED, a Web site that gives RED owners exclusive songs, videocasts and ringtones from musicians and artists sponsored by Motorola. A concert series called (MOTO)RED Sessions kicked off Dec. 1 with a London concert by The Feeling and Mika. And 20 pairs of tickets were given away via a tie-in with MySpace.

What's Next?

Converse plans to add limited-edition designs for its shoes each season, tapping top designers, artists, musicians and filmmakers. Some products will get mass distribution; others will be limited, says Converse spokesperson Cheryl Calegari.

Converse's initial design, by U.K. designer Giles Deacon, uses African mudcloth from Mali. It launched at a premium price — the top end of Converse's usual price scale — “to show top-level collaboration,” Calegari adds.

Converse's Web site, www.MakeMineRed.com, lets shoppers design their own shoes. “We're the only [RED partner] that lets people design their own,” Calegari says. And Motorola has plans for more RED-related events, which it will post at Studio RED.

Finally, Gap is planning to add to its line. It will start this month with new T-shirts and a collection of spring accessories, including a journal and bags.

“The feel and tone of the collection will continue with a consistent thread of the handmade look and feel and African-inspired details,” Archambault says.

In addition, the chain is planning a promotion timed to Valentine's Day. New ads will be rolled out in February.

“You'll see RED interwoven into our regular ad schedule throughout the year,” Archambault says. “We'll have promotions and events, too.”

That's as big a green light as RED could hope for.

The Gap Wrap

By the time Oprah agreed to devote a whole episode of her show to Product RED, it was less than a month until showtime. That didn't give RED's brand partners much time to plan the shopping trip seen ‘round the world. Gap, especially, had a lot of work to do.

The plan was for Oprah to start her RED spree at Gap's store on Chicago's Michigan Ave. There would be a fashion show with Christy Turlington, Penelope Cruz and Kanye West as models. Special displays would showcase RED apparel. Three hundred clerks from local Gap stores would seed the crowd in and outside the store.

But it was the storefront display that took some muscle.

Gap and its event marketing agency, A Squared Group, spent days wrapping Gap's three-story Michigan Ave. store in red vinyl. They wrapped for 33 hours over three nights, in the snow and rain. (They spent another 60 hours building displays inside.) They worked through City Hall and the notoriously strict Greater North Michigan Avenue Association to paint one little part of the town red.

In between, A Squared staffers broke away to pick up a few PRO Awards (for Gap work) at the PROMO Live conference. “We showered, put on our RED T-shirts, and came to the awards,” says A Squared president Amy Cotteleer. “Then we worked through the night and shut down Michigan Avenue the next day.”

The Oprah episode opened in its usual studio, with a duet by Product RED founder Bono and Alicia Keys. Then Oprah and Bono jumped into a red Ford Thunderbird and sped over to Michigan Ave. They alighted in front of Gap, and were agog. They bought RED in Gap, then walked up the street to Apple, Armani and Motorola.

Gap's RED racks were “empty within hours,” blogged Product RED president Tamsin Smith.

“There were a lot of partners — Motorola, iPod, Armani — but ours was the three-story building wrapped in red,” Cotteleer brags. “I'm proudest of the fact that we pulled it off so quickly.”
— B.S.