Kind debuts SMS chatbot to support gender equality

Brief:

Kind Snacks created a chatbot that people can use to send a text to state senators that expresses their support for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), a proposed law to guarantee gender equality for women and men. The snack maker's Equality Bot will be available through March, per an announcement.
To activate the chatbot, mobile users can text the message "Pass the ERA" to the number 50409. The bot will respond with a series of steps to sign Kind's collective petition in support of the proposed legislation. The petition will be sent to the state officials of those who provide their name and address. Kind also will promote the Equality Bot in kiosks among college campuses nationwide.
For every person who shares their signature publicly on Twitter and tags the @KindSnacks account by March 31, Kind will donate a dollar to the Alice Paul Institute, a nonprofit that supports equal rights, up to $20,000. Kind is promoting the campaign, which includes the rollout of a limited-edition Kind Equality snack bar, on its Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Insight:

Kind is harnessing mobile technology to inspire direct action with its cause-driven campaign to support the ERA. The chatbot helps to simplify the process of signing Kind's public petition, while extending the reach of the campaign nationwide. Kind worked with Resistbot, a service that aims to connect mobile users with their government representatives, to create the Equality Bot piece of the campaign. Resistbot has generated more than 12 million letters sent to government officials since its inception three years ago, per its website.

By urging people to share their participation in the campaign on social media, Kind can extend its reach among a group of young adults who tend to favor brands that support social causes like gender equality. Almost two-thirds (64%) of consumers said they will buy from or boycott a brand based on its social or political positions, according to Edelman's most recent Earned Brand study. Gen Zers tend to feel connected to important causes, and more than two-thirds of the age group think brands should help them achieve those goals, separate research from PSFK revealed.

The Kind Equality bar is the company's latest limited-edition product to have a link to a social cause. In June, it created the Kind Pride bar to support the LGBTQIA+ community as it launched the Kind Snack & Give Back Project. Last November, it introduced the Kind Heroes bar to honor U.S. military service members across the country and overseas.

Kind also has created more lighthearted campaigns to introduce new products, such as its Simple Crunch Bars last year. The snack maker in October ran its first campaign on TikTok, the video-sharing app that's popular with U.S. teens. Kind's branded hashtag challenge urged users to post videos of themselves highlighting the sound of its "most crunchiest bar yet." It generated 18 million views within the first 24 hours, Ad Age reported.