September 15, 2014 at 11:37Ice Bucket Challenge: engagement lessons
- Transfer
If you follow the news feed on social networks, you probably saw videos similar to mass insanity - everyone from Bill Gates to your office associate is being poured cold water from a bucket, passing this strange at first glance relay race to new people and companies. It looks something like this (yes, yes, this ice cup did not pass us either):
How did these videos become a viral summer event? Why exactly the videos were able to do in a month what even the articles in the media did not manage to do before - to raise almost one hundred million dollars for a completely unprofitable business? Business owners and marketers have something to think about in this story. In the meantime, you decide whether to include the cost of competent video marketing in your budgets or not, we suggest you read the translation of the article by Emily Alford, made by hardened dousing translators from Alconost .
The Ice Bucket Challenge campaign kicked off in Boston in honor of 29-year-old Pete Frates, a former baseball team captain at Boston College who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's disease) two years ago. The rules are simple: if the challenge is thrown, the participants have a choice: either pour in ice water from a bucket, or donate $ 100 to the charity of the ALS Foundation.
President Obama has chosen the latter: however, most participants do both. And the results of this popular viral campaign are amazing. According to the ALS Association fund, from the participants of the Ice Bucket Challenge and those who simply enjoyed watching the video, donations of $ 94.3 million were received between July 29 and August 27. This is significantly more than the $ 2.7 million that were donated to the fund over the same period. last year.
Although the Ice Bucket Challenge was definitely beneficial for the ALS Association, the campaign was not launched by the fund: the action was carried out by the participants themselves. However, from the hottest campaign of this summer, social media market participants and those who are interested in raising funds can learn a valuable lesson in “public marketing”.
According to Gene Lewis, partner and creative director of Digital Pulp, the secret to the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge campaign is that such a challenge is almost impossible to ignore.
“Like so many other things - simple, interesting, and successful, the Ice Bucket Challenge is now taken for granted. Why haven’t we thought of this before? ”He says. “This campaign has everything to be viral: it’s fun and funny, personal and with a wide reach. It is for both children and adults; They share it extremely intensively on social networks, but the main thing is that it encourages, and not only in words. You are being challenged before the eyes of the whole world! This is not just a status update that they will not remember soon: it is a personal challenge that cannot be ignored. ”
Bob Cargill, director of social media at Overdrive Interactive, believes another important reason for the success of the campaign is its social nature. “In the era of selfie, more people than ever are happy to show their support for a common cause or brand commitment, especially if they gain something in the process. That's what the success of this campaign can teach social media market participants and those interested in fundraising , ”he says. In this case, the participants gain what they themselves become part of the event, namely - "personal satisfaction that brings any philanthropic act, and public approval received from friends . "
And finally, a key aspect of the popularity of the campaign is its conciseness, explains Rob Moritz, editor-in-chief of social media at Innocean USA: “From the point of view of social media communication management (SMM), the main thing here is that the action itself and viewing take a few seconds. This short entertaining content is as easy to replicate as it is to share . ”
Of course, the viral success of the Ice Bucket Challenge was completely unforeseen. SMM specialists should definitely note the psychology of this success, but you should be careful to create content for viral purposes. Indeed, often expectations turn into a negative reaction of the audience. A more reliable solution is to focus on the consistent production of quality brand-related content. And in this we at Alconost are ready to help you!
About the translator
Translation of the article was done in Alconost.
Alconost localizes applications, games and sites in 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com
How did these videos become a viral summer event? Why exactly the videos were able to do in a month what even the articles in the media did not manage to do before - to raise almost one hundred million dollars for a completely unprofitable business? Business owners and marketers have something to think about in this story. In the meantime, you decide whether to include the cost of competent video marketing in your budgets or not, we suggest you read the translation of the article by Emily Alford, made by hardened dousing translators from Alconost .
The Ice Bucket Challenge campaign kicked off in Boston in honor of 29-year-old Pete Frates, a former baseball team captain at Boston College who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's disease) two years ago. The rules are simple: if the challenge is thrown, the participants have a choice: either pour in ice water from a bucket, or donate $ 100 to the charity of the ALS Foundation.
President Obama has chosen the latter: however, most participants do both. And the results of this popular viral campaign are amazing. According to the ALS Association fund, from the participants of the Ice Bucket Challenge and those who simply enjoyed watching the video, donations of $ 94.3 million were received between July 29 and August 27. This is significantly more than the $ 2.7 million that were donated to the fund over the same period. last year.
Although the Ice Bucket Challenge was definitely beneficial for the ALS Association, the campaign was not launched by the fund: the action was carried out by the participants themselves. However, from the hottest campaign of this summer, social media market participants and those who are interested in raising funds can learn a valuable lesson in “public marketing”.
According to Gene Lewis, partner and creative director of Digital Pulp, the secret to the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge campaign is that such a challenge is almost impossible to ignore.
“Like so many other things - simple, interesting, and successful, the Ice Bucket Challenge is now taken for granted. Why haven’t we thought of this before? ”He says. “This campaign has everything to be viral: it’s fun and funny, personal and with a wide reach. It is for both children and adults; They share it extremely intensively on social networks, but the main thing is that it encourages, and not only in words. You are being challenged before the eyes of the whole world! This is not just a status update that they will not remember soon: it is a personal challenge that cannot be ignored. ”
Bob Cargill, director of social media at Overdrive Interactive, believes another important reason for the success of the campaign is its social nature. “In the era of selfie, more people than ever are happy to show their support for a common cause or brand commitment, especially if they gain something in the process. That's what the success of this campaign can teach social media market participants and those interested in fundraising , ”he says. In this case, the participants gain what they themselves become part of the event, namely - "personal satisfaction that brings any philanthropic act, and public approval received from friends . "
And finally, a key aspect of the popularity of the campaign is its conciseness, explains Rob Moritz, editor-in-chief of social media at Innocean USA: “From the point of view of social media communication management (SMM), the main thing here is that the action itself and viewing take a few seconds. This short entertaining content is as easy to replicate as it is to share . ”
Of course, the viral success of the Ice Bucket Challenge was completely unforeseen. SMM specialists should definitely note the psychology of this success, but you should be careful to create content for viral purposes. Indeed, often expectations turn into a negative reaction of the audience. A more reliable solution is to focus on the consistent production of quality brand-related content. And in this we at Alconost are ready to help you!
About the translator
Translation of the article was done in Alconost.
Alconost localizes applications, games and sites in 60 languages. Native-language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, project managers 24/7, any format of string resources.
We also make advertising and training videos - for sites that sell, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliner, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.
Read more: https://alconost.com