​GALEN CHANDLER

"The American Cancer Society is profoundly grateful for the generosity of Chevy's Purple Roads initiative and for the more than 1 million people who have purpled their profiles in support of people in need of help during their cancer journey." - Lin MacMaster

The idea of Purple Roads was crafted in partnership with the American Cancer Society (ACS) to provide support for people in cancer recovery: raising awareness and money for the ACS Road to Recovery Program, which provides people free rides to treatment.

 

Our message was simple:

Celebrate cancer recovery and get people to show their support on World Cancer Day (2 days after the Super Bowl) by turning their Facebook or Twitter profiles purple. (Purple was chosen because it’s the official color of World Cancer Day.) And for everyone who did, Chevy pledged to contribute $1 to the ACS, up to one million dollars. So on Super Bowl Sunday, we resisted the expectation of over-the-top laughs, animal gags and special effects; telling a story about a couple wrestling with a serious health issue instead, and asking millions of Americans to join Chevy in the fight against cancer.

 

The Purple Roads campaign started with a landing page that offered people an opportunity to get involved in supporting cancer recovery. There, a Purple Your Profile app we created lived prominently at the top of the site, which allowed users to easily change their Facebook or Twitter profile pictures purple to support those in recovery around World Cancer Day. Chevrolet and the ACS made a strong social, PR and CRM push to get the word out. 

 

An animated video explaining the campaign was also pushed out to several media outlets, along with online banners. On Super Bowl Sunday, our  “Life” spot ran prompting viewers to visit the site. The day after the big game, we took out a full-page ad in USA Today. During the game and the days following, we monitored and responded to conversations surrounding the campaign.

The results of the Purple Roads campaign far exceeded expectations.

 

• 1.4M Purple Profiles raised awareness and $1M in just under a week

• More than 2,000 Road to Recovery volunteers were created or retained

• Average of 51 new volunteer sign-ups daily during the week of World Cancer Day

• The ACS saw a 505% increase in their Facebook following over their normal rate

• Chevy’s social following grew the most of any brand post-Super Bowl. Fan acquisition accelerated by 500% compared to its normal rate.

• Chevy was one of the top three brands in social buzz pre-Super Bowl

• Most traffic to Chevy.com ever