[May 07, 2004] Nationwide Calls on Cell Phones to Deliver Brand COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Ringing cell phones are a welcome sound to Nationwide, so long as the company's longtime jingle is playing. Nationwide is one of the first companies in the U.S. to offer an advertising jingle as a ring tone. Trendwatchers have dubbed the phenomena "jingle casting." The insurance and financial services company is reaching out to consumers offering its "Nationwide is On Your Side" jingle to cellular phone users through its web site. The ring tone offer is part of the company's new $58 million advertising campaign to increase brand awareness. Nationwide authorized MIDIRingTones to provide one of America's most famous jingles to cellular phone users. The jingle, which has existed for almost 40 years, is downloadable through http://www.nationwide.com/ and the MIDIRingTones web site, http://www.midiringtones.com/ . "We want to reach consumers in every possible way," says Steven Schreibman, vice president of advertising for Nationwide. "Whether it's through television, billboards, online or cell phones, we want people to experience the Nationwide brand." "We are excited to work with Nationwide to bring one of the first corporate jingles to the mobile personalization market," says Curt Fluegel, Founder, MIDIRingTones. MIDIRingTones was recently acquired by AG Interactive, the new media subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation. "Corporate jingles can be catchy and are a big part of pop culture -- we are excited to bring the Nationwide jingle to cellular customers across the country." Nationwide's largest brand advertising investment to date is designed to raise awareness of its long-standing On Your Side brand. Advertising is focused in 15 markets, including Columbus, Ohio, Birmingham, Ala., and Greensboro, N.C. The campaign theme, "Life comes at you fast," takes a humorous approach to remind consumers the best time to plan for the future is now. The advertising launch is one aspect of Nationwide's reinvestment in its brand and On Your Side. Several projects to increase brand awareness are already underway, including the company's umbrella sponsorship of the Nationwide PGA Tour. About Nationwide Nationwide, with world headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, offers a broad range of personal and commercial insurance, retirement-savings and asset management products. Nationwide is ranked No. 118 on the Fortune 500 and includes the country's seventh-largest property/casualty insurance group based on premium and the seventh-largest life insurance company based on assets. For more information, visit http://www.nationwide.com/ . About AG Interactive AG Interactive operates a network of sites including, AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com, BeatGreets.com and Egreetings.com. Its sites together offer over 20,000 high quality greetings and other types of expressive content and is the number one online greeting card destination with over 2 million paying subscribers and millions of unique visitors per month. About American Greetings Corporation American Greetings Corporation is one of the world's largest manufacturers of social expression products. Along with greeting cards, its product lines include gift wrap, party goods, reading glasses, candles, stationery, calendars, educational products, ornaments and electronic greetings. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings generates annual net sales of approximately $2 billion. For more information on the corporation, visit http://www.corporate.americangreetings.com/ . Media Contacts: Erin Herf 614-249-2671 [email protected] Shelly Hoffman 614-677-3551 [email protected] Nationwide CONTACT: Media, Erin Herf, +1-614-249-2671, or [email protected], orShelly Hoffman, +1-614-677-3551, or [email protected], both ofNationwide Web site: http://www.nationwide.com/http://www.midiringtones.com/http://www.corporate.amer icangreetings.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/607050.html [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]