In early August, thanks to Mark Zuckerberg, a flash mob called the Ice Bucket Challenge spread online. Stars, successful entrepreneurs and entire teams began to pour buckets of water over them ice water and passing the baton to each other to raise awareness of the study of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an incurable disease.
Russian entrepreneurs adapted the global flash mob by adding vodka, whiskey and advertising.
Last weeks The Internet is discussing continuously appearing videos of representatives dousing themselves with ice water various professions. The Ice Bucket Challenge aims to raise awareness of the incurable disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). According to its terms, any person who poured ice water on himself and filmed this process has the right to send a “challenge” to three more people who must repeat this procedure within 24 hours. If they do not do this, according to the rules of the promotion, they are required to donate funds to the ALS Research Foundation.
The money raised goes to The ALS Association, charitable organization, to which the analytical company Charity Navigator issued its highest rating trust. The ALS Associations' research has not yet yielded much success. Most of its breakthroughs with experiments on rats have often ended in nothing, but representatives of the organization hope that a new wave of attention to the problem and millions of dollars will help make a breakthrough.
The “viral” effect of the Ice Bucket Challenge was created thanks to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who responded to the challenge of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and was one of the first to douse himself with ice water on camera.
The very next day, Apple CEO Tim Cook doused himself with ice water during corporate party companies. The new general also acted director of Microsoft Satya Nadella.
Russian challenge
Gradually the wave reached Russian entrepreneurs. Co-owner of Mail.Ru Group and founder of the DST Global fund Yuri Milner and his wife Yulia accepted a challenge from Bill Gates' wife.
Investor Lev Leviev passed the baton to the founder of VKontakte and Telegram, Pavel Durov, and product director of the Committee Publishing House, Vladislav Tsyplukhin.
However, later domestic entrepreneurs decided to change the “classic” Ice Bucket Challenge scenario. Founder of LiveInternet German Klimenko instead of dousing cold water decided to “throw a real Russian challenge”, which was is that his friends should drink a glass of vodka without a snack.
In turn, the creator of the QIP messenger Sergei Kravtsov doused himself with a bucket of ice water, having previously poured a bottle of 12-year-old Chivas Regal whiskey into it.
The head of Instabank, in parallel with pouring and donating money, even managed to advertise his service.
Corporate dousing
Later the action took on a corporate character. On August 22, the team of the domestic airline ticket search engine Aviasales.ru published a video in which the entire team is doused with ice water by a pool in Thailand and issues a challenge to Ostrovka, Russian Post and VKontakte. The service also donated money to the foundation.
The team of the social network VKontakte accepted the challenge and organized a flash mob in St. Petersburg. “Our employees doused themselves with ice water after accepting the challenge of colleagues from Aviasales and Mail.Ru,” the company reported on its corporate blog.
The social network did not say whether it transferred money to the fund, but it launched a virtual charitable gift for some users. They can give it to three friends for free or by donating 15 votes. The recipient of the gift, in turn, will be able to send it to three of their friends, thereby launching a wave of the virtual Ice Bucket Challenge. As noted in the company's statement, all funds received as part of the campaign will go to a fund studying ALS.
Teams from Yandex and Mail.Ru Group also took part in the corporate shower.
Not all entrepreneurs and teams make videos. For example, Nival founder Sergei Orlovsky refused to douse himself with water and simply donated money.
For what
By the end of August, the Ice Bucket Challenge had raised more than $15 million, nearly 10 times what the ALS organization raised in 2013. “This is a wonderful promotion that has attracted the attention of millions in an entertaining way. Judging by the collections, it exceeded all expectations. Well done,” says investor Evgeny Gordeev.
However, there are those who are skeptical about the general flash mob. “The number of wet weirdos in my feed has already exceeded the number of plane crash experts. Say you just have 5 dollars for the silent one, but effective assistance no, or do you all just not wash anymore without public attention? Well then, wash with a piece of Parmesan in your teeth or something,”
Remember, in 2014 we doused ourselves with cold water. Then we proudly called it not hardening, but a flash mob. It was called the Ice Bucket Challenge. During it, you had to pour a bucket of cold water on yourself if someone challenged you, give $10 to the ALS Association fund and challenge three other people. In this case, everything needs to be filmed and posted online to create a viral effect. If for some reason you didn’t want to wet yourself, then you were required to donate $100 to the ALS Association fund. This is how it was supposed to be according to the classics. However, in reality, this flash mob has outgrown the boundaries of American parochialism. He drew into his whirlpool many famous and wealthy people, some of them not only did not refuse dousing, but also simultaneously donated much more than $100. Plus, many ordinary citizens were not left out. During the 30 days of the flash mob, the ALS Association was able to collect $115 million. In general, the format charity event clearly justified himself.
