Save the Children's #HelpIsComing

Save the Children's #HelpIsComing...

At the time of this campaign (2014) there was 19.5 million refugees around the world and half of them are children. Save the Children decided to raise awareness and try to raise money for the cause by releasing their 'Most Shocking second a day' video. The video featured a little girl celebrating her birthday in the opening shot and finishes with her celebrating another birthday a year later after the effects of the Syrian Civil War. However its the inbetween that is the important part. It showed to affect and ruin that the Syrian civil War had on its many children and families that have suffered, and how quickly their lives were turned upside down.

Birthday at the opening scene: 

 

 

Birthday at the finishing scene:

#HelpisComing was one of the most powerful social media campaigns of 2014. The video launched in the wake of the 3rd anniversary of the Syrian Civil War and really played on peoples emotions. If humanised the situation and let the audience see that this is happening to familys, little boys, little girls just like us all around the world and we all need to do our bit to help. 

The Campaign was so successful it has managed to reach over 55,000,000 views worldwide.. and counting. Save the Children pulled off this campaign so well because they successfully were able to get the audience to relate to the problem and realise how important it is. The video allowed for the audience to empathize at a deeper level with the little girl. 

Bibliography

David, E. (2015) Top 10 influential Social Media Campaigns of 2015. Available at: http://www.adherecreative.com/blog/top-10-influential-social-media-campaigns-of-2015 [Accessed 30 November 2016]

Save the Children. (2016) Help is Coming. Available at: http://helpiscoming.org/ [Accessed 30 November 2016]

 

Lowes #FixInSix

Lowes #FixInSix...

Lowe's Comapanies, Inc. is an American company, founded in 1946 which operates a chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Lowe's has 1,840 stores throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Lowe's created an ongoing social media campaign called #LowesFixInSix. The campaign is basically an idea that Lowes will post clever home improvement tips on social media for their followers to get ideas from, all done in short 6 second videos. This makes the information short and sweet and will result in more people giving the videos attention as it does not take up too much time, little time to get bored of what your watching. 

The videos use stop-motion and clay-like animation to demonstrate the tips ranging from many many different ideas. The videos are a great idea because they really do give customers useful tricks to use in the home and will keep customers following Lowe's if they like the #FixInSix videos.

Here are some examples of #LowesFixInSix... 

 

Use Coffee Filters to keep soil where it belongs - In your flowerpots.

Wrap Christmas lights around gift wrapping tubes for easy storage, in an attic far away.

 

Bibliography

Gallegos, J. (2016) The best social media campaigns of 2016 (So Far). Available at: http://www.tintup.com/blog/the-best-social-media-campaigns-of-2016-so-far/ [Accessed 29 November 2016]

Lowe's. (2016) Lowe's. Available at: https://www.lowes.com/ [Accessed 29 November 2016]

  

Always #LikeAGirl

Always #LikeAGirl...

 

The #LikeAGirl social media campaign carried out by Always was one of the top 10 YouTube ads of 2014. The objectives of this ad and campaign was to confront gender norms and raise awareness by using the term 'like a girl'. Always asked a group of people (male and female) to demonstrate what they thought it was like to run/fight/throw 'like a girl' and all made a comedy attempt at the task, showing that the phrase 'like a girl' is used in a negative manner meaning that 'a girl' cannot perform as well as anyone else. 

However, when they asked a group of young girls to run/fight/throw 'like a girl', they all gave it their best effort showing that they did not thing of 'like a girl' as a stigma for someone who does not perform the best. The video/ad was to raise awareness on the harm these sayings can have on a growing girls self esteem and sense of accomplishment and using 'like a girl' as an insult is incorrect and has side effects.

Even during a World Cup Year when most ads were dominated by high profile athletes, Always ad managed to generate 53 million views. The add generated a lot of audience feedback and support as it went viral all over social media, especially Facebook. The Facebook Award winning campaign managed to achieve their goals and increase emotional connection with their audience, raise awareness and boost their sales in the process.

