Smokey Bear got a nice feature on the AOL homepage today.

For the third year in a row HelpsGood and Animax created the “Thank You” sequence for the Starlight Children’s Foundation.  Starlight helps children around the world who are diagnosed with serious illnesses and strives to improve their quality of life.  Each year Starlight has a Gala thanking their sponsors who help support their cause.

A stuffed Smokey Bear will be spending 4 months in space with NASA astronaut Joe Acaba and crew.  Given to Joe as a gift from his friend who works for the U.S. Forest Service, Smokey will be able to spread his message all the way into zero-gravity.  He will even be celebrating his 68th birthday out in orbit.

Read the full article here.

Stick figure animation plus a compelling soundtrack can make all the difference when it comes to cancer research.

Since late 2011, HelpsGood led various social media tactics for the Bedsider campaign.  The campaign aims to reduce the amount of unplanned pregnancies by educating women and helping them find the method of birth control that’s right for them.  The campaign is run by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the Ad Council.

Our work on the Bedsider campaign coincided with a huge increase in highly-charged, politicizing of conversation around birth control.  From the Komen Foundation’s de-funding and re-funding of Planned Parenthood to the Republican presidential nominee race to Rush Limbaugh’s inflammatory statements, birth control was a very active topic of social conversation.

Recently Bedsider even released a three part video series in partnership with Funny or Die called “After Last Night.”  The series follows two male friends and two female friends the next day after a party and their journey to figure out what happened the night before (and if they had used birth control)!

HelpsGood has helped the campaign since November, and has had a huge impact and influence on the project:

• Blogger outreach garnering posts that had a collective reach of over 1.5 million people, including mentions in
•  top advertising and social media blogs such as The Inspiration Room, All Facebook, AdRants, Osocio, and Brand Republic.
• Mom and family blogs like Sassy Mama in LA, Mommyhood’s Diary, Life According to Damaris, Pink Guayoyo, and Single Mama NYC.
• Sex and relationship blogs like Blue-Eyed Vixen, Vagina Pagina, Drew Pillow, AV Flox, and Abiolatv
• Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ messages about the campaign including mentions by PBS’ To the Contrary, Funky Brown Chick, and Blogs by Latinas 
• We built two new Facebook apps leveraging the Buddy Media platform for Bedsider’s Facebook page:
• Method Explorer
• Video Gallery
• Provided guidance about existing social network channels.  Also provided advice on ways to improve Bedsider positioning on emerging networks for added discovery (e.g. Klout, Pinterest, etc.)

During that time, Bedsider grew:

• Over 1,500 new likes on Facebook
• Over 5,500 views on the Confessions App
• Over 2,740 views on the Method Explorer App
• Nearly 1,000 fans on Twitter

United Way and Helpsgood will be working together to promote United Way’s “LIVE UNITED” campaign. The campaign’s focus is to mobilize communities to give, advocate and volunteer to improve the building blocks of a good life and advancing the common good. Initially launched in 2008, the LIVE UNITED campaign inspires and encourages people to partner with United Way by becoming more involved in their own communities, either by volunteering, giving, or advocating for change.

HelpsGood will develop an overarching strategy for the campaign to be implemented across United Way Worldwide. In addition, HelpsGood will implement tactics in collaboration with the Ad Council and United Way to conduct outreach to bloggers, engage and grow United Way’s social networks across multiple platforms and to create a social media toolkit for ongoing implementation.

You can view the full press release here.

Brand mascots became popular in 1950s with TV advertising and are coming back stronger than ever, through social media.  Even the Ad Council has been utilizing mascots through social media.  Currently Smokey Bear is the face and voice of his own Facebook and Twitter pages.  

“Today, social media is giving marketers a whole new playground to test and nurture mascots. “I think the web is going to [bring] a heyday for creating new characters and stories,” Carol Phillips, president of consulting group Brand Amplitude said.”  Read the full article here.

New features on Google Analytics let companies tell Google what goals they want to achieve.  Google will not only show how many visits are coming from social networks, but how many of those visits will go towards your company’s goals.  Read the full article here.

Newsweek’s Mad Men retro issue has old advertisements including a special Smokey Bear ad.  Check out all the different ads and vote for Smokey here: http://bit.ly/x0Xs3j

You can vote as many times as you want.  Share with your friends and let’s get Smokey’s ad to the top!

Nonprofits- don’t forget about blogging! Although social media sites like Twitter and Facebook serve their purpose, blogs can be a powerful tool for sharing ideas and building communities!  Read the full article here.