In Russia, however, this idea looked different. Initially, this flash mob was not supposed to reach our country. But our people sensed the trend and, without waiting for a “call” from the United States, launched their own wave. In the case of our flash mob branch, everything was a little simpler. Money had to be sent to any charitable foundation at the discretion of the caller or the callee. But here, too, everything was not so simple. Basically, on our part, we took part in the flash mob for fun, and somehow they didn’t particularly remember the charitable part (but not everyone, thanks to these people).
But in the USA, the Ice Bucket Challenge certainly did not go unnoticed even now, 2 years later.
Using the funds raised, the ALS Association conducted a number of experiments to study amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and 6 other areas. ALS is terrible disease, treatment for which is in modern world does not exist. She breaks nervous system a person so that he becomes almost completely paralyzed and as if locked in his motionless body. You will immediately understand what we are talking about if you remember the famous scientist Stephen Hawking, who suffers from this disease.
The Project MinE research group, which was responsible for part of the experiments, announced that it was able to recognize the mutated gene that causes the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. That is, scientists will be able to identify this harmful gene either at the stage of fetal formation or at early stage disease, and he will also help in developing treatment.
The work done by Project MinE is the very first, but most difficult step towards curing ALS. Now that scientists are at least clear about what exactly they are looking for a cure for, further work will no longer be done blindly.
Just think, some flash mob, which was greeted with comic amusement by everyone, led to something worthwhile and serious. After this, it’s difficult to throw around phrases like: “I’m not like everyone else, I’m not interested, I won’t participate in this nonsense,” simply because if you don’t participate, you not only find yourself outside of some trend, you turn out to be an opponent technology and helping others. So in reality it turned out that flash mobs and other mass events, closely tied to one or another charity, are very useful and important form bringing people together. Don’t pass by such ideas in the future—participate. And even if a cure for ALS is not found in the next decades, at least many Americans will know that together they helped scientists at least get closer to the solution.
If you follow the news feed on social networks, you have probably seen videos similar to mass insanity - everyone from Bill Gates to your office mate is doused with cold water from a bucket, passing this baton, strange at first glance, to new people and companies. It looks something like this (yes, we haven’t escaped this icy cup either):
How did these videos become the viral event of the summer? Why exactly were the videos able to do in a month what even articles in the media had not been able to do before - raise almost a hundred million dollars for a completely unprofitable cause? Business owners and marketers have a lot to think about in this story. In the meantime, while you are deciding whether to include the cost of competent video marketing in your budgets or not, we suggest you read the translation of Emily Alford’s article, made by seasoned translators from.
The Ice Bucket Challenge was launched in Boston in honor of Pete Frates, 29, a former Boston College baseball captain who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS; Lou Gehrig's disease) two years ago. The rules are simple: if challenged, participants have a choice: either douse themselves with ice-cold water from a bucket, or donate $100 to an ALS charity.
President Obama chose the latter: however, most participants do both. And the results of this popular viral campaign are amazing. The ALS Association reported that Ice Bucket Challenge participants and those simply enjoying the video received $94.3 million in donations between July 29 and August 27. This is significantly more than the $2.7 million donated to the foundation during the same period. last year.
Although the Ice Bucket Challenge was clearly beneficial to the ALS Association, the campaign was not launched by the foundation: the event was carried out by the participants themselves. However, social media market players and those interested in fundraising can learn a valuable lesson in “people marketing” from this summer's hottest campaign.
According to Gene Lewis, partner and creative director Digital Pulp's secret to the success of the Ice Bucket Challenge is that it's a challenge that's nearly impossible to ignore.
“Like many other things - simple, interesting and successful, the Ice Bucket Challenge is now taken for granted. Why didn’t we think of this before?”- he says. “This campaign has everything to go viral: it's cool and funny, personal and with a wide reach. It is for both children and adults; it is extremely intensively shared in social networks, but the main thing is that she encourages, and not only in words. You are being challenged in front of the whole world! This is not just a status update that will soon be forgotten: it is a personal challenge that cannot be ignored.”
