The Official Sponsor Of Birthdays

Background

•While the American Cancer Society enjoys tremendous name recognition and trust, numbers of people reporting they know a lot about us are declining.

•The more donors and constituents know us, the more willing they are to recommend us, donate, or engage with us in some way.

•To protect and grow our brand and to better deliver on mission, we must increase knowledge and become more personally relevant.

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New brand platform messaging

• On April 21st we launched an unprecedented campaign to strategically reposition and revitalize our legendary brand.

• Objective is to deepen understanding of what the American Cancer Society does and increase personal relevance among our target audience,

women aged 35 to 64 (60.7 million people).

The Official Sponsor of Birthdays campaign asks its audience to imagine a world with more birthdays and highlights all the ways the Society save lives by helping people stay well and get well, by finding cures and by fighting back.

Birthday Success

• Overall campaign delivers a positive and consistent emotional response.

• Message viewers get from ads: the American Cancer Society is ”helping people live a longer life.”

• Earned media efforts have reached more than 6 million people.

• 42,500 people have declared us the official sponsor of their birthday.

• People are engaging with us in new and different ways.

• TV ads appeared in primetime on Dancing With The Stars , Grey's Anatomy, and CSI.

• Morning and daytime shows include the Today Show and Good Morning America, The Price is Right, and The View.

• Print ads to appear in Better Homes & Gardens, Cooking Light, and Essence.

• Online ads on WebMD and Evite to name a few.

Nationwide Paid Advertising

Constituent FeedbackCaller was diagnosed with brain cancer and was not given a good prognosis. She is now a 16 year cancer survivor. Today she saw a commercial for the birthday campaign and thought it was "fabulous" and said "It's a wonderful thing you are doing and I wanted to say thank you. The commercial was not in your face and did not make cancer look tragic. I appreciate that because people do survive." She thought the commercial was very sweet and she was really touched by it.

“I love the birthday campaign...for my 21st birthday, my mom asked me what I wanted and I asked her to quit smoking (she was surprised, she thought I would ask for a big party or some other expensive gift) but I asked for the most valuable thing I needed and wanted - more birthdays with her. That was 17 years ago and she is still smoke free.”

We’ve Reinvented the Birthday Cake!

• Worked with the Culinary Institute of America to reinvent the birthday cake

•CIA students tasked with creating a “better-for-you” birthday cake

•Cake needed to be easy to replicate

• Food Network star Duff Goldman judged five finalists

Cake Competition at a Glance

•Official birthday cake: a healthier red velvet

•Cake uses less fat and sugar than typical

•Inventive additions like roasted beets, dried cherries, applesauce, and whole grain flour boost nutrients

The Winning Entry

Winner Alexandra Mudry

Morebirthdays.com (as of 8/17/09)

• 43,000+ people have declared ACS the official sponsor of their birthday

• Largest demo = Aged 30-39• 299,000+ unique visitors to the

site• New email addresses collected• Number of times the site was

accessed through mobile apps = 164,000+

• 18,500 + birthday kits downloaded• 682+ Birthday Pages

Birthday Pages

Engagement Strategy

Buzz in the blogosphere

Buzz in the blogosphere

Buzz in the blogosphere

Buzz in the blogosphere - Twitter

Going Forward

• This is a long-term, multi-year effort

• Campaign metrics are being tracked via an ongoing nationwide research study that looks at awareness, attitudes, and knowledge about the American Cancer Society.

• “Birthdays” is now the face of the organization so integration is key to ensuring increased knowledge and personal relevance.

Relay For LifeEach lap gets us closer to a world with more birthdays.

Relay & Birthdays• There is a natural tie-in between birthdays messaging and Relay For Life

• By joining Relay, you’re helping create a world with more birthdays by helping people stay well, get well, find cures and fight back.

• Provides an opportunity to revitalize events through birthday-themed promotions and messaging

• Sing Happy Birthday to your survivors at the event• Have a “declaration station” to ask people to join the movement

for more birthdays.• Turn your team captains meeting into a birthday party.

Relay & Birthdays

•Gives you an opportunity to engage with team members and your community in a new way.

• Leverage the momentum from the campaign as a new way to attract participants.

• Gives you a more personal and more effective way to talk about ACS and Relay and how we’re saving lives.

• Research shows that the message of more birthdays resonates with people a deeply powerful and personal way.

Reminder…

If you haven’t already done so, please visit morebirthdays.com to join the movement for more birthdays by declaring ACS the

official sponsor of your birthday.

Together, we are saving lives!