Als Social Media Campaign

ALS Social Media Campaign

Lynekka Clark

Marketing in a Global Environment

Professor Samer Batarseh

JWMI 518

August 30,2015

Introduction

In this project, one looks at a successful social media campaign. The ALS ice bucket challenge is an example of a successful campaign that brought millions in donations and thousands of participants. Using the Dragonfly Effect, the campaign will be analyzed and then recommendations would be uncovered.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge was started by two people, former baseball player Pete Frates, and Pete Quinn from Yonkers, New York. Both are afflicted with ALS. ALS stands for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease (Friedman & Friedman, 2014). By July 2014, this marketing plan had gone viral. The challenge involved declining the act and paying $100 to charity for ALS or splashing ice water over one’s head and donating a lesser amount of $10.

The Effective Campaign

There are several reasons for this challenge to be highly effective. First it was initiated by someone of some fame. The initiators also lived in the North East of the US where there is a large population (Friedman & Friedman, 2014). The challenge allows one to feel connected to the larger community and be seen doing charity. One feels challenged by a task which is stated as difficult but is actually easy. All one needs is a smartphone and bucket of ice to do the challenge (Comcowich, 2014). The only tools needed are a bucket and ice. Hash tags are used to make the name more memorable.

When marketers seed a campaign like this, the audience’s reaction causes a viral marketing phenomenon. A person challenged will nominate three other people to perform the challenge before doing the feat (Comcowich, 2014). This becomes a chain link marketing and the challenge snowballed into a mass action.

As celebrities and noted persons are involved, this challenge has spread across the demographics. Summer...