Viral video campaign draws 1 million viewers

TriWest Healthcare ditches the standard press release in favor of a viral e-mail campaign

Last winter, TriWest Healthcare Alliance launched its first viral video e-mail campaign to raise money and awareness for Operation Homefront, a fund that provides emergency services and assistance to troops and their families. Within a year, nearly a million people had watched the video.

Before launching the campaign, TriWest had never used any social media tools. Whenever the group wanted to publicize a fundraising drive, it had always issued standard press releases.

But after Kristen Ward, a TriWest senior communications specialist, attended a conference on social media, she decided the organization needed to reach its audience—military stationed overseas and their families at home—where they were already looking.

“We could have reached out to the base papers, but we didn’t know what portion of our audience that would reach,” says Ward. “We knew they go online to check their e-mail. So we figured, ‘Why not reach them via e-mail?'”

By doing so, says Ward, TriWest’s campaign exceeded its wildest expectations.

Putting the e-mail together