The youtube video is from Star Bucks Campaign. There was also a flickr component that I learned about this from the wonderful Heather Gardner-Madras, who like me, is a flickr fan. She posted a pointer on the NTEN Nonprofit Flickr Affinity Group list today.
Here is a great example of the innovative new things we can do with Flickr in terms of advocacy and leveraging the social community there: Starbucks Campaign
She points out why she likes the campaign:
1 – (not that this necessarily applies to Oxfam) but its super low budget by using existing infrastructure and orgs of any size could really raise their profile and provide an intense interactive opportunity for supporters this way.
2 – it takes advantage of the established Flickr community’s interest to education and engage new audiences
3 – I personally really like any activism that includes individual expression like this (like www.sorryeverybody.com) If someone gets out the crayons and makes a sign, they are definitely engaged in your cause.
Tim Fullerton from Oxfam America - who organized the campaign and will be speaking about at NTC - shared the URL of the YouTube video. Maybe he share some reflections in the comments - like for example - about the making of the video which is quite good in terms of production values, although not glossy campaign video.
Britt Bravo who is also the Flickr Affinity Group wrote about Oxfam America Campaign here
Just last week, Lee Romeo, posted something over a Netsquared about a similar use of flickr - people holding signs. This has also been done by NTEN and Netsquared. And, there was a protest against Target using that technique (holding signs) although it was not on flickr: http://www.saveroe.com//campaigns/target/photos
This is a fun meme for user=generated content -- Take a photo of yourself with sign or message related to our campaign or cause. I'm reminded of the March of Dimes - flickr contest - that asked people to photograph where they kept their change because a handful of change is what preemie weighs at birth.
What creative twist could your organization do with this technique and support your cause/work?
I read a post about user-generated content from the fresh+new blog which is focused on new media in museums. It describes various sub-groups of consumer co-created content.
Consumer-generated media (CGM) multi-media (CGM2): First-person commentary posted or shared across a host of expression venues.
Consumer-fortified media (CFM): The business creates the content (ad), but the consumers provide the meaning.
Consumer-solicited media (CSM): "Participatory media" -- that's what the flickr contests above are!
Compensated consumer-generated media (CCGM): That's where people get paid to create the content. Not sure if this includes a cash prize.
Paid media: Old advertising model
Thanks for covering our Starbucks campaign. We have found great success using YouTube, MySpace and Flickr to help raise awareness of our issues. These are virtually free ways to reach out and we took advantage the best we could. Since we were doing a protest in Seattle, we thought it would be a good idea to film it, do some production, and put it up on YouTube. To day, we're nearing 42,000 views. We never would have been able to reach such a broad audience without these tools.
Posted by: Tim Fullerton | March 07, 2007 at 02:33 PM