You’ve heard of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, which went viral in June but have you heard of Aymotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) disease? ALS is a motor neuron disease that attacks the nerves in the spinal cord and brain.
ALS is the most common motor neurone disease, which often starts to show signs at the age of 60. There are an average of two deaths per 100,000 people each year in the UK alone and survival from onset of the disease is 3-4 years.
A pretty convincing case for support, which the Ice Bucket Challenge, that originated in the US, aimed to raise awareness and money for this disease, but how efficient has it been?
The craze caught on with 2.4 million videos related to the ‘IBC’ on Facebook this summer, and a further 28 million people joining the conversation (either in likes, comments or posts) between June 1st and September 30th. ‘Ice Bucket Challenge’ was in the news on average 78 times per day and trending by the end of August; there were more Google searches for this than for all of the searches for ‘Gaza’, ‘Ferguson’ or ‘Iraq’.
Perhaps it was a good antidote to the Malaysian airline tragedy, Ebola virus outbreak, the continued fight against ISIS, and not to mention the passing of Robin Williams and Joan Rivers! But has the feel good factor of taking part been helping charities? MNDA, the Motor Neurone Disease Association (the charity most strongly associated with ALS in the UK), has raised £7m from ice bucket donations, a sum worthy of a half seconds soaking on a warm summer’s day.
But in the context of other previous charity challenges, did ‘IBC’ actually deliver? The ‘no makeup selfie’ for CRUK raised over £8m in just 6 days and ‘Movember 2013’ raised a whopping £20.4m in just one month. Both of these suggest that the ‘IBC’ should have raised significantly more in four months of intensive activity with an estimated 20 million people taking part.
Number of people involved in Ice bucket challenge and Movember per country (‘000)
The craze is already beginning to freeze over!
How many of the IBC videos actually resulted in donations? The Charities Aid Foundation estimated of the 1 in 6 Britons that have taken part so far, only 1 in 10 have actually donated to a charity. This rings true, for the 20 million who took part, if each donated £1, the total raised would be nearer £20 million.
Thoroughly entertained, but the bottom line is that most of the videos didn’t result in giving to a good cause. And there have been environmental challenges about the amount of water used in the IBCs, particularly the one involving 40,000 litres from a dumper truck.
Overall, the IBC could have been more productive and we think:
1. Although substantial amounts were raised for ALS.org and MNDA, it is disproportionate to the number of people taking part
2. Clarity should have been given around the fundraising mechanic, as many people were confused about what to do
3. A simple branding device might well have helped the participants on either side of the challenge! Also, if the IBC had been a more successful fundraising magnet for ALS, a better-branded mechanic would have drawn less income from other charities, what William MacAskill, Vice President of Giving What We Can, calls ‘funding cannibalism’
4. The campaign has raised awareness for ‘ALS’, but not as much for Aymotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease – next time participants would benefit from a progress report and a brief summary of the actions taken as a result of their involvement
5. From an environmental point of view, the campaign mechanics could have involved Water Aid, who themselves raised considerable funds on the back of the challenge. Water Aid raised £47,000 in one day – which is 50% higher than it has ever received in a single day before). The should have been a good well thought through partnership, involving other charities as well as, perhaps a utility company.
There are more efficient and environmentally friendly ways to fundraise than the Ice Bucket Challenge; it is definitely fun to watch but may be more of a damp squib than the cool enterprise we first thought. A bit more careful thought at the beginning could have quadruple the income raised for Aymotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and made a real difference. Will IBC ii be back next Summer – we certainly hope so.
What makes the good, the bad and the ugly in the viral film
world – seemingly all of these attributes can bring you great success. We set
out here how you could increase the success factor with your own viral creative
– starting with a quick memory jolt of some of the landmark viral films that
pushed the boundaries and expectations.
Remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge back in 2014? Or ‘Fenton Jesus Christ’ in
Richmond Park, viewed a staggering 21 million times, the chuckle of the passer
by recording is still very funny… And then there’s ‘Charlie Bit My Finger –
again’ (viewed 870 million times). The ‘Charlie’ film helped launch Viral Spiral,
founded by Damian Collier, who tracked down Charlie’s mum and dad – who admit
to earning in excess of £100,000s from the video. So Charlie is still laughing
(and hopefully not biting). And we all remember the Cadbury’s Gorilla drumming
to Phil Collins’ I can feel it coming in the night, viewed just under a yummy 10
million.
Fig 1 Who can forget Fenton rampaging across Richmond, Park in 2011
Fig 2 Charlie bit my finger, again inspired a new approach to viral
The history of viral is as mesmerising and meandering as the
journey to going viral. In 1995 two men made a short film, it took ten years
later to launch with YouTube in 2005. Now 48 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube
every minute and for big brands, it is
big business. Brands are constantly trying to embrace trends; music and any
feel good factor that often comes with the phenomena of the ‘viral video’. The
video of South Korean based Gangnam Style in 2012 is the most watched viral
film of all time – viewed an eye popping one billion times in 5 months (and how
many phone ring downloads and horsey dancing copycats..?). Who doesn’t love PSY’s energy… which
contrasts nicely to Adele’s 2015 Hello, viewed to date 2.5 million times and of
course the Bond film music for Skyfall. It feels familiar and why does rain
work so well for sad..?
We set out to define what we mean by viral, looking at the very best (and worst) examples, to help
define what the formula for success is and whether they are any use (for
purpose based agendas or for sales?).
Companies use viral videos as a type of marketing strategy.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty is considered to have been one of the first
viral marketing strategies to hit the world when Dove released their Evolution
video in 2006; “you’re more beautiful than you think”, spreading across social
media, especially Facebook and Twitter. And of course this trend has spawned a
host of awards such as the Viral Video Awards in Berlin, which began in 2008 who
only accept films made for internet consumption and for viral distribution
(without any media backing). And there’s our first moot point, as many household
brands use seed money to get their viral films going. But as Dolce &
Gabbana found out in late 2018 going global isn’t always straightforward, with
their viral placed on various Chinese social media sites. It depicted a woman
in a luxurious D&G dress attempting to eat a pizza with chopsticks with an
announcement that apparently mocked Chinese speech. Although D&G removed
the ads from social media within 24 hours, the damage was done with calls of
racism.
Fig 3 Dove Real Beauty shows we are all more beautiful than we think
Jonah Berger, professor at The Wharton School, University of
Pennsylvania, and the author of Invisible Influence says of viral films; “Unfortunately
there is no hard and fast definition.
Further people often use viral to mean highly shared, but what it really
often means is popular. A video can get a million views because a brand paid to
have it placed on various sites. That’s
why I talk about how contagious something is, or how likely it is to be shared
given exposure.” Goldberg also makes an important point – many so-called viral
sensations are far from organic. They are “seeded” with millions of emails and
paid support such as digital ads. And don’t forget the dark side of social
media influence – likes, views and followers can be purchased”.
Salt Bae became famous in 2017 with his now infamous flick
of salt from the elbow, the video posting on Instagram gained 16 million views.
Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, aka Salt Bae’s video shows Nusret throwing salt flamboyantly
on pieces of meat, gaining 8,700 comments. But also, Nusret has become so
popular, his restaurants are booming worldwide, including his latest venture in
London. Not bad from one simple meme.
The 2013 Viral Video Award winner was ‘Follow the Frog’,
ushering in purpose based communication. It’s a great and amusing story about
the lengths an everyday guy is willing to go to make a difference, he could
have more easily made a difference by following the frog – the Rainforest
Alliance certification for food products, attracting 1,650 comments and a tasty
5.6 million views.
The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in the US went viral and inspired people in over
150 other countries to help do something good in 2014. It really took off when
Justin Timberlake and Justin Bieber took part, in support of slowing the horrible
disease – known as Motor Neurone Disease here.
Even Trump had a go, proving his hair was real and nominating President
Obama and two of his sons to the cold water bucket challenge.
