Cross-Country Hype for a Ride for Three Reasons

Bob Lee, a 65-year-old cancer survivor, is riding his bicycle 6,500 miles across America in A Ride for Three Reasons. 100% of all donations will go to three charities: American Cancer Society, Les Turner ALS Foundation and National Hospice Foundation.

Quicken Loans is the main sponsor of A Ride for Three Reasons and we have created a new website and blog for Bob Lee at www.3reasons.org using the Typepad platform. We recognized the appeal Lee could have if he told his stories from the road, so we introduced him to blogging (he had never heard of a blog), bought him a Apple laptop, digital camera, video camera, some other equipment and got him set up before his ride began in March.

We did targeted blogger outreach to 175 blogs relating to the three causes the ride is supporting, as well as blogs about cycling. In addition we've provided Bob PR coverage in the towns and cities he rides through. The results are impressive. At least 75 blogs mentioned the ride and linked to Bob's blog, including such prominent blogs as Marketing Pilgrim, Veloist Social Network, Cycling Dude, glamour.com's blog, and radio personality Kim Komando. Bob was featured on national FOX & Friends in New York City and on numerous radio shows and correlating websites (Jim Bohannon, Mitch Albom, and John Tesh were among the most prominent shows Bob appeared on).

Bob's previous website had less than 5,000 visitors. With the help of his new site and blog (over 50,000 unique visits to date) and PR promotion, Bob passed his $65,000 fundraising goal shortly after his ride began and to-date, has raised over $306,000. He blogs daily from the road and is well on the way to reaching his revised goal of $500,000.

Credit Information
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Client: A Ride For Three Reasons - Bob Lee
Agency: Quicken Loans
Budget: Pro-bono
Date of Campaign: January 2007 - present
Contact Name: Clayton Closson
Case Study URL: www.3reasons.org