Website Helps Families Build Heritage Tree; Donation Supports United Negro College Fund

(BLACK PR WIRE) (February 1, 2010) COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- In recognition of Black History Month, Nationwide Insurance is encouraging consumers to get online to share, build and capture important family history in celebration of the rich heritage and legacy of the African American family. In addition, consumers can visit Pandora.com to build a personalized music library and support the United Negro College Fund (UNCF).

Beginning today, families can connect with their ancestry, celebrate their past and work together to honor the present. It’s all part of Nationwide’s ongoing effort to reach African American consumers. This particular campaign, created by McKinney, Nationwide’s advertising agency of record, includes the creation of a Family Heritage Tree website where visitors can create their family history.

“Nationwide continues our commitment to support the African American community,” said Mark Hara, vice president for Nationwide. “The Nationwide Family Heritage Tree website allows each member of the family to input data, build their family tree, add photos, input facts about their heritage and invite others to share.”

The Family Heritage Tree website is a resource for visitors to share data and stories with other family members, allowing for two-way interaction to help build a more robust and complete family history. It also provides an opportunity for family members to add comments and work together to create their family tree.

“We are excited to launch this campaign on the first day of Black History Month,” said Hara. “We hope families will use this web tool as a way to honor their past, share stories amongst family members and build their family history for themselves, and their children.”

In addition to the website, through a partnership with Pandora.com, Nationwide is helping to support the UNCF. During Black History Month, Nationwide will have two branded stations available on Pandora, the popular personalized and free internet radio service. Nationwide will donate $5.00 to UNCF for each one of the first 6000 visitors who listen to either one of the two Nationwide branded radio stations on Pandora.

“We’re pleased to partner with Nationwide, to give them a truly innovative and creative option that facilitates their financial contribution to the UNCF and delivers discovery and joy to those who get the chance to listen to the great music on the Nationwide branded stations,” said Pandora’s chief revenue officer John Trimble. “Pandora’s multi-platform advertising solution, combined with our breadth of demographic knowledge about our listeners, ensures that our partners, such as Nationwide, will have their campaigns seen – and heard – by their ideal target audience who are listening to internet radio.”

The campaign takes a unique approach to encourage families to share information, interact through the internet using the Family Heritage Tree website to capture their legacy and support the United Negro College Fund. The Heritage Family Tree website can be accessed beginning February 1, 2010 through the end of the year.

About Pandora
Pandora is the personalized internet radio service available through personal computers, mobile phones, and a wide array of consumer electronic devices. With 45 million US listeners, 16 million of whom use Pandora off the PC, Pandora is the world’s largest internet radio service. By simply entering a favorite artist or song, listeners can instantly enjoy a personalized station based on Pandora’s Music Genome Project™. For more than ten years, Pandora’s team of professional musician analysts have been building the world’s most comprehensive and intricate musicological database, manually analyzing over 700,000 songs across up to 400 distinct musical attributes per song.

About Nationwide
Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by A.M. Best. The company provides a full range of personalized insurance and financial services, including auto insurance, motorcycle, boat, homeowners, life insurance, farm, commercial insurance, administrative services, annuities, mortgages, mutual funds, pensions, long-term savings plans and health and productivity services. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com.

Nationwide, the Nationwide Framemark and On Your Side are service marks of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.