It’s been quite a while since my last article. But as I have more time, I am taking it to share with you a great campaign I’ve found. It’s a campaign made by WWF Brazil!
I like the idea of this campaign: be part of a team.

The winning combo could be:  the fun with WWF’s logo on animals’ fur and the fact that putting a shirt made you part of a team. Moreover, it is quite a special thing that those animals invite you to be part of their team. It makes you quite unique! Note in passing that it was quite a good timing with the Olympics games

They succeeded to use one of their asset: great photos and to transform those animals in team ambassadors! Nicely done!

I just found an interesting way of distribution to promote a blood donation campaign: torrents! It’s the first one I see using this kind of technology. The smart aspect of the campaign is the approach of finding functioning similarities between web technologies and real life needs like blood donation. It is the concept of « sharing what you have, as yourself may one day need help ».

Of course the campaign is not only based on a short film announced in the main review site and available to download free of charge, its combined with a micro site, trailers and social promotion.

Torrent Your Blood from SmartNewSolutions on Vimeo.

Source: DigitalBuzz Blog

Today I want to share with you  this interesting video from TEDxRC2. It’s about the power of mobile devices to coordinate, inform, and guide relief efforts in Haiti’s earthquake. Paul Conneally (public communications manager for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies) shows great examples of social media and other new technologies becoming central to humanitarian aid.

Source: Tedx Talks

Monday I had the occasion to meet Vision du Monde France (World Vision France). From today March 1st to Thursday 8th of March  – International Women’s Day – the NGO will put women forward during an International Women’s Week!

Contents:
- A week to help today’s girls become tomorrow’s women
- Facebook vs institutional website in an event’s communication campaign

A week to help today’s girls become tomorrow’s women

During this week you’ll  find on their facebook page differents girls’ portraits, interviews from godparents and former children who had the chance to be sponsored, articles concerning women and their roles in the world, etc. The idea is to share with people and help them understand the interest of becoming a godparent for those girls and their futur!

Facebook vs institutional website in an event’s communication campaign

First of all, I like the fact that the NGO chose an event like the International Women’s Day to create a concept on such a strong base. It’s true that it’s not new, but in this case that’s smart and well adapt to their missions.

The NGO chose to launch its campaign on facebook, considering that it was the best spot. The question is why. As they truly said, institutional websites are associations’ « showcase » and for big ones, like World Vision, there are codes, editorial guidelines that can’t be rearranged for an event.
In this case, Facebook seems to be a good place to launch a campaign like this one, which targeted people at large. It allows a friendly tone and the freedom for the girly spirit that the organisation wish for the campaign.

So the use of facebook and tabs is a good way to adapt and reinvent the editorial guideline to the subject of an event or the public targeted. An editorial guideline for the facebook page has to be defined at the beginning and take into consideration those elements. It’s a great place to be closer to the public while respecting the association’s identity.

Hi guys, I am creating a new category special events!
I am going to share with you some notes and feedback form events, workshops or other I’ll intend. And what a  better way to inaugurate it than the social media week

So last week I was at the conference named “Networked Nonprofit” – How social web transform humanitarian action?

We can observe that engagement has changed, people take initiatives on the internet through facebook fan pages or comments for examples. Organizations decided to deal and interact with them in adapting their communication strategies and tools. Advices and examples below

Contents:

- Speakers
- New volunteers engagement and Internet – Introduction by Edouard Jacquet
- Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter (interviewed by Frédéric Bardeau) – Video
- Facebook heart of the system by Yves Colin – Fondation Abbé Pierre
- Social networks allow a humanization of organizations by Sabrina Haddadi – Chaine de l’espoir
- Stronghold and social networks a complex relation by Kevin Clech  – French Red Cross
- Web strategy adapted to their public by Jonathan Debauve –CPCA
- Extra – Social Medias, lobbying and press relations

Speakers

- Kevin Clech, Croix-Rouge Française : www.croix-rouge.fr / @kclech
- Sabrina Haddadi, La Chaine de l’Espoir : www.chainedelespoir.org
- Beth Kanter (Skype Interview), Auteur of « Networked Nonprofit » : www.bethkanter.org / @Kanter
- Frédéric Bardeau, Agence LIMITE : agence-limite.fr /@fbardeau
- Yves Colin, Fondation Abbé-Pierre : www.fondation-abbe-pierre.fr / @Yves78
- Jonathan Debauve, Conférence Permanente des Coordinations Associatives (CPCA) : cpca.asso.fr, www.depuis1901.fr / @jdebauve
- Edouard Jacquet, Gullibear : www.gullibear.com / @jcktt

New volunteers engagement and Internet – Introduction by Edouard Jacquet

At the end of the 1990s there were some interrogations concerning militancy. There is no end at it. They are still there, probably because people put their faith in the associative sector, knowing that it’s an actor of change more than politics.

