Year-Round Effort Turns MS Awareness Week Into a Premiere Attention-Getting Event
You Could Be a Key Sponsor of MS Awareness Week 2010! Rates Are Discounted for a Limited Time!
- We received over $32 million in ad value through PSA and story placements, including Teri Garr radio spots on Clear Channel radio stations and our Bike MS PSA running twice an hour, all week long, on Clear Channel’s giant Spectacolor Digital Billboard in Times Square.
- We were on three national morning shows, including the Society's Dr. John Richert talking with Meredith Vieira about MS research on TODAY and The Amazing Race star Phil Keoghan talking up Bike MS on The Early Show.
- Special MS Awareness Week e-blast to more than 700,000 people got an open rate of 16.1% (ask your IT team — that’s really good).
- Online MS Awareness Week tool kit featured downloadable creative and links to the Society on all the major social networking sites.
More Americans than ever are getting our message: that it’s time to “move it” toward a world free of MS! With MS Awareness Week established as one of the charitable world’s premier attention-getters, we’re taking the event to the next level and creating special sponsorship opportunities full of multichannel exposure for 2010. Rates are discounted until Aug. 1, 2009, so act now!
Non-pharmaceutical companies, please contact Fred Flanders at fred.flanders@nmss.org or 303-525-0355.
Pharmaceutical companies, please contact Kersten Sharrock at kersten.sharrock@nmss.org or 303-698-6100, x15183.
The Corporate Partners who helped move it toward a world free of MS during MS Awareness Week 2009 — and enjoyed year-round visibility in the process — were:
- Biogen Idec
- Clear Channel Communications
- Developers Diversified Realty
- EMD Serono/Pfizer, Inc.
- Genentech
- Teva Neuroscience
- The Vitamin Shoppe
- Westfield Properties
Click here for a photo and video recap proving that MS Awareness Week unites businesses, the MS community, the media and the public in a way that few events can!
—
Westfield Properties Makes MS Awareness a Corporate Responsibility
Speaking of “the next level,” that’s where our friends at Westfield Group, a National MS Society Corporate Partner, can generally be found. They prepped their U.S. shopping malls for MS Awareness Week with an information kit explaining what MS is, what MS Awareness Week is, how Walk MS teams work, how to order MS Awareness collateral, and what creative elements to display.
We were so impressed we asked Westfield if we could share their work: click here to see it.
One of our favorite parts of the info kit comes near the end: “Ask questions and submit successful ideas.” That pretty well sums up how the millions of people in our movement are creating a world free of MS!
—
New Christopher and Banks™ Collection Sparkles
We are pleased to introduce the third annual MS Collection of jewelry from our friends at Christopher & Banks™. The jewelry is now available so it can be sent right to your home or office — easy shopping for busy people. Click here to purchase your MS jewelry directly.
The 2009 MS Collection features a splash of orange iridescent beads that inspire hope with their simple charm. Once again, half of the profits will be donated to the National MS Society. Since 2007, Christopher & Banks —a National MS Society Corporate Star — has contributed more than $175,000 to the MS movement through jewelry sales alone.
—
Pool Winner Can Stand Up and Cool Down
“It’s like a dream come true to have this boost,” said Connie Noelle. Her 32-year-old daughter Cheryl (right) lives with advanced MS and osteoporosis, and getting into the water should help both conditions.
“She uses a lift to get from her motorized wheelchair to the bed. She just doesn’t have a whole lot of motion, and a lot of muscles need a lot of work,” Connie said. Cheryl’s osteoporosis will only improve if she can stand, but the MS normally prevents that, Connie said. The WaterWell is deep enough to stand in, meaning that a whole range of medical issues may start getting addressed for the first time.
Public therapy pools are too warm for Cheryl, the Noelles have found. (Heat sensitivity is common among people with MS.) Connie said she is so excited about the new pool that she’s going to research grants to help other people with MS afford them.
Aside from the opportunity for physical conditioning, using the pool will be emotionally beneficial for Cheryl, Connie added. “It will give Cheryl hope that there is something she can do to fight her disease. Hope is essential,” she said.
“We’re very pleased that the pool is going to someone in real need,” said Daniel Fraley, Marketing Manager with Endless Pools. The Society would like to thank Endless Pools for their sponsorship. For more information about Endless pools, visit endlesspools.com.