What is the Next Breath?

After you have the inhale moment when you get into an accident and the exhale moment once you realize you have insurance to cover it, what comes next? The Next Breath. The Next Breath is the public service campaign communicated through social media that the PR Department of Circle Advertising, of which I was a member of, worked on as part of "Feel Free", the winning campaign for State Farm at this year's National Student Advertising Competition.

The Next Breath supplements the Feel Free campaign by empowering young adults to pass on the Feel Free moment through giving. After conducting a psychographic survey we designed a Next Breath event that would not only match the big idea, but that would incorporate core values of State Farm such as helping people to realize their dreams.

Our event was held at a local venue in Orange and featured three expressions of feeling free: art, music, and writing. Local artists donated pieces of work to be sold for charity. Next Breath attendees could sing karaoke with a live band. There were also two boards that let students express themselves in words. One that asked attendees to write what makes them tense, and another that asks what makes them Feel Free.

People could tweet what makes them feel free at the event and could also take pictures of art they liked as well as their peers singing karaoke. We had over 120 people attend and raised a couple of hundred dollars that went to UNICEF for Haiti relief. Our research showed that the 18-25 demographic would most likely donate to a charity for children or disaster relief.

As part of the sub-campaign students could win the chance to donate $1000 to the charity of their choice as part of the Give Away Giveaway. We found that our demographic is more likely to donate to a charity if they choose where the money goes. If someone tweets @statefarm with the hashtag #feelfree they will be entered into the contest.

Our team worked hard on creating the Next Breath and we are all so proud of it. The best moment was seeing our Next Breath slide up on stage after winning the NSAC national championship.