ReMIND Campaign is a Sign of Tweets to Come
Posted: 11/4/2009 3:44:27 PM by
Diane Knoepke | with 0 comments
In case you haven’t seen it, the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF) has launched ReMIND.org, an initiative to spur consumer action in support of U.S. troops. While the Foundation provides support to members of the military, veterans and military families, the ReMIND initiative turns to the public with an awareness and fundraising goal.
ReMIND has two big things going on right now:
- Tonight’s Stand Up for Heroes (SUFH) event, a celebrity affair held in conjunction with the New York Comedy Festival
- Tweet to ReMIND campaign, aiming to raise $1.9 million by Veterans Day (November 11), or one dollar per U.S. service member deployed since 9/11
While these two events are supported with considerable media (both earned and measured), the crux of the campaigns is to turn each of the people they touch—via Twitter and other social networks—into an ambassador and a donor (the ask is $11.11 or more). There are tools, banner ads, and even celebrity tweeters to give the campaign more street cred and raise its profile. What is interesting about this to me—and what I think we will see a lot more of—is that these arms and legs are not all in support of the campaign, they ARE the campaign. It’s not about tweeting to drive traffic to a store or highlighting a promotion, but rather bringing folks in to ride the promotional wave. The means to an end is stopping at the means.
But they are also inviting an interesting crop of sponsors into the mix. Tweet to ReMIND is sponsored by PR firm Porter Novelli, which is providing pro-bono PR support. Other interesting partnerships include BWF’s relationship with GFI Group; the brokerage services firm is promoting the affiliation on its home page and this morning hosted military families to experience the activities of an inter-dealer broker. This event is in advance of the SUFH event to be held this evening, with the @remind_org Twitter account tweeting organic updates this morning about the experience.
While ReMIND is not the first to do cause marketing via Twitter (let alone the broader social networking space), the way they’re doing it is a sign of things to come. Watch for some organizations to forgo traditional sponsors as the fundraising agent and go direct to the consumer in brand-like ways, while still others will find unique ways to make sponsors work for and alongside these campaigns.
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Filed under: agency, cause marketing, digital media, in-kind, new media, non-traditional categories, activation