From the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge of summer 2014, comes 5 powerful social media marketing lessons for anyone planning a marketing campaign in 2015
For those of you who may have missed it this summer, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge saw celebrities – from Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg - and individuals pouring buckets of ice over their heads for the sake of the ALS charity and then nominating others via social media to take up the challenge.
Facebook analysed how the Challenge went viral and calculated that between June 1 and August 17, over 28 million people joined the conversation and 2.4 million videos were shared on the social networking site alone related to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Within a matter of days, the phenomenon had gone global, with challenges witnessed in many other countries.
A Textbook Case
The campaign was intended to raise awareness of Amyothrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is otherwise known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease” – a little-known disease that causes the deterioration of nerve cells, leading to paralysis and death.
'Little-known', that is, until now - marketing textbooks are probably currently being written, or even re-written, with the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge as a case study in the successful use of cause-related social media marketing campaign, but why has it been so successful and what can we learn from it?
"Emotion, challenge and social currency"
Wharton University's Professor of Marketing, Jonah Berger, has suggested that,
[w]ith its combination of emotion, challenge and social currency, the campaign has become something of a marketing phenomenon.”
Berger is an expert on social media and he has written extensively on why things go viral and the effects of word-of-mouth - he also described the Challenge as a form of social contagion,
[p]eople don’t want to be left out. Anytime you’re at a cocktail party and someone is talking about something, whether it’s a brand or a new band, … you don’t want to be the only person in the group who has no idea what they’re talking about.”
This taps into a basic human emotion and need for belonging. It also succeeded because it represented a worthy cause, so there is little that people can object to in terms of its message and call to action.
5 Social Media Marketing Lessons from the Ice Bucket Challenge
What are the five lessons that we can take from the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge?
#1: Timing
It came during the summer months, meaning that people had time to participate and lighter evenings enabled them to take part, whereas the nature of the challenge would have precluded participation during the cold winter months. Thus the planning and execution of the campaign was vital to ensure that the timetable allowed it to spread virally from early spring into summer.
#2: Simple
There was no requirement for complicated equipment, instead it could be attempted by nothing more than someone with a bucket, some cold water, and a smartphone and friend in order to record the event for posting on social media.
#3: Social
It passed amongst friends and relatives in a genuinely word-of-mouth style, precisely because it was so personal. We associated with the people doing it and we also connected with their often personal reasons for doing it, both serious and frivolous - this is the 'social currency' that Berger is talking about.
#4: Celebrity
The Challenge has also passed amongst a number of high-profile celebrities, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates, and this always helps to give a social media campaign velocity, particularly when they start spreading the challenge socially themselves, as was the case here.
#5: Challenge
It also tapped into the desire to have credibility in the eyes of your peers, but also the need to avoid shame, if you were not seen to take up the baton and take part when you had been nominated. People embraced the sense of challenge inherent in it.
Will Trevor is the Founder and Training Consultant at Windsor Training. Please click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Will in the future. Feel free to also connect via his Linkedin page, or via Twitter andFacebook or email: will.trevor@windsortraining.net
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Picture Credits: (1) https://flic.kr/p/2cxjDq The Sights of Summer... by Karen Brazier; (2) https://flic.kr/p/oaPqux Dear Liza (RE: My Bucket) by Dave Lawler; (3)https://flic.kr/p/2cxjDq Social by JD Hancock; (4) https://flic.kr/p/aAYpoP Mark Zuckerberg by Wired Photostream; (5) https://flic.kr/p/oZp6pZ Veronica's Ice Bucket Challenge by Kyle Nishioka
