17–19 Oct, 2008
United Nations Millennium Campaign
social media for social change – case study

About Millennium Campaign
• “End poverty by 2015”
• The United Nations Millennium Campaign
supports and inspires people from around the
world to take action in support of the 8 MDGs
(Millennium Development Goals),
that 189 United Nations member states have
agreed to try to achieve by the year 2015
More details: http://endpoverty2015.org

8 Millennium Development Goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Recap
23.5 million and 43.7 million user
participation in 2006 & 2007 respectively,
across the world
Participation in millions
year

2008: Stand UP, Take ACTION
• Stand Up, Take Action 2008: Oct 17th -19th
• By starting on a Friday and concluding on a
Sunday, everyone, whether at home, at work,
at school, university or in a place of worship
can take part

Challenge
“If South Asia does not achieve MDGs,
world will not achieve it!”
- Minar Pimple
Deputy Director, Asia
United Nations Millennium Campaign

Social media for social cause
• Exclusive social media tie-ups
• Demographics based behavioral targeting