The #LikeAGirl video has since become the most watched video in Procter & Gamble history with 76 million views.

Bibliography

Viddyad. (2016) The top 5 Social media campaigns of all time. Available at: http://www.viddyad.com/the-top-5-social-media-campaigns-of-all-time/ [Accessed 29 November 2016] 

Sales force. (2014) The 30 Most Brilliant Social media campaigns of the last half of 2014. Available at: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/12/the-30-most-brilliant-social-media-campaigns-of-the-last-half-of-2014-152015.html [Accessed 29 November 2016] 

World Wildlife Fund #LastSelfie

World WildLife Fund #LastSelfie...

When Snapchat was first becoming a huge social platform the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) saw an opportunity and decided to take it. In 2014, WWF set up the '#LastSelfie' campaign. The objectives of this campaign was to use snapchats timed messages to highlight the importance of saving the worlds endangered species for time runs out. WWF Snapchat accounts became an active awareness & donation channel for the social medium. WWF would sent out selfies of endangered animals with different catch phrases on them showing the growing threat of extinction such as...

- Don't let this be my #LastSelfie

- In ... seconds ill be gone forever, but you can still save my kind #LastSelfie

- Better take a screenshot this could be my #LastSelfie

Before the picture would disappear it would end by asking for help by sharing, adopting an animal or donating through SMS.

The campaign was a major success with just after one week generating 40,000 tweets hitting 120 million twitter timelines, this meant that 50% off all active twitter users were exposed to the campaign. #LastSelfie raised extreme global awareness about the problem and within only 3 days they managed to reach their donation target for the entire month.

Bibliography

Viddyad. (2016) The top 5 social media campaigns of all time. Available at: http://www.viddyad.com/the-top-5-social-media-campaigns-of-all-time/ [Accessed 28 November 2016]

World Wildlife Fund. (2016) World Wildlife Fund. Available at: http://www.justforthis.com/ [Accessed 28 November 2016]

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge...

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Disease (ALS) is a disorder that affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. According to population studies in the U.S, a little over 6,000 people are diagnosed each year, which is 15 new cases a day! Although the disease is variable, the average life span is 2 to 5 years from the time of diagnosis. ALS is an extremely progressive disease and will eventually take away a persons ability to walk, dress, write, speak, swallow, breathe and live. 

In the Summer of 2014, ALS Association ran one of the most engaging social media campaigns of its time, the 'Ice Bucket Challenge'. The campaign required you to record yourself getting a bucket of ice cold water thrown over your head in order to raise awareness for those suffering with ALS. After you have taken part in the challenge you must nominate your friends to do the same, passing on the challenge and spreading awareness and donating to the cause. The campaign generated 70 biliion views and raised $220 million dollars for the ALS Association.

The campaign was so popular that many many celebrities also got involved. Doing their bit to donate to the cause and spread awareness to their fans. Some of the most famous celebrities in the world competed in the challenge, just fuelling its success and social media power within the world such as, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates and Martha Stewart.

The ALS Association spent no money on promoting this campaign, because it was a good idea it sold itself. People were very eager to get involved and do their bit for a good cause because it involved fun, community and charity. ALS Association was awarded the Facebook for Good award in the Facebook Awards for the success of the campaign.

During the campaign, ALS responded to the masses of support and donations around the world with an update of how the money was being used towards helping the cause. As you can see in the image below, the majority of the earnings went towards research of the disease and hopefully one day finding a cure or a way to help those suffering.

Overall, The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was an amazing success and got the world involved together to raise awareness for something important. The fact that the campaign cost nothing to run and still turned over a major profit means that if social media is continued to be used appropriately for all media and public relations campaigns, good results can be made and objectives can be met.

