Betting on Success: How a Veterans' Charity Made a Splash at the Super Bowl
	Posted by Guest Blogger at Aug 30, 2013 07:04 AM CDT

This article was written by guest blogger Brock Warner. Brock is a fundraiser for War Child Canada & US, as well as a TEDx speaker on philanthropy, a blogger, and volunteer with the AFP Greater Toronto Area chapter.

We all like to think when an opportunity knocks, we’ll be ready. But what if that opportunity is bigger than you could have ever expected? What if that opportunity is a chance in the spotlight during the most watched annual sporting event in the world? That’s right – the Super Bowl.
 
Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) received this opportunity when they received a call from CBS informing them that a donated awareness commercial would air during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl. Fitting the timing in the game, WWP decided to put everything on the line by pulling together a multi-channel fundraising campaign unlike any the organization had seen before.

The mission of WWP is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. The organization helps Wounded Warriors making their way through recovery and adjustment to civilian life. The WWP vision is to foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation’s history. With the ever-changing needs of this generation, it is critical that WWP ensures the long-term needs of wounded veterans are never forgotten.

To drive donations and acquire potential new donors, the ad featured a $10 text-to-give call to action. To extend the reach of this ad, the digital team at WWP along with WWP marketing and communications, IT, social media teams, their fundraising agency, and CBS pulled together, integrated, and launched:

• Campaign-specific Facebook and Twitter updates
• Paid Facebook advertising, targeting NFL and WWP fans
• Search Engine Marketing, including re-marketing tactics
• Segmented emails, with waves to non-responders
• Social sharing functionality on all donation pages
• Custom YouTube content for content-rich sharing

The Super Bowl was an incredible platform to educate the public, drive awareness and funding for life-saving WWP programming, and reach potential warriors and families who may need the support of WWP. The WWP team was all in!

Campaign impact:

• 53% increase in web traffic over prior week, directly related to the Super Bowl ad donation.
• Over $310,000 in Super Bowl-attributed donations.
• Social media sharing resulted in over 850 referrals to the donation page.
• Despite the advertisement’s $10 ask, the average gift was significantly higher due to incorporation of other digital channels.

While a Super Bowl commercial can bring tremendous exposure, there always loomed a possibility that an improperly executed campaign might fail to deliver on fundraising and supporter engagement. This wasn’t the case, and thanks to the opportunity provided by CBS, WWP was able to leverage its team under one unyielding mission – to honor and empower Wounded Warriors.

Congratulations to Wounded Warrior Project, a well-deserved victory for a great cause.