At Women Innovate Mobile’s May 15th Founders Breakfast, Chrysi Philalithes, (RED)’s Chief Digital Officer shared how creativity, digital campaigns and innovative partnerships when combined lead to success.

Chrysi started off her career as a founding member of Espotting, which pioneered search marketing in Europe in 2000 and supplied pay-per-click ads to Yahoo!, Lycos, Alta Vista and Ask. After merging Espotting with FindWhat in a deal valued just under $200 million dollars, the companies rebranded as MIVA, where Chrysi was VP of Global Marketing and Communiations. Three years later, Chrysi landed at Steak and then (RED). With backing from various foundations, and partnerships with diverse brands, Chrysi is able to lead (RED)’s digital campaigns and marketing efforts as Chief Digital Officer, with the goal of combating AIDS by 2015. Chrysi has therefore not only spent time raising money as a founder for a company itself while at Espotting, but she has also raised money for a company’s cause, while at (RED).

During her time as a founder at Espotting, Chrysi compared her early stage funding to an awkward family dinner. “Raising money was a challenge because we couldn’t get VC funding, so it was knocking on doors of your friends and your family and knowing you had better make this succeed.” Chrysi said the first year of Espotting was tough because they launched during the .com crash and the founders had to make the conscious decisions of not getting paid for months on end, so they could pay the staff. “It ended up being incredible that we launched during such a tough time because by the time we took VC funding in, it was a year and a half later. So it meant we had a proven model in place, and then the terms of taking the VC funding was a lot more favorable than if we had taken it and had any debts.” Chrysi emphasized it was that first year and a half of angel funding, from “people who were going to be with you for the long haul” that was critical to Espotting’s survival and growth. “The lesson we learned was that our first angel investors, who put in our first million were our saving grace because we had somebody who was invested in us as much as we all were.”

In terms of generating revenue for Espotting, Chrysi explains it was a big education process because it was so new. “All entrepreneurs are trying to do something that’s new and innovative that hasn’t been done before. So the lessons learned were the understanding of the education process and what’s going to make someone buy in order to get the money side flowing. It’s not just about what someone is saying, but it’s about how someone is listening to me. And spending the time to understand how someone is listening to me, our brand, will be critical to our success.” Chrysi included that doing small things, such as when Espotting offered to put people’s logos next to their listing on Espotting’s search page results, grabbed people’s attention because they felt more confident in gaining their brand prominence there.

Chrysi has carried this model of understanding how someone is listening all the way to (RED), which in and of itself operates in a very unique way. Founded by Bono and Bobby Shriver, (RED) also has dynamic partnerships with creative brands such as Starbucks, Apple, and Shazam. When a consumer buys a (RED) product from one of these companies, up to fifty percent of the proceeds from the sale will go directly towards the Global Fund. Founded in 2002 by Kofi Annan when he was Secretary General, the Global Fund is the international financing institution that provides funding to countries to combat HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. The Global Fund also receives money from governments and donors in the private sector.

With the addition of funding from (PEPFAR), the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and initiatives led by President Clinton and Bill Gates, (RED) has made incredible traction in its goal of bringing the (AV) antivral medication, a regimen that includes taking two pills at the cost of forty cents a day, over the course of ninety days to people with HIV/AIDS. Over the next year and a half, (RED) will be working with the Global Health Community to get the medication to 1.4 million infected mothers, so that by 2015 the first AIDS-free generation could be possible in over thirty years after the disease has taken the lives of thirty million people.

(RED) is about providing a sustainable flow of money, by providing products people love, for a cause. “We used to joke in the office that (RED) was the antithesis of ‘oh let me buy this sweater because it does good in the world, but it’s really itchy and really disgusting but I’m just going to buy it for the cause’…we were the antithesis of that and are the antithesis of that.” To continue providing such products, Chrysi explained that (RED) uses multiple filters including brand and product filters before aligning with businesses. “If we’ve got an idea and we’re asking people if they think they should do it for a cause then it’s not a strong enough idea…it needs to be product first, idea first.”

The other basis of who (RED) decides to partner with is the reflection that this partnership will have on the (RED) brand and the (RED) brand’s partners. Chrysi said (RED) is always asking: is this new and is this innovative? “When (RED) first came out, we had two physical partnerships. We have what are called our proud partners, such as Apple, Starbucks, Converse and Coca-Cola. Then four to five years ago we introduced a second tier of partners, called special addition partners, such as Shazam, Mophie and Girl Skateboards. They’re brilliant innovators…we introduced these partnerships so that we could increase the product range, and make sure we were partnering with innovative companies that were growing in size.” Chrysi also emphasized the fundamental belief that business that do good, will also do well. “It needs to be a win-win-win situation…the businesses need to see the benefits both from (RED) on the ground and the side effects of things, it’s a win for people buying (RED) because just by making that choice you aren’t paying anything extra, and then ultimately it’s a win for the people living with HIV/AIDS because we’re able to get them medicine and treatment.”

As critical as (RED)’s model and partnerships have been, it’s also apparent how beneficial (RED)’s digital campaigns have been. For example, Chrysi worked with Twitter on the “One Color Unites Us” campaign, which turned the color of tweets red every time someone used #red one World AIDS Day. (RED) RUSH TO ZERO was a success as each time a check-in was made on foursquare or Starbucks, a dollar was given to the Global Fund. In eight days, (RED) was able to raise $250,000 dollars, setting a new record for the most amount of money ever raised from check-ins.

Chrysi explained how tapping into people’s passion points, creative communites, and moments such as World AIDS Day are the three main ways (RED) sustains people’s attention. For example, (RED) has tapped into the world of art when Damien Hirst curated an art auction that raised forty two million dollars. (RED) also embraced the electronic dance music community, which led to the creation of an album featuring Calvin Harris, Avicii, and the early stages of 2013’s Harlem Shake craze. Although creativity has been a major factor for success in (RED)’s global campaigns, Chrysi also attributes (RED)’s headway to the millennial generation. “From what we’ve read and seen, the millennial generation is different from my generation. The millennial generation feels that they are a global citizen. If something is happening ‘there’ then it does affect them ‘here’…they don’t need a moment for it to happen, it’s just within. So I’m thankful for that.”

So how is (RED) going to keep up the momentum as it dives deeper towards 2015? The answer is mobile. Chrysi emphashized the importance of simplicity and utility. “The mobile device is so powerful and so strong, and everyone knows how it’s changed all of our worlds. Even just from a brand and a business perspective, it’s got to give a utility to everyone rather than just being informational based. “ (RED) has engaged in a multitude of mobile partnerships including Shazam. “When you download Shazam you have the option on your iPhone to download Shazam’s free app, its paid-for app and its (RED) app, which costs the same as the paid-for app. The difference is that Shazam will give up twenty percent of the revenue to fight AIDS.“ If efforts such as this one are continued, the number of children born each day with AIDS will decrease from 900 to 0.

As simple as one app download sounds, it can make a tremendous impact.

Join Women Innovate Mobile at its next Founders Breakfast, with Third Wave Fashion and Women in Wirless for a panel on “Inspiration-Based ecommerce: Getting Customers to Buy Things They Didn’t Know They Wanted”on Wednesday, June 12.

This post was created by Raine Dalton, WIM’s editorial and community innovation intern. Raine is passionate about finding creative ways to empower women globally through tech. In addition to WIM, Raine has written, tweeted, and posted for the Global Banking Alliance for Women, WITNESS, and 90.7 WFUV News. You can find her work at www.rainedalton.com or get in touch with her through Twitter @rainedalton, or by emailing raine@wim.co.