Lesson 8: Public Relations Campaign Analysis

ALS bucket challenge, the original intent was the spread awareness about the neurological disease ALS. Their goal was to raise money for disease research by targeting people in their 20's on a "friend-to-friend basis". However, other stakeholders including influencers and celebrities started to identify with the challenge. Such influencers who prompted the charity included; Micheal (Vsauce), Felix Kjellberg (Pewdiepie) and etc.

Although it generated large amounts of awareness, the campaign's success has been undermined by the number of donations - relative to exposure. Either way, the $115 million dollars raised helped advance research. Overall, they were successful at achieving both awareness and financial objectives.

Met by sceptics, some argued that the campaign was trivialised/undermines the disease. Not to mention there were ethical concerns about stem cell research and animal testing that was funded by the donations.

Commenced in 2014, the ALS ice bucket involved simulating the disease experience. The strategy was to sensationalise the challenge – in order to become viral.

The process involved posting yourself doing the ice bucket challenge on social media and share it with your friend. If they do not participate in the challenge, they are obligated to donate to the charity.

In 2016, the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, a stakeholder, posted himself doing the challenge before nominating a colleague. A year later in 2017, influencers and celebrities promoted the campaign in South Korea. The funds raised were used to build an ALS hospital in Seoul.

Since then, the ice bucket challenge has been returning on an annual basis, but business activity has diminished.

Cold and unpleasant. When poured over one's head, the sudden shock of cold limits the person's dexterity, similar to ALS.

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Movember, an Australian startup PR campaign, aims to address men's health through the process of growing facial hair. Similar to Ice bucket campaign, their goal was to raise funds through selling facial hair related merchandise. Originally, their target audience was Australian men, but as the campaign developed, men's health organisations and American facial hair unions became involved.

Beginning in 2003, in 2007, Today Tonight accused the organisation of financial accountability and transparency issues including high startup costs and cooperate salaries.

As you can imagine, this was a PR nightmare.

Being a non-profit social enterprise, Today Tonight's accusation damaged Movember's public image and credibility - which resulted in the loss of patrons.

The main concern was the organisation's high runnings costs and high CEO wages. Movember's PR team failed to respond rapidly to the crisis. As a result, publications soon started reporting on the incident, following public outcry.

As PR practitioners, in any crisis scenario, it is important to respond quickly and truthfully before the tinder ignites into an uncontrollable blaze. However, despite publicly releasing financial book records, external pressure further obligated Movember to reduce more running costs.

In 2010, Movember merged with Tacheback, a UK charity event hosting business that aligns with similar interests in men's health.

What this demonstrates is PR's ability to shape perceptions, persuade and reposition their image. For the case of Movember, their campaign failed to establish themselves as a trustworthy business, and add value to the brand - which led to their downfall. On the other hand, Movember succeeded in gaining international recognition and initial financial backers.

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Vance, Johnny, 2016, Social Media and PR: Insights from the Ice Bucket Challenge on Creating Lasting Impact, Meltwater, 2 August 2016, Accessed 5 December 2019, <https://www.meltwater.com/blog/social-media-and-pr-insights-from-the-ice-bucket-challenge-on-creating-lasting-impact/>

Baker, Rosie, 2012, Movember message being lost on social media, MarketingWeek, 30 November 2012, Accessed 5 December 2019, <https://www.marketingweek.com/movember-message-being-lost-on-social-media/>