AIDS is no longer top-of-mind. Yet we’re on the verge of achieving the most important milestone to date in the global fight, where it’s possible we could end mother-to-child HIV transmission by the end of 2015. And we know: people want to join a cause that can be won.

Bank of America announced its partnership with (RED) and U2 at Davos, committing $10 million over the next two years for (RED)’s fight against AIDS. The challenge from a brand perspective was how to raise awareness for a cause that had largely fallen out of consciousness.

Grounded in the insight that people will get involved to support a cause if they believe it will actually make a difference, we designed a media plan that was all about igniting a simple action in people which would ultimately trigger massive participation and inspire a global movement.

Our goal: Get 1 million people to download U2’s new single Invisible. For every download, Bank of America would donate $1 to (RED)’s fight to deliver an AIDS-free generation.

We invited our employees and customers worldwide to jumpstart the movement, and built an innovative cross-channel paid media program to build momentum behind (RED)’s largest brand participation effort ever. We used the week-long pre-Super Bowl frenzy to count down to the action the world should take on 2/2/14, using paid, owned, and earned media to tease the free 24-hour download event. Fifteen Bank and (RED) site and mobile properties, and iTunes itself, featured the countdown – it was even on the digital billboard in Times Square behind pre-game commentary on Fox. Exclusive deals with Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo!, and Shazam made direct-to-iTunes downloads possible.

The campaign broke music industry records with 1 million downloads in 1 hour. In 24 hours, there were 3,144,477 downloads (according to iTunes) which triggered a $3,144,477 donation from Bank of America – translating into 7.8 million days of life-saving AIDS medication for pregnant mothers.