Man who Bought TV Ad Space
The man who raised money on the internet to buy TV ad space to propose
Rand had been dating Geraldine for about 5 years and the time had come for Rand to pop the question. Rand wanted to propose in a genuine, unique, and completely romantic way, equal to the love he felt for Geraldine. Being a major NFL fan, Rand began to play with the idea of proposing via a Super Bowl commercial. Obviously the task would be monumental but luckily Rand works within an industry that may make the idea work. Rand works within search marketing, specializing in search optimization, online viral marketing, and things of this nature. Rand started on his idea in late August of 2006. He put together a website and started working his magic. Rand started to draw a lot of attention online. On his website he posted his game plan, the hurdles that lie ahead, and the solution he needed to execute the Super Bowl commercial proposal.
Rand found that in order to purchase ad space during the 2007 Super Bowl, he would have to raise approximately $2.5 million dollars. He put up a good chunk of his own cash and waited for the donations to pour in. By February 1st, just 3 days prior to the Super Bowl, Rand had only collected $85K. The wedding invitations would be covered but unfortunately this was not nearly enough for the Super Bowl ad space. His proposal publicly gained the attention of Entertainment Tonight, MSNBC, Good Morning America, and Fox News just to name a few. Despite all of this, CBS was unwilling to part with the valuable ad time for a mere $85K. Rand did the next best thing and purchased local ad time during Geraldine’s favorite television show Veronica Mars. On February 6th at 9:23 PM, as Geraldine was watching the show, Rand’s ad came on the screen, asking Geraldine to marry him. She said yes! Her response was genuine, sweet, and very romantic. Rand donated the remaining money raised to the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.
Very romantic story. An excellent idea.