CASE HISTORY AND CLIPS
Using Events To Drive Online Traffic
Library of Life, an early Web 2.0 company offering consumers an easy way to create their own online site approached The Bohle Company with a project budget to build awareness.
Up to this time, the company had enjoyed its biggest success from encouraging “memorial” sites for the loss of a loved one. This had encouraged strong traffic, as families in the grieving process over the loss of a parent, grandparent or young member of the family saw the Internet as a place where pictures, memories and tributes could be shared with others.
Library of Life wanted a broader member base, and asked The Bohle Company to come up with a new idea that would generate purchase of space on the site.
After a short period of brainstorming, The Bohle Company decided to encourage families separated by distance to communicate through a site. We further refined the idea to focus on members of the armed forces and their families – separated by distance but also limited in the ability to communicate by other methods.
• To make the idea timely, we created “Operation Love Our Troops,” an initiative to create the world’s largest online valentine for the troops by collecting electronic signatures on the Library of Life website
• We partnered with a non-profit group, Soldiers’ Angels, to help reach the military community and involve the participation of Military Island, Times Square
• And arranged a two-day event in Times Square to gather signatures for the valentine and create media attention.
• We also secured a Library of Life public service announcement to run on the giant NBC/Panasonic Astrovision screen in Times Square for a week
RESULTS:
• Coverage on all three national morning shows in New York City and B-Roll was picked up by over 60 news stations across the country
• Secured presence all over the web including hundreds of blogs, a homepage placement on America Supports You, Army News Service, Department of Defense and links on several news channels’ websites. Arranged for Kathie Lee Gifford to feature Operation Love Our Troops as her Charity of the Month on her homepage
• PSA on the NBC/Panasonic Astrovision screen in Times Square was seen by more than 1.5 million people per day for the week it ran
• Over 10,000 signatures were collected online before Valentine’s Day, creating a new record submitted to Guinness
