VERB Newsletter

VERB The Latest Word
July 2003 Issue
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This is the fifth installment in a series of VERB newsletters providing the latest and greatest on how the VERB campaign is getting kids off the couch and into life. Read on…

VERB Scoop

Phase 1 of the VERB campaign has wrapped up and Phase 2 is revving up with many exciting programs. Here’s a quick snapshot of what’s coming down the pike on all fronts of the campaign!

• The public relations plan will focus around three core audiences– tweens, parents and influencers. The plan will motivate tweens, educate parents, and have a more aggressive outreach to influencers.
   
• Our Event/Marketing initiatives will focus on providing tweens with opportunities and access to physically inspiring events and activities. The next activity is planned for October 26th, when the clocks are turned back and kids have an extra hour for fun.
   
• The Disney Channel will promote VERB through three custom PSAs. The first PSA, featuring Kim Possible, will launch in September during the key back-to-school time period.
   
• Kids’ WB! will create a VERB PSA featuring the characters Ozzy & Drix, which will launch in October.
   
• VERB is partnering with Nickelodeon as a sponsor of its “Let’s Just Play” (LJP) campaign, which will include TV, print, and on-line opportunities. VERB will also have a presence in select cities hosting Nick’s LJP Across America grassroots tour that celebrates “playing” by involving thousands of kids in a giant relay race.

VERB O-Meter

Impact to Date 8,451,422 8,451,422

CONTESTS
4,480

SWEEPSTAKES
31,731

ADDED VALUE
623,500

TOURS/EVENTS
2,587,470

ONLINE
5,204,241

VERB has touched over 8 million children and parents to date

• VERB and AOL Time Warner will continue to motivate and activate tweens with a multilevel program featuring an activity tracker, giving tweens a measurement mechanism to record their activation progress.
   
• Gruner & Jahr will introduce four new families for Fit Family Fit Kids in October. The Web site has been revamped and will have exciting new features including videos on demand, a fitness calculator, polls & quizzes, a sweepstakes and a chat room!
   
• In-school programs include media partner programs such as Make Every Move Count — a competition among schools to accumulate and record the most steps — with Channel One. This year, VERB Street Teams will also have a larger presence in schools to help spread the word about getting active.

VERB Connections

At the height of the summer, when tweens had plenty of free time, VERB reached 79% of our tween target, an average of 7.8 times in July.

Wow! VERB was featured in five national Internet placements, including CNN.com,* USA Today, Washington Post, Foxnews.com* and Salon.com.*

Through VERB’s public relations initiatives, VERB has appeared on more than 125 television stations garnering more than 8 hours of television time.

June 21st marked the Longest Day of Play. VERB activities in Miami, Houston, L.A. and Kansas City generated 14 media placements and more than 5 million media impressions. Key VERB placements included the Fox Sports Net, Miami Herald.com,* Balita Media and the Houston Chronicle.

In July, VERBnow.com gave tweens ideas and tools to stay active all summer long with a printable checklist of activities, the VERB Activity Finder and our archive of Games and Tips.

Earlier this spring, HispanicAD.com* hosted the 2003 Media Planning Awards. Garcia 360/Media Rare won the award for the year's best Hispanic Out of Home Media Plan for the VERB campaign. Way to go, VERB!

VERB Outreach

• Columbus, Greenville, Los Angeles, & Miami: VERB is making a splash with a cool pool program, plastering eye-catching floor graphics and banner ads at local public pools from mid-July to September in the four markets.
   
• Houston, LA, & Miami: More than 315,000 Hispanic tweens and 16,500+ teachers were exposed to VERB through a program designed especially for them. A four-page booklet, encouraging participation in physical activity, was distributed to Hispanic students in ESL classes. Almost 90% of the educators who responded to questions about the effectiveness of the program rated the value of the program as very good or excellent!
   
• New York: Fun Sports Festival hosted by World Journal at Kissena Corridor Park in Flushing, NY included the presence of approximately 600 tweens. The tweens received goodie bags filled with VERB premiums and enjoyed participating in activities such as kung fu, soccer and stepping, plus many more. There were also stage performances demonstrating dances and stepping by local performers.

VERB on the Move

Teen People's Break for the Beach, sponsored in part by VERB, kicked off June 14th in Myrtle Beach, SC. Stops included Ft. Lauderdale, FL; Pt. Pleasant, NJ; Wildwood, NJ; and Jones Beach, NY, where tweens played mini-volleyball or limbo courtesy of VERB! VERB premiums were distributed to those who got their VERB on!

SI for Kids and VERB bring the best of the best in the “No Limits” Road Trip 2003. Touring 12 amusement parks for 24 shows across the country, eight top athletes will spend the day demonstrating their award-winning tricks and skills. These Gravity Games and X-Games pro athletes are expected to draw thousands of park attendees.

One of two key sponsors, VERB will have a high profile presence on autograph cards, truck wraps, event signage and on the Internet.

MTV is touring Washington, DC; Miami; Cleveland; Kansas City; Spokane; Greenville; Green Bay; Houston; and LA beginning July 8th with MTV MADE participants and coaches. Shane, Diana, Michael, and Isaac, along with MTV DJ Flex, will hit nine markets to give YMCA tweens the opportunity to learn new basketball skills and talk to the MADE participants to learn how they reached their goals! More than 2,500 tweens are registered to participate. Participants will receive a tattoo and a custom-made VERB, YMCA and MTV shirt and bag.

Fast Forward

YM will shake a groove with VERB’s “Move It to Groove It! Contest,” getting tweens to dance, boogie, shake, step and find their own moves. A contest and chance to win a dance party for one lucky participant’s entire school will be tied-in.

Cartoon Network will air the “What’s Your VERB Challenge” beginning this August, featuring a call to action spot encouraging viewers to submit their own VERB videos to win a chance to appear on-air in follow-up spots.

The final touches for the Spanish TV and radio spots are under way! These spots, targeting Hispanic tweens and parents specifically, will launch in August! ¡Ponte las pilas!

A new and improved VERBnow.com will launch in the fall. New features include the VERB Tracker, an on-line diary for keeping track of daily activities.

VERB Chatter

Further testimonial that was gleaned from our latest advertising focus groups…

These verbatims are proof that both male and female tweens are responding to VERB’s new activation message.

“Whether you win or lose, you're having fun. It shows how sports can be an integral part of life.”

“VERB makes me want to go out...makes me want to go to the park. It gives you ideas to do something like bike riding.”

“Everyday you can go out and have fun. You can have fun any day you want. You don't have to go far to have fun. You can just have fun with your friends.”

“It's telling you to do stuff — not to be lazy… To get involved in games.”

“The message is it's fun to do sports. You don't have to be the leader to do sports.”

This publication is produced by the Publicis Groupe.

 

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