VERBnow.com

Marketing Situation http://www.verbnow.com Childhood obesity is an epidemic. The stats are incredible. One in five American children is currently overweight. Seventy percent will become overweight or obese adults. The culprits are many: poor eating habits, non-existent PE programs, a lack of safe, accessible parks and playgrounds. Plus, kids spend 4.5 hours a day in front of a screen – including TVs, video games and computers. In 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was charged with creating a multifaceted, multicultural youth media campaign to combat the rising obesity trend. We created VERB, a national movement to get kids moving, in response. VERB targets tweens aged 9 to 13.  At the center of the initiative is VERBnow.com, the movement’s official website. VERBnow.com is dedicated to providing tweens with the inspiration, motivation and reward they need to get and stay active. While the computer is an inherently non-active medium, VERB turned the convention on its head by creating a website that encourages and rewards physical activity. While most sites are designed to be “sticky” – to maximize the time spent on the site – the VERB site is “springy.” Kids jump in to quickly find their way to play, then bounce out into the world to do it. In essence, we turned an inactive medium into one that got hearts pounding. Now in its third phase, VERBnow.com has become the place where all of VERB’s online and offline efforts come together (including advertising, mobile events and school programs). Promotion Objectives VERBnow.com was established to work in conjunction with other campaign efforts to ultimately drive kids to action. Gain 20,000 new registrations per month Provide a mechanism to track tween activity Heighten awareness of VERB campaign messages Integrate online and offline campaign activity Promotion Description Our target is a nation of inactive tweens who grew up with a love of virtual pets, customizable Web experiences and video games. So, rather than reject these passive activities, we embraced them. And on August 2, 2004, VERBnow.com went live. We built the user experience around VERB ViRTS – virtual characters that tweens customize any way they want, then energize them by recording all their hours of play. The more kids move, the more their ViRTS move. For VERB, this was a way to build a registered user database and keep track of kid activity. For kids, it was a way to customize their user experience and get rewarded for play. We also realized that we needed to get tweens active any way possible. So we created a virtual playground filled with diverse ways to get inspired. This included: Game Generator – The Game Generator allows tweens to select from a variety of equipment and environments in order to create endless new ways to play. For example: Yard + Soccer + Badminton = Yard Soccminton. VERB gives kids a few rules to get started but also encourages them to use their imagination. No matter what kids have laying around, VERB shows them how to get active. Pro Tips and Clips – Professional athletes serve as role models for many tweens. We leveraged their stature and our relationship with nearly every professional sports league to inspire. Tweens can view instructional videos of professional athletes such as Venus Williams and Donovan McNabb demonstrating cool new moves and activities for them to try. Places to Play Search – VERB created a search engine that allows tweens to search via zip code or activity to find things to do in their area. This also identifies planned stops for the VERB mobile tour where kids can experience VERB first-hand. The integrated campaign also featured TV advertising, school and community-based organization programs, partnerships and a mobile tour to truly touch kids at every possible point. Viral aspects of the campaign included E-card and IM icons providing opportunities for tweens to share the VERB message with their peers. Campaign Performance Results VERBnow.com is experiencing outstanding results that exceed all expectations. 313,000 new site registrations – 123% over goal. 170,000 ViRTS created. Kids are powering up their ViRTS by getting out and playing - 622,000 hours of play recorded. Kids are creating new and different ways of staying active - 4,888,000 games invented. Tweens are viewing the instructional videos to improve their skills - 631,000 clips and videos viewed. Tweens looking for places to get active in their local community - 718,000 searches for Places to Play. National awareness levels for VERB reached 73% in August 2004. Tweens are driven to the website from TV ads, online banners, the national tour, and school and community-based programs.