Fig 4 Donald takes the ALS Ice Bucket challenge in 2014 and nominates sons and Obama
Fig 5 It would have been easier to follow the Frog in this epic viral for Rainforest Alliance from 2012
The Ice Bucket concept was to video yourself pouring an ice
bucket of water over yourself and tagging three friends on social media, who had
to respond within 24 hours in the same way and to donate to the ALS charity. Whether
it’s ‘slacktivisim’ or encouraging ‘clicktivists’ – which is about looking like
you are helping for free – this viral trend had 2.4 million videos posted
within months. With 17 million ice
bucket challenges viewed 440 million times, it helped raise $220m worldwide, creating
much joy for something that is no joy at all, in the disease.
MNDA, the Motor Neurone Disease Association (the charity
most strongly associated with ALS in the UK), has raised £7m from ice bucket
donations, a sum worthy of a half seconds soaking on a warm summer’s day.
But in the context of other previous charity challenges, did
‘IBC’ actually deliver? The ‘no makeup selfie’ for CRUK raised over £8m in just
6 days and ‘Movember 2013’ raised a whopping £20.4m in just one month. All of
these suggesting that although the ‘IBC’ could have raised significantly more
in four months of intensive activity with an estimated 20 million people taking
part, viral films are a great route to success for good causes.
More recently in 2018, Iceland’s ‘Say hello to Rang-tan
film’ was a great partnership and a timely focus on the issue of palm oil.
Using Greenpeace’s film narrated by Emma Thompson, this was the surprise most watched
Christmas ad ever online with 6 million views and 6,500 comments. The ad was
banned for broadcast for being too political, which helped drive interest in
the issue of deforestation and the effects on habitats and wildlife in the
production of palm oil. There was even a consumer petition to get the ad
‘unbanned’. To Iceland’s credit they
have since decided to remove palm oil from all their products.
Of course viral marketing is
inherently unpredictable. Nothing guarantees success more than “going viral” (and
even more difficult is to predict the reach it will have). Even a viral
marketing company by your side can not predict what will happen. There’s a bit
of luck, but it is fair to say, to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway, “you make your own luck”. If you
understand your audience, you can increase your chances of success with a few
tried and tested ‘knowns’. Factors for success
have been identified from viewing dozens of viral videos which could and should
increase your chances of being the next Fenton or Orang-utan, by considering
the following:
Keep it random,
sometimes tough to explain why they are any good. Perhaps more than anything,
it’s the unexpected nature, springing something surprising on us
A personal reflection – a different
quality is the ‘proximity’ to us, a unique take on something every day. We all
see rainbows but seeing a double rainbow in Yosemitebear Mountain, nobody sees
it like this guy! Though that special hook is notoriously difficult to predict
Participation
and inspiring creativity, people love to feel that they can copy the story
or join into the phenomena – it gives them a kind of power, like the ALS Ice
Bucket Challenge or the Harlem Shake, which seems to be particularly important
to the on-going success of any viral film, the story can shift from the
producer to the viewer in that respect. In other words, it’s very spoofable!
Funny and
touching – it would seem that most
successful virals are more often than not genuinely a bit of a laugh and can
also make us cry
Keep them
beautifully, simple and short – possibly no more than one minute. According
to scientists, in the age of smartphones humans have such a short attention
span, even a goldfish can hold a thought for longer* Now that sounds like a viral..!
Connectors
and fans early on are what can make the thing go stratospheric, bloggers,
taste makers latch on – look what happened when like Justin Bieber and Justin
Timberlake did the IBC?
Whether it’s clicks and shares or “slacktivism”, there’s no
doubting that in their moment, good virals are great fun and news worthy in themselves.
Capturing that moment is as tricky as finding the end of that rainbow. But if
you know your audience and do what seems authentic and true…the possibilities
are limitless. And the ugly nature of
ALS or Motor Neurone Disease, will according to reports, have the money raised spent
on helping identify a new gene associated with the ALS disease.
Giles Robertso, Lecturer in Digital Marketing, University of Bedfordshire, Director of Green Banana Marketing Ltdand a Marketing Society Fellow.
© Green Banana Marketing
