Post by zirpolorva on Oct 2, 2014 21:53:30 GMT -5
Malaria No More is a nonprofit organization that provides people in Africa with mosquito nets to combat the spread of Malaria. The group has a very active social media presence and their website (http://www.malarianomore.org/) prominently features a countdown timer reminding visitors that a child dies of malaria every minute and a single dollar donation can help them reset the clock. That kind of interactive imagery and slick web design speaks volumes, but their video campaign called Malarious Videos was incredibly well executed.
In 2012 Malaria No More partnered with CollegeHumor.com to create "Malarious videos." (http://www.malarianomore.org/news/press/collegehumor-and-malaria-no-more-team-up-for-malarious) The videos included celebrities such as Rainn Wilson of the Office and Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation doing ridiculous things that required very little time or effort to produce but fans enjoy watching. The campaign asked people to donate some amount of money, even as low as a dollar, to watch the exclusive series of videos. The campaign was a great dual fundraiser and awareness spreading tool because it could be shared on any platform and promoted itself as people talked about what happened in the videos.
I think one of the most unique things about this campaign is that the nonprofit organization partnered with a very for-profit entity and the result was still tasteful and successful. Malaria No More on their own might have a hard time assembling a star-studded lineup for the videos that really makes people want to donate, but by partnering with CollegeHumor.com they were able to access a wealth of talented and kind-hearted people willing to aid their cause. I think collaborations like this can often be overlooked due to the demanding nature of nonprofit work but cannot be ignored because of their potential to expand reach and actually lessen the workload on the nonprofit if properly organized.
I also think it is interesting that Malaria No More is able to use such aggressive and guilt-laden language and continue to succeed in their campaigns outside of the Malarious videos. I am always turned off personally by such evocative and personally-oriented wording, but I guess that is what some people need to get them over the decision and on to donating. Malarious videos are much more up my alley in terms of finding a way to create something that people want which is low-impact enough to allow the profit to go straight to those in need.
Other projects like this succeed more today because of crowd sourcing instead of relying on celebrities. Yes we all enjoyed seeing David Lynch do the ice bucket challenge, but some of the most creative videos came from average folks with goofy ideas. In that sense I hope to make our campaigns more crowd oriented but still think about ways to have people interact and get something out of their interaction that they can keep and continue talking about.
In 2012 Malaria No More partnered with CollegeHumor.com to create "Malarious videos." (http://www.malarianomore.org/news/press/collegehumor-and-malaria-no-more-team-up-for-malarious) The videos included celebrities such as Rainn Wilson of the Office and Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation doing ridiculous things that required very little time or effort to produce but fans enjoy watching. The campaign asked people to donate some amount of money, even as low as a dollar, to watch the exclusive series of videos. The campaign was a great dual fundraiser and awareness spreading tool because it could be shared on any platform and promoted itself as people talked about what happened in the videos.
I think one of the most unique things about this campaign is that the nonprofit organization partnered with a very for-profit entity and the result was still tasteful and successful. Malaria No More on their own might have a hard time assembling a star-studded lineup for the videos that really makes people want to donate, but by partnering with CollegeHumor.com they were able to access a wealth of talented and kind-hearted people willing to aid their cause. I think collaborations like this can often be overlooked due to the demanding nature of nonprofit work but cannot be ignored because of their potential to expand reach and actually lessen the workload on the nonprofit if properly organized.
I also think it is interesting that Malaria No More is able to use such aggressive and guilt-laden language and continue to succeed in their campaigns outside of the Malarious videos. I am always turned off personally by such evocative and personally-oriented wording, but I guess that is what some people need to get them over the decision and on to donating. Malarious videos are much more up my alley in terms of finding a way to create something that people want which is low-impact enough to allow the profit to go straight to those in need.
Other projects like this succeed more today because of crowd sourcing instead of relying on celebrities. Yes we all enjoyed seeing David Lynch do the ice bucket challenge, but some of the most creative videos came from average folks with goofy ideas. In that sense I hope to make our campaigns more crowd oriented but still think about ways to have people interact and get something out of their interaction that they can keep and continue talking about.
