As storms have become more extreme and power outages the new normal, Duracell, the most trusted battery brand, has the right (and perhaps the responsibility) to help.

With a fleet of Power Forward vehicles, Duracell drives in and serves communities in need, providing free batteries to power flashlights and radios and hook-ups to recharge mobile device. This is Duracell living its brand purpose at the most extreme: "powering life without limits."

From Joplin, Missouri to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Avon, CT, we have powered the powerless until the lights came back on.

Then Sandy hit. The extreme nature and size of the storm presented a gaping human need. And the fact that the storm hit the nation's top news market presented an opportunity to show the heart of our brand in action.

We plotted the stops our truck would make. We worked with national and local media to promote where we were and also used social media channels to alert people in need.

We then let people have a voice and direct the trucks where help was most needed - the south shore of Long Island, Far Rockaway, Hoboken.

All along the way, we used media relations and social engagement to generate millions of impressions and loyalty and love for the brand.

Oh, and we did all of this while operating in the northeast. Half our team was without power and all of us were stuck in our homes, but where there's a will (and a good battery), there's a way!

As news of the pending storm grew more dire, we prepared for the deployment of Duracell's Power Forward vehicles. These trucks are equipped to provide batteries and power for mobile devices to communities in need.

We used a combination of media relations and social engagement to raise awareness of our efforts on the national level and to let people in affected areas know where they could go for help.

Working round the clock for a 2-week period, we were able to provide power to thousands of people while generating love and admiration for the Duracell brand.

Through this campaign, PR cemented Duracell's 'trust' positioning like no advertising could ever deliver by physically touching hearts, minds and consumer lives in the communities in real-time need.

* The program generated over 5m Facebook impressions with 62,000 post likes, 4,000 post shares and nearly 2,000 comments;

* More than 3.7m Twitter impressions, with nearly 600 #PowerForward Tweets including one from Governor Chris Christie and one from The WeatherChannel’s Jim Cantore, both in support of the effort

* We secured more than 235 million media impressions - all of it positive - in dozens of major outlets including The NY Times, USA Today, Anderson Cooper, FoxNews, Forbes and Entertainment Tonight.

* We distributed 150,000 batteries, powered nearly 2000 mobile devices and helped 10,000 families in need.

“You just gotta love companies that care. Duracell, thank you for all your relief efforts, hard work and your generosity! Trust me... after time has settled things... your help, your excellent product we all depend on will be remembered long into the future.”

- Consumer Comment on Facebook.com/Duracell