We created a food brand. It had a logo. Packaging. Point of sale. Wide distribution. Advertising. Web site. Everything a food brand should have. Except food.

The brand was "Nothing", and it enabled the Rhode Island Food Bank to reach people in stores while they were surrounded by food, thinking about food, buying food. Because we believed that would be the single most powerful moment to broach the issue of hunger and the fact that the simple act of shopping for food is out of the reach of so many of their neighbors.

And then we gave them an extraordinarily simple way to help: put a can or two of Nothing in your shopping cart. When you checked out, the proceeds from those cans would go directly to the food bank.

In short, we took the problem and turned it into a product. Then we sold the product to solve the problem.

We let the familiar rhythm of food marketing guide us. There were teaser billboards and web banners. A teaser web site with a countdown to the launch. On the launch date, the billboards and web site converted to "reveals." There was a well-publisized launch event at a local grocery store that got coverage from virtually every local TV station and gained front page stories in the major regional papers.

For the duration of the campaign, there was supporting TV and radio commercials as well in-store signage and prominent placement in weekly circulars. And like a food brand with a successful product on its hands, we added distribution as several retailers asked to be included in the program.

The food bank saw online donations rise by 37% after the campaign. There were dozens of articles and blog posts about the initiative. They saw a burst of new Facebook and Twitter followers. Over 15,000 cans sold and were used and displayed by the community in ways we never imagined. In fact, the food bank has been amazed to find that cans filled with coins that have been returned to them have netted an unexpected additional $25,000 so far.

The food bank is now preparing a second phase of Nothing for this fall and is working with food banks in three other states to roll out their own versions of the campaign.