Bob Cargill, director of social media at Overdrive Interactive, believes another important reason The success of the campaign is its social nature. "In the age of selfies more people are more excited than ever to show their support for a cause or commitment to a brand, especially if they gain something in the process. Here's what the success of this campaign can teach those in the social media market and those interested in fundraising.", he says. In this case, the participants gain that they themselves become part of the event, namely - "the personal satisfaction that comes from any philanthropic act, and the public approval that comes from friends".
Of course, the viral success of the Ice Bucket Challenge was completely unexpected. Social media professionals should definitely note the psychology of this success, but creating content for viral purposes should still be treated with great caution. After all, expectations often turn into a negative reaction from the audience. More reliable solution- Focus on consistently producing quality brand-related content. And we are ready to help you with this!
About the translator
The article was translated by Alconost.
And again a fashion trend, only it is significantly different from all the others, since world-class celebrities take part in it. A video flash mob called the Ice Bucket Challenge was launched in the United States. According to its rules, politicians, actors, musicians and famous businessmen pour a bucket of ice water on themselves to draw attention to the problem of studying the incurable disease - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. According to the rules of the Ice Bucket Challenge flash mob, any person can pour a bucket of ice water on themselves and pass the baton to any three others, who must repeat the action within 24 hours, otherwise they will have to donate money to the ALS Research Foundation. As a rule, celebrities do not avoid participating in this madness, but, on the contrary, tend to publicly pour cold water on themselves, thereby passing on the merry baton and attracting huge attention to the study incurable disease. A month after the launch of the challenge, about $15 million was raised, and videos of celebrities who accepted the challenge began to gain millions of views. Celebrities such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Dwayne Johnson, Steven Spielberg, Lady Gaga, etc. took part in the event. You can see the most interesting videos of “chilled out” celebrities below.
(Total 25 videos)
1. Mark Zuckerberg. It was Mark Zuckerberg who gave the action the greatest publicity, dousing himself with ice water on August 14 and passing the baton to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. After this video, the action became truly viral.
2. Satya Nadella. New CEO of Microsoft.
3. Tim Cook. General manager Apple doused himself with ice water during the company's corporate party, challenging Dr. Dre.
4. Robert Downey Jr. The actor handed the Thor challenge to Chris Hemsworth.
5. Dwayne Johnson. The actor confirmed his nickname "The Rock" by pouring a bucket of ice water on himself without even blinking an eye.
6. Bill Gates. The Microsoft founder didn't just pour it on himself cold water, but also spoke about this charitable foundation.
7. Justin Timberlake. The singer and actor doused himself with water in the company of a support group.
8. Oprah Winfrey. Even the famous older TV presenter was not afraid to take on the challenge, passing the baton to Steven Spielberg.
9. Steven Spielberg. The director accepted the challenge without hesitation.
10. Singer Taylor Swift and star of the film “Sin City 2” Jamie King.
11. Chris Pratt. The Guardians of the Galaxy star accepted the challenge, but with one condition: before doing so, he had to “pump up” properly.
12. Cristiano Ronaldo. Not really high quality video from the most famous football player.
13. Selena Gomez.
14. Justin Bieber. Bieber first refused the challenge, and then finally doused himself with cold water, urging his fans to do the same.
15. Gwen Stefani. The singer took the ice-cold shower from the bucket humbly and slowly.
16. Jennifer Lopez.
17. Dr. Dre. The famous rapper accepted the challenge, passing the baton to Eminem, Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar.
18. Old man Russell Crowe delighted everyone with his funny video, challenging Hugh Jackman.
19. Hugh Jackman accepted the challenge and chilled out with the crew of the film Pan.
20. Lady Gaga. The singer silently and meaningfully poured ice water over herself from a beautiful bowl.
21. Charlie Sheen. The actor decided to replace the ice and water with $10,000, which he plans to donate to the foundation. Charlie Sheen challenged Chuck Lorre, Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer.
22. Drake. The rapper doused himself in a bucket in front of a crowd of thousands of his fans.
23. A real man, Vin Diesel doused himself with ice water and then challenged Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie and Vladimir Putin. The Russian presidential administration responded that he had enough other important things to do.
24. Stephen King. The thin horror story writer also did not refuse the challenge and bravely accepted it.
25. The funniest failed challenge from a simple American woman.
