Charity viral reaches over a million young people
A viral game from online charity YouthNet, to help young people manage their money, has smashed its set targets - trebling the 500,000 expected plays to 1.5 million in just two months.
Funded by Calousste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Peter De Haan Charitable Trust, the game 'Turf War' was created by digital marketing agency Kerb, to drive traffic to the money section of TheSite.org, the charity's website for 16-24 year-olds.
The game, which encourages players to balance a budget and buy new weapons, also generated an extra 60,000 click-throughs to TheSite.org, and increased monthly unique users of the website's money section from 7,000 during December 2007, to 12,660 during February 2008.
YouthNet Chief Executive Fiona Dawe says: "The success of Turf War is phenomenal, reaching three times as many people as we'd predicted and encouraging thousands more young people to click through to TheSite.org to find out about financial advice."
TheSite.org is an online guide to life for young people, providing over 2,000 factsheets and articles on the important issues that young people face today. The information on everything from sex and relationships to drink and drugs or study and finances, is visited by around 500,000 unique users every month.
Turf war was promoted to young people with a banner advertising campaign and seeding on game websites, as well as targeted PR in relevant media.
To play Turf War visit www.TheSite.org/turfwar.
Ends
For further media information – or to arrange interviews – please contact Sarah Wilson at YouthNet on 020 7250 5716 or out-of-hours on 07766 660 755. Email: media@youthnet.org
Notes to Editors
YouthNet is an online charity – founded by broadcaster Martyn Lewis in 1995. It aims to create a socially inclusive environment where all young adults are engaged, informed and inspired to achieve their ambitions and dreams.
YouthNet runs www.Thesite.org – the first-stop-shop of advice and support for 16-24 year-olds. YouthNet also runs www.do-it.org.uk the UK's leading volunteering website.
The Peter De Haan Charitable Trust awarded YouthNet a grant of £200,000 to implement a two-year programme of marketing activities, a portion of which is being used to distribute the viral game on email networks and gamers' websites