All About the Cause social media campaign highlights male suicide

Male suicide campaign by All About the Idea tunes into Social Media Week and digital platforms to raise awareness

Campaign name: All About the Cause
Brand: All About the Idea
Audience: All social media users, males (primary) aged 15-34, for which suicide is the top killer in UK and (secondary) their loved ones i.e. everyone else
Regions: UK
Duration: Phase one from 28/08/2013 to 11/10/2013; phase two from 11/10/2013 to 30/09/2014
Channels: Blogger outreach, PR, social media


Social Media Portal (SMP): name of the brand and the company it is for?

All about the Idea (AATI): All About the Idea

SMP: The official campaign name and why was it chosen?

AATI: All About the Cause.  In a time when social media is condemned for being home to bullies and fakes, how do you demonstrate that it can be used as a force for good? By making it All About the Cause. For Social Media Week London 2013, All About the Cause was launched to encourage people to share to make a difference.

We didn?t know what the cause would be. We wanted the social community to decide and for social media itself to be the hero and a vehicle for doing good.

SMP: What was the start and end of the campaign?

AATI: Phase one from 28/08/2013 to 11/10/2013
Phase two from 11/10/2013 to 30/09/2014

SMP: What other dates were important for this campaign and how can people get involved?

AATI: Phase two of the campaign, which is gathering enough signatures to our government petition that the issue is discussed in Parliament, runs until 30 September 2014.  People can get involved by signing the petition and sharing with their friends.



SMP: The target audiences of the campaign, who are you trying to reach and why?

AATI: Phase one targeted all social media users.
Phase two targeted males (primary) aged 15-34, for which suicide is the top killer in UK and (secondary) their loved ones i.e. everyone else.

SMP: Briefly, tell us about your campaign
 
AATI: For Social Media Week London 2013, All About the Cause was launched to encourage people to share to make a difference. The social community suggested causes and then voted for their preferred using #CAUSE2013.  The ?winning? cause ? young UK male suicide ? was revealed at an event in London during Social Media Week and along with a panel of social media influencers, which included ex-Emmerdale actor Lyndon Ogbourne, lifestyle Vlogger Gemma Tomlinson and DJ Sonny Wharton, the social community debated and decided on a course of action.

SMP: What were the goals / objectives of the campaign and why was it different?

ATTI: Phase one was to raise public awareness and communicate call to action (via crowd sourcing platform Thunderclap), phase two is to cause policy makers to discuss the issue (via government petition). This campaign is different because it literally is All about the Cause. We didn?t decide what the cause should be or how we should try to make a difference, the social community did. Social media users shared with us what they cared about and suggested ways to facilitate change.

SMP: What were the channels, platforms and methods you used?

ATTI: We used social media. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to create and facilitate the conversation. We used YouTube to post videos of our panellists encouraging involvement, a microsite to house further information and Thunderclap, which itself uses Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, to reach a mass audience with our message and call to action (an attention grabbing statistic plus a link to our government petition).


SMP: What did you achieve?

ATTI: By partnering with chosen cause charity CALM (the campaign against living miserably), which exists to prevent male suicide in the UK, the All about the Cause message and call to action was picked up by an audience already interested in the subject and, in addition, received celebrity backing.
Between 27 September and 11 October social chatter and sharing from @theCALMzone and @AATC2013 about the cause achieved a combined reach of 511,225 people.

Our Thunderclap exceeded its target support by 100% in just four days and was personally backed by David Baddiel, Rob da Bank & Eddy Temple-Morris pushing its social reach across Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr to 657,364 people.
Additional VIP support came from Frank Turner, Robert Halfon MP, Anton Powers, OFFICERS (band), DJ Q, Esco Williams, Jonny Benjamin and Richard Fry, amongst others.

The media coverage for phase one of All About the Cause came in the form of pieces in the following trade media, blogs and the charity?s own publication.
Meetings & Incentive Travel, Cause4 Opinion, United Agents and CALMzine.

SMP: What did you do to measure the campaign and what measurement tools did you have in place to do this?

ATTI: Thunderclap free measurement is a daily update on percentage of target reached, plus a final social reach figure at the end of the time period. We used SproutSocial to monitor @AATC2013 and requested similar data from @theCALMzone (also from SproutSocial).

SMP: What was the budget used for the campaign?

ATTI: As this was a philanthropic venture, there was no set budget. We secured sponsorship with citizenM Hotels to provide the accommodation for our VIP panellists and with Hobs Reprographics to print our event collateral. All the panellists volunteered their time. Under £200 was claimed in travel expenses.

SMP: How did you make the campaign social (and did you to make it stand out during Social Media Week London)?

ATTI: The campaign was social right from inception. We used our own All about the Idea Twitter handle and Facebook page, plus those of our influential panel, to promote the launch of the dedicated All about the Cause social channels. The campaign quickly gained traction organically, then CALM picked up on it and DJ Sonny Wharton volunteered his involvement. The media coverage, plus listing the events on This Little Lady, ensured that the campaign events were well attended and the debate continued online.

SMP: How did you get VIP panellists and supporters involved and what did they do to help?

ATTI: We utilised some existing contacts to secure the involvement of adult performer Sam Bentley, actor Lyndon Ogbourne, Huffington Post UK Blogs Editor Jody Thompson and media commentator Kate Bulkley (moderating). Gemma Tomlinson agreed to be involved via her representation United Agents and DJ Sonny Wharton came on board after coming across the campaign on Twitter and showing his support by sharing it with his substantial following.

SMP: How can people tune in to see what transpired that the impact that has been made?

ATTI: People can follow the progress of All about the Cause on Twitter via @AATC2013 and #CAUSE2013. They can also stay updated via the Facebook page. They can sign and share the petition until September 2014.

SMP: What were the dedicated hashtags or social media profiles for the campaign, how were they used and measured?

ATTI: #CAUSE2013 was used to collate the debate, monitor suggestions and log cause votes.


@AATC2013 was used to engage with our audiences and as a reference point for interested third parties (e.g. media), measured by spout social.  The Facebook page was  used to engage with our audiences that aren?t on Twitter and to boost interest in the campaign via emotive visuals

SMP: Where can we see it?

ATTI: See photographs and video form the campaign at the All About the Idea website
http://www.allabouttheidea.co.uk/allaboutthecause-partonegallery.html

SMP: How will you sustain interest and reinvigorate for the second phase?

ATTI: We are putting in place a calendar of activity in partnership with CALM to sustain interest in the issue and continue to raise awareness with the ultimate aim of getting 100,000 signatures to our government petition. We are also currently in discussions with major consumer media outlets to reinvigorate support for the petition via further press coverage.




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