The engagement nature has change, it is more occasional and internet is a good way to handle it.

It’s more interesting to base the communication on militants who can spread the word than spread ourselves too thin. It also affects how associations communicate from a centralized way (a message to determine interlocutors) to a decentralized way. It’s true that they don’t control the message, but it can reach more people.

The first contact with an association is essential; the public has to know how they can help.

Moreover a lot of volunteers take initiatives on the web like fan pages or Facebook groups. So the question is how organizations can manage and interact with them?

Networked Nonprofit by Beth Kanter (interviewed by Frédéric Bardeau)

Interview de Beth Kanter sur les « Networked… par agence_limite

The 1990s seems to be an important time for nonprofit organizations. For Beth Kanter it was the moment when NGO decided to invest the web through emails. Those NGOs are more inclined to evolve with technologies.

There are two types of organizations, those created with internet and strongholds more traditional, very structured where you need 6 months to create a press release or where it’s quite difficult to create changes for examples. Activist organizations are more adaptable and able to evolve because they’re originally networked. On the other side, area like health care can’t adapt easily due to confidentiality.

For Beth Kanter, organizations need to evolve slowly through 4 baby steps: « Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly ».
If they have fears or concerned about internet, web evolutions, etc. NGO need to think about it because « You have to be before you do ».
Simplicity is the key word!

The organization’s communication strategy requires concrete objectives and to use different channels. The important point is that social medias has to be integrated in the communication strategy!

Concerning engagement, people are not convinced at the first place and at the same time. So the communication strategy needs to include several steps to convince (interpellations, discussions, etc.). However, « supporters base » is an important element in communication and fundraising strategies, with the good training they are awesome fundraisers and spokespersons.

Facebook heart of the system by Yves Colin – Fondation Abbé Pierre

This year, Fondation Abbé Pierre celebrated its 20th anniversary! The foundation is acting for accommodation through public interpellations, feed with its actions in the field.

Its communication strategy is to assume the founder identity with rants in interpellatif ways and militant guerrilla.

For the campaign « mobilisation générale pour le logement » the strategy was built on a two year period through four steps:

1 / carton rouge – Nov 2010 – Juill 2011
2/ A webdoc wich recieved several prices like « Prix Europa 2011 » and « Grand Prix Communication & Entreprise 2011 » – « A l’abri de rien »
+ 100 000 views and approximately 20 minutes spent each time
3/ launching of the civilian mobilization call for accommodations
Objectif 400 000 signatures
4/ 1st February 2012 – accommodation day
Presentation of the official report
Propose to sign a social contract for accommodation engagements
Hope – presidential candidates will sign it

Impact on social networks
- Facebook: strong evolution of the militant base
sept.2011 to feb.2012: +8000 to +180 000
- Twitter: important evolution, but needs to be stabilize – direct tool
sept.2011 to feb.2012: +2000 to +11 000

They observed that the activity augmented when there was an event. So social networks are the guiding lights and support to the campaign. However, events, people and press relations stay central!»

Social networks allow a humanization of organizations by Sabrina Haddadi – Chaine de l’espoir

Chaine de l’espoir is an organization which works for children through education and surgery with children send in France for surgery, field missions, training and equipment.

Storytelling is the base of the communication strategy. The objective is raising funds. They socialize their website through share buttons and kids’ stories.

The interesting point is how people naturally socialise the organisation through social media:
- Surgeons in the field share stories and exchange with their former patients through their personal accounts.
- After a documentary about two children travelling to another state for a surgery, one unfortunately died. Immediately people went on the facebook page to support the team and families. The surgeon responded to comments with its personal account.
- Foster families can create a blog from the Chaine de l’espoir website to share their stories.

The digital strategy speaks to all people who communicate naturally. So the organization capitalized on their community natural communication to humanize its brand.

Stronghold and social networks a complex relation by Kevin Clech  – French Red Cross

The French Red Cross will celebrate its 150 anniversary in 2014! That is quite an old lady! The central principle is neutrality, which is quite delicate with social medias.

