'Super' ad scores for United
Way.
by Hrywna, Mark
United Way of America CEO Brian Gallagher will never be mistaken
for Justin Timberlake or Danica Patrick, but they all had some
connection to Super Bowl Sunday.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
While viewers watched Timberlake get dragged and Patrick begin to
unzip her top for sponsors Pepsi and GoDaddy.com, respectively, the
United Way of America had a 10-second animated spot plugging a
text-messaging fundraising initiative.
The 10-second animated spot featured New England Patriots'
quarterback Tom Brady and encouraged people to text "fit" to
864833 (United) to support United Way's youth fitness programs.
Each text message billed $5 to the caller's cell phone bill, with
54.50 going to United Way, and the remaining 50.50 administrative fee to
Mobile Accord, with the support of VeriSign.
The program raised more than $10,000 for United Way youth fitness
programs in the days following the Super Bowl, while generating more
than 14,000 hits on YouTube the night of the big game. To see the video,
visit http://youtube.com/watch?v=b38idebP4ag
The ad will continue to run through the summer.
COPYRIGHT 2008 NPT Publishing Group,
Inc. Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.