Bibliography

Viddyad. (2016) The top 5 social media campaigns of all time. Available at: http://www.viddyad.com/the-top-5-social-media-campaigns-of-all-time/ [Accessed 28 November 2016]

Holen, M. (2014) Ice bucket challenge has raised $22million worldwide. Available at: http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2014/12/12/ice-bucket-challenge-has-raised-220-million.html [Accessed 28 November 2016]

Stampler, L. (2014) Here are the 27 best celebrity ALS Ice bucket challenge videos. Available at: http://time.com/3111965/here-are-the-27-best-celebrity-ice-bucket-challenge-videos/ [Accessed 28 November 2016]

ALS Association. (2016) ALS Association. Available at: http://www.alsa.org/about-als/facts-you-should-know.html?referrer=https://www.google.ie/ [Accessed 28 November 2016]

12,000 Mini Miracles - WestJet

12,000 Mini Miracles...

On December 9th 2015, West Jet ran a campaign called '12,000 Mini Miracles' in order to motivate all 12,000 of their employees to carry out, record and submit 12,000 mini miracles to social media channels throughout the course of 24 hours. These mini miracles, or random acts of kindness varied from many different gifts of all different shapes and sizes such as, flights to reunite families for the holidays, handing out free TV's, handing out winter gear and cookies at Calgary homeless shelter. 

West Jet's holiday cheer campaign was extremely successful worldwide. It was mentioned in 400 media outlets in 214 countries with over 2 billion media impressions. In 2016, West Jet won the Shorty Award for best use of social media.

The whole campaign was a raging success because it used social media to bring people together and show that West Jet, as an organisation care about their customers and want to give back. It develops a humble relationship between the company and clients as they appreciate all the good publicity the campaign has created. Throughout the hard work of the actual campaign, West Jet employees still found the time to have fun and holiday cheer when an impromptu snowball fight broke out at Grouse Mountain, Vancouver. 

12,000 Mini miracles is an excellent idea for a social media campaign because as well as spreading holiday cheer and making people happy, the campaign also got the company noticed. The extraordinary scale of the campaign, got West Jet mentioned in 214 countries in a positive light, this is great value from a public relations perspective and for their original campaign objectives. 

Bibliography

Gallegos, J. (2016) The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2016 (So Far). Available at: http://www.tintup.com/blog/the-best-social-media-campaigns-of-2016-so-far/ [Accessed 23 November 2016]

WestJet. (2016) WestJet. Available at: https://blog.westjet.com/christmas-miracle/ [Accessed 28 November 2016]

Ferreras, J. (2015) WestJet Christmas video sees Airline perform 12,000 'Mini miracles'". Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/12/16/westjet-christmas-video-mini-miracles_n_8821008.html [Accessed 28 November 2016]

#RedCupContest - Starbucks

#RedCupContest...

From November 6th to November 10th 2015 Starbucks ran a festive Social Media Campaign called the #RedCupContest. The #Red Cup Contest" consists of two simple steps, first you upload your most beautiful or creative image of your Starbucks red cup with the caption '#redcupcontest' and second, check back on the website on the results day for your chance to be one of five that will win the grand cash prize of $500. 

The #RedCupContest was a major success, generating over 40,000 entries. The objective behind this campaign is to raise customer engagement with Starbucks, make purchasing from the store fun and satisfying so you want to return. Not only did the #RedCupContest persuade over 40,000 people to buy a red cup and compete, but it also got these customers engaging and enjoying their time with the organisation, which is extremely valuable to most public relations objectives. 

The #RedCupContest is an example of a clever and fun way to engage with your audience/customers while sending your message or selling a product. The campaign gave customers a reason to chose Starbucks over other competing branches. The use of the # on social media gives these ideas to gain group interest and go viral. The message can spread extremely quickly if the right social media tools are implemented.

Bibliography

Young, H. (2015) The 30 Most Brilliant Social Media Campaigns of 2015. Available at: https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2015/12/2015-most-brilliant-social-media-campaigns.html [Accessed 23 November 2015]

Gallegos, J. (2016) The Best Social Media Campaigns of 2016 (So Far). Available at: http://www.tintup.com/blog/the-best-social-media-campaigns-of-2016-so-far/ [Accessed 23 November 2016]

Starbucks. (2016) Starbucks. Available at: https://www.starbucks.co.uk/ [Accessed 23 November 2016]