The main difficulty for the web part is that everyone knows the Red-Cross, but no one really knows it. There are several missions in France and the International Field. This diversity is quite difficult to manage and to keep people interested because they are more interested in areas like international actions or « maraude ».

The organization started on social networks with specific campaigns, but didn’t do anything with it after the end. The changes are happening, but they are slow, it takes time for this type of organization.
The activity peak is more important during disasters

Moreover they have 17000 people working for the organization in France, 50 000 volunteers who are taking possession of the web. They count on professionals and citizen actor to communicate.

Web strategy adapted to their public by Jonathan Debauve –CPCA

The organization represents associations in France, but found some difficulties to communicate with them. Moreover, little associations don’t have tools to preach for their cause.

So CPCA decided to divide their communication in creating two websites: one more institutional for associations’ directors and another for the public.

The website for the public they started with social medias and then created the website.

Extra – Social Medias, lobbying and press relations

Organizations don’t use social medias for lobbying or interacting with politics. It’s a « private process » through networks, one to one exchanges.

However, you can’t have an influence on politics if you aren’t recognized and sustain by the public. So social media can be a tool to build influence, but it’s not a direct lobbying tool. Besides, you need to be someone to influence directly a political man like the director of Human Rights Watch when he called out Alain Jupé before his trip to Birmany.

Concerning press relations, Twitter is a good place to exchange with the new generation of journalists, like those specialized in the nonprofit sector as Youphil. It’s more an exchange, which takes time to create a link and there is no direct impact. You have to be patient.
You can follow the event on twitter with #SMWnetworkedNPO and #networkedNPO

Here is a short article to share with you a new anti-drug campaign created by McCann Digital which uses the new facebook timeline: Adam Barak’s profile.

It is simple but they succeeded to use the update of a « common » tool and invent a campaign and world around. The opposition between two lives and choices is relevant, visuals are efficient and even if some may say that it is quite caricatural, the effect is there. So for me it’s a good idea!

Source: adverblog

Deforestation is an interesting topic to study in communication. Those two print campaigns highlight the fact that cutting a tree kills several species living in it. However they treat death and responsibility quite differently.
Simplicity is not the main ingredient to create a campaign with a real impact. It has to be combined, in this case, with public « integration », subtlety and several possible interpretation degrees, but not too much

Greenpeace played on origami art. The use of it with a bird’s skeleton may sense classical due to the fact that there is no real hidden meaning. But this choice is quite smart because of the use of one of the cause of deforestation: paper linked to origami which is an art. So the connection is clever but quite fast to make for the public between the paper, the skeleton and the deforestation. Moreover the public stays passive and it doesn’t really create an emotion. So this print is a good  to expose a fact/an information.

The Contemporary Art Museum and the Botanical Garden, Inhotim, chose a more symbolism path which may create more impact on the public. This campaign is based on a simple system: black and white figures. The interest is based on the symbolism provoked by two elements and common references that we all have; black shadows (animals) with white circles (growth rings) on top means targets. You may say that I am usually fan of simplicity but in communications that’s what’s difficult to reach. The message is easy to get: in cutting trees you also kill all animals living there but it may also allow a larger interpretation… By putting the public in the shooter position it can increase the degree of emotional impact and in a way a choice to make: encourage deforestation through paper or exotic wood items for exemple and shoot OR take a stand and be responsible in our purchases and don’t pull the trigger.

Here is a street marketing campaign combining art and environment. The aim is to make people face a simple reality and realize that this is what is going to happen if they don’t take action and vote (in this case) for compulsory recycling to curb water pollution.
To place a giant drinking straw in waterways, streams and rivers may be simple but sometimes simplicity is just what we need.

The Global Environment Center created the Arts and Earth Festival which point up this combination to make people question their habits or at least their environment. It may be quite « chocking » for people in the way that it is disgusting to think of drinking this water or may be too much in terms of communication. However they anticipated this kind of reaction with the board saying « Far Fetched? Remember what came out from your taps in January 2006″. Even if this campaign is from 2006, you may easily think – at first – that it was created few months ago. Maybe because the simplicity of the straw and the message make it timeless and adaptable to various environments and locations.

Is it a key for a sustainable street marketing? Or all the interest of street marketing is to be short-lived to have more impact?

Source: adsoftheworld.com

Greenpeace has created a new viral campaign transforming Volkswagen’s successful Darth Vader campaign. The aim of Greenpeace’s campaign is to denounce that the auto constructor is opposed to two environmental laws put forward by the European Union including lobbying for slower greenhouse gas reductions, less efficient cars and intending to be “the most eco-friendly automaker in the world”, but only 6% of the cars it sold in 2010 were its most efficient models*.

Episode I

Episode  II

The interesting part (and clever one) is the choice of one of the most successful 2011 car campaign. This video, presented for the first time during the Super Bowl in February 2011, was watched more than 40 million times on Youtube.

The use of the young Darth Vader was pertinent and created, for the most part, its success. However it was also a great inspiration for the agency, asking people to help to convince Darth Vader not to choose the Dark  Side through a campaign based on videos and a website.

So you can be part of this rebellion! As young padawans you can sign the Rebel manifesto, get access to the Jedi training program (through social medias and games) and exclusive news training. At the end you may win a collector tee-shirt Greenpeace/Volkswagen.
The use of Star Wars’ vocabulary, representations and stories creates a dynamic which encourage people to play and pass the message to progress in the game. We’ve watch Star Wars movies as spectators and they give us a chance to play a part in this environmental rebellion.

This type of game is uselly a good way to turn a campaign into viral like the for profit ones as the french campaign for AXE. Ok it’s a for profit campaign but if you have any examples of nonprofit ones, let me know

May the force be with you!

*Source : osocio, greenpeace

For the first time on my blog, I’m going to write in French, because I’ve a lot of things to say – just kidding So the subject is the annual national collect organized by the French Red Cross.

J’ai eu la chance hier matin d’être invitée à la présentation par la Croix Rouge Française de sa nouvelle campagne pour la quête nationale 2011 et de son nouveau dispositif Facebook (un peu de patience, je vous le dévoile un peu plus bas )

Petit rappel, nous avons eu depuis quelques temps l’habitude de voir les campagnes de cet événement Croix-Rouge portées par Adriana et Robert. Dans cette nouvelle campagne Adriana n’a pas disparu pour autant, pas de panique

Cette édition 2011 se veut plus sérieuse, avec un retour aux sources même de l’action de l’ONG. A travers son spot vidéo, elle nous rappelle ses domaines d’intervention avec la distribution des repas (50 millions chaque année), les secours aux personnes (76 000 par an) ou encore l’aide aux personnes dépendantes, aux enfants en dangers et aux individus en perte de lien social avec pour objectif la reconstruction de ce dernier. Elle agit également dans la formation des infirmières et plus connu par le grand public pour ses actions d’urgence et de développement au niveau international.
C’est donc un retour aux bases du secteur et des actions de la Croix-Rouge, qui se traduit parfaitement dans le slogan de cette nouvelle campagne « Sans don, pas d’action », car rien de tout ça n’est possible sans la générosité du public.

L’ONG a décidé d’utiliser tous les supports de communication pour faire passer son message : télévision, presse, web. En parlant de web, je vous ai annoncé un peu plus haut une innovation Facebook pour cette campagne… (roulement de tambours, pour l’effet)… la voici donc :

Cette nouvelle appli Facebook « Humanisons le web » est à la fois une quête en ligne et un jeu concours. Elle a pour principe de permettre au public de s’informer sur l’ONG mais également de visionner et partager les publicités d’autres délégations à travers le monde et des petits films de quelques minutes sur la réalité des actions de la Croix-Rouge Française. Il y a aussi la possibilité de gagner une initiation aux premiers secours avec Adriana (et oui Messieurs !) ou un séjour pour quatre personnes à Disney Land. Pour le concours, le but du jeu est simple : gagner un maximum de points en étant acteur de la diffusion du message de la Croix-Rouge sur Facebook grâce à différentes actions : installer le badge sur sa photo de profil, voter pour les vidéos et les partager, faire un don, et bien évidemment : inciter ses amis à rejoindre cette mobilisation en ligne.

Petit tour de cette appli :

Et comme on ne se fait de meilleure idée que par soi même, je vous invite à aller directement sur la page Facebook pour vous faire votre avis et me dire ce que vous en avez pensé

Selon moi, c’est une campagne ambitieuse mais qui met en avant ce qu’elle est, tout simplement. L’accroche de la vidéo est peut être moins importante que les années précédentes mais cela reste en corrélation avec l’objectif de cette campagne. J’aime également beaucoup cette idée d’humaniser le web en donnant la chance à cette communauté de devenir à son tour acteur et bénévole par ce canal de communication.