For most Americans, the spread of AIDS in Africa is a crisis that might as well be happening on another planet.

World Vision, a non-profit Christian organization that supports children in crisis, wanted to bring the reality of the problem home to people in the U.S. So it chose to re-create the experience of a child orphaned by the disease by replicating the environment in which such a child lives.

Its ambitious initiative spawned two 3,000-square-foot traveling exhibits that present a very realistic setting of an African village and its environs, incorporating artifacts imported from that continent. Everything is genuine, right down to the cups used by young AIDS victims and the rags they clothed themselves with.

People walking through the exhibit, erected at Christian places of worship around the country, are equipped with headphones to orient them. Visitors are literally following in the footsteps of children whose lives have been irrevocably changed through losing parents to the disease.

“The exhibit is not just a display to look at. You’re literally walking into scenes that re-create their lives,” says Michael Yoder, World Vision director of experiential engagement.

The experience begins with a briefing from a World Vision representative who explains to the visitors what it is they are about to confront.

Visitors proceed through an African village, walking through the room in a gas station where a child slept while his mother worked there as a prostitute, through a banana field where destitute children slept, the restaurant where they worked and, finally, the clinic where they learned that they were infected with the AIDS virus.

“We bring it to life with photographs and vignettes,” Yoder says. Natural sound effects also help convey a sense of the African environment.

When visitors reach the clinic, their hands are stamped with the result of the child’s positive AIDS test. “You literally receive the results onto your hand. People are moved by it,” he says.

There is a chapel where visitors can pen notes and post them on the wall. Finally, they are asked to make a commitment to support an orphaned child, pledging $35 a month to provide food, security, health care and education.

Those who make the commitment can develop a mail-based relationship with the child they’re supporting.

“We connect people in the West in very tangible ways,” Yoder says. “It really is a one-to-one relationship.”

In addition to soliciting contributions to support children orphaned by the modern plague, World Vision is also raising money by selling merchandise, including sweatshirts and photos from Africa.

Halfway through what was planned as an 18-month tour around the country, the exhibit has realized very tangible results: more than $6 million has been raised in commitments from 95,000 people in 40 venues, resulting in 10,100 children sponsored.

The impact of the experience is enhanced by the time visitors spend in the exhibit, which has four routes mirroring the real-life experiences of four children. People listen to the recorded narrative and proceed at their own pace.

“We’ve intentionally slowed it down, so it’s a very personal experience that you’re going through on your own,” says Cal Zarin, the director of marketing for The Brand Experience.

The Brand Experience consulted with World Vision to develop the event. World Vision connected with the national Willow Creek Association of Churches last year to establish the venues.

The Willow Creek connection enabled World Vision to save the cost of renting venues along the way, and also left behind a motivated community of Christians in its wake.

Zarin sees the exhibit as a template for similar cause-related marketing initiatives.

A fabrication partner, The Production Network was brought in to build the two traveling villages after the successful test of a prototype exhibit at Vanderbilt Hall in New York’s Grand Central Station.

Four World Vision representatives travel with the exhibit, training 200 volunteers each week at the venues it visits.

World Vision is already slightly ahead of the goals it originally set. Yoder reports it’s making plans to extend the tour of the unique experiential AIDS exhibit into 2009, and sees it as a model for future fund-raising efforts. “We’re looking at it as a whole new methodology to reach donors,” he says.

The contemporary approach of this exhibit actually mirrors the pioneering work that World Vision’s founder Bob Pierce used when he shot documentary footage of orphans during the Korean War in 1950.

Times change, but the same need persists, and World Vision supports children disadvantaged by war, famine and other conditions in nearly 100 countries today. On the AIDS front, about 6,000 children are orphaned daily due to the disease.

Yoder calls the exhibit “the most singular life-changing project I’ve been involved in.” The promotional industry apparently agrees with that sense of its impact: the exhibit was recognized with a PMA award in April.

Additional information about the exhibit and its stopping points for the remainder of this year can be found at www.worldvisionexperience.org.

For more articles on experiential marketing, go to http://promomagazine.com/eventmarketing/

Visa USA sees big opportunities in small business. And it has crafted a national promotion strategy around the 23 million firms that fit that description. The credit card giant launched its first campaign in this market last year, and recently launched an expanded effort. It is now conducting a sweeps for which the big prize is $250,000 in cash, products and services. PROMO recently spoke with Howard DeBow, the company’s vice president, promotion and loyalty marketing, about how it all gets done.

PROMO: Why would a small business be interested in aligning with Visa?

DeBow: Our research tells us small businesses are strapped for resources, strapped for people and strapped for services. We say, “We will provide you with the services to help you with all of your needs. We want to make sure we are providing an incentive to use the card.“ We want people to understand the value.

P: How does Visa stand out in the small business market?

D: The marketplace is very competitive. Understanding the needs of small businesses and providing flexible solutions and options helps us stand out from our competitors.

P: How and when did you develop a national promotion strategy for small business?

D: Visa overall has focused on small business for many years. But we did our first national promotion in this area last year. We tracked results and we saw success, which is why we are doing another one this year.

P: What’s different about the 2007 version?

D: We’re taking last year’s promotion and putting it on steroids, making it bigger and broader. This promotion offers prizes like cash for capital, services from Microsoft, consulting services from StartupNation and computer equipment from Dell. We believe small businesses will see the value.

P: What’s the goal?

D: To help our banks increase usage for the small business card and create awareness of Visa’s service to small businesses and of the brand. There are so many small businesses out there — we think it will resonate with them. We identify small businesses as those with $25 million a year in sales or less and 100 employees or less, even though 75% are small proprietors with 10 or fewer employees.

P: How are you drawing small owners into the contest?

D: We will send out more than 4 million direct mail pieces and statement inserts to promote the sweepstakes. As a prizing package, we really target anybody within the small business lifestyle. We see a certain need wherever they are in their life cycle.

P: What are your top challenges in marketing to this segment?

D: Measuring the effectiveness of our marketing program is always challenging. We spent the last few years looking at our strategy for this and how to fine tune it. Another challenge is marketing to one market — specifically to the small business. In everything we do, it’s all about segmenting, tailoring and messaging appropriately. The third challenge is making sure we can cut through the clutter. We want to make sure our message ties to our brand.

P: What’s the underlying theme?

D: We look at small business as the hero. We want to help support those small businesses in their effort. That’s why our promotional support gives them services they might need and our loyalty program provides relevant offers and discounts our Web site. Our goal is to make it easier for them.

P: How often do you do promotions?

D: At least once per year. This time, we are doing it around Small Business Month.

P: How crucial is loyalty in this market?

D: Loyalty is very important to Visa and our banks. Small businesses are very smart and they can determine the value of a good loyalty program. Holding on to that loyalty is important, so we always have to test and enhance what we are providing so it is relevant. There is loyalty saturation. You want to make sure your program stays relevant, and you want to make sure you brand stays top of mind.

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For more on B-to-B promotions, go to www.promomagazine.com