100 Days of Summer

Officially deploying at Myrtle Beach, S.C.'s Memorial Day weekend parade, and ceasing fire on Labor Day, the Salute campaign and USO Jeep Tour shipped out for a full 100 days of summer, harvesting amazing support in 77 different communities along the way.

The Jeep traveled more than 13,500 miles over the summer - five times the distance from Raleigh to L.A! And the tireless dedication of our USO Jeep Tour team was matched, if not surpassed, by community enthusiasm at each stop along the amazing route -the Salute team collected more than 3,000 recorded shout outs of appreciation from community members to service members; all salutes, sorted by community, are available via KESalute.com.

If the above statistics don't clearly convey the multitude of community support the campaign garnered, this statistic is sure to: 90 percent of the $2.5 million raised came from incremental $1 donations at KE checkout counters.  In the words of John Fisher, Kangaroo Express' senior vice president, "Folks - that's a whole lot of pocket change." Fisher is right, nearly 2,250,000 dollar bills made their way from customer's pockets, one-at-a-time, into collection jars across the coast - all despite the pressing economic crunch.

Those dollars add up, and the money raised is impressive - but the spirited camaraderie and united teamwork by the community and every person on the Salute Our Troops team represents a value that cannot be measured in mere dollars.

Generally speaking, the greater the impact of a story, the greater the newsworthiness, and I wouldn't be a PR professional if I didn't demonstrate through media impressions the worth of a campaign.  But, in the case of the Salute, the coverage spoke for itself.  More than 220 print articles and 105 broadcasted stories over 100 days resulted in 120,000,000 total media impressions.  Did the campaign have an impact on the community?  Was it newsworthy? I think we have 2.5 million reasons that say, "Affirmative."