Strategy: CDC's Verb Throws Youths A Yellowball

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a federal agency usually known for stopping epidemics, will try to create one with a $59.2 million TV and viral marketing program in which it will distribute 300,000 yellow balls to curb child obesity.

The effort, launching Nov. 1, could be the swan song for the four-year-old program, which aims to make today's youth more active. The House of Representatives has proposed allocating $11.2 million to Verb while the Senate may pull all support. Congress can opt to reauthorize funding for the program after the 2006 budget is passed, however. A CDC rep said the agency had no idea how much funding, if any, Verb will get in 2006.

The CDC will try to maximize the new campaign's effectiveness by making the effort—unlike previous initiatives—completely integrated. TV spots by Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, will be consistent with the message delivered by guerrilla marketing teams of cool "kid influencers" dispatched by drillTeam Media, New York. The core of the cause will be a giveaway of the Verb Yellowball, which was inspired by yellow bike programs in Amsterdam, Seattle, Austin, Texas, and elsewhere. Those cities provided community bicycles that residents would ride and then leave on the street for the next user.

The balls come with instructions to play with them and then log onto Verbnow.com. Kids then enter a code printed on each ball and create a blog telling the world what they did with it. They also can read the blogs of other kids who touched that same ball. Messages urge visitors to keep play alive by giving the ball to another kid.

"We're trying to get play into kids hands," said Lori Asbury, the CDC's marketing director. "Our early efforts were about creating awareness that physical activity was important and fun for them. Now were going to be much more about activation and doing more in market."

The first phase of the campaign will seed Yellowball via ambassador teams. New TV creative show a child reaching for the sun, grabbing the orb, which turns into a Yellowball, and joining other kids in play. Print also supports and continues the tagline, "Verb. It's what you do." Event presence, pr by Manning Selvage & Lee, New York, and sponsorships like the CD release bashes for artists Chris Brown and Tiffany Evans are part of the early mix.

The next phase, running January through April, takes the "pass the ball on" message to a national level with mobile forays into New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Houston, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Denver. Multicultural programs also break with outreach to African American kids by PFI Marketing, New York. A Partnership, New York, will target Asian American and Pacific Islander children. Garcia 360, San Antonio, Texas, is in charge of the Hispanic effort, and G&G Advertising, Albuquerque, N.M., will focus on American Indian/Alaskan native youth.

Yellowball will see added momentum in the online community with contests for the most inspired play or the ball that is passed the most, and prizes like free music downloads given to every kid who touched the winning balls. Schools also will be recruited to play and pass on balls to other schools.

"When a kid approaches 13, they feel compelled to make a difference, have a voice and get behind a cause," said Chris Cancilla, vp-group creative director at Frankel, Chicago, which is charged with changing the behavior of Verb's

9- to 13-year-old target. "Play is an activity they have influence over."

The CDC intends to directly contact four million kids and keep the awareness of Verb high among the 22 million tweens nationwide. Verb started airing on kid programming during 2002 when measured media spending by the CDC was $26 million, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. The Center's ad spend was $32 million in 2004.

The CDC received funding for youth marketing thanks to legislation from former Rep. John Porter, R-Ill., who cited concerns about the rise of childhood obesity and the decline in physical activity by kids who spent too much time in front of the tube and playing videogames.

Previous efforts included a tie-in with DC Comics urging kids to leap and race like superheroes. Last year's effort included mass media ads and the creation of ViRTs, virtual characters that would move when kids typed in their play activities.

A recent Youth Media Campaign Longitudinal Survey found that children who saw Verb during 2004 maintained the same level of physical play that they had during 2002 while activity dropped among children who did not see the campaign.