Hope.ly

Campaign: Hope.ly
Company: Bitly
Nonprofit Partner: American Red Cross
Launch Date: December 2, 2014

Campaign:

The Red Cross and Bitly have teamed up to create hope.ly—a new social tool that allows users to shorten links and help to increase donations to support the Red Cross. When content is shared using a hope.ly link, a banner appears over the content that the user shares, urging people to donate to the Red Cross. The banner reads, “Someone wonderful shared this page — to help people in need through the American Red Cross”. Launched on GivingTuesday, the promotion runs through December.

Our Take:

This unique partnership takes the oft-used web service Bitly and brilliantly transforms it into a cause-focused online billboard. While the call to action is crystal clear (donate!) and will undoubtedly drive additional online donations, it would be interesting to experiment with other calls to action (perhaps even paired with consumer incentives) to determine the most effective combination. This smart promotion may well have opened the door to future cause or brand partnerships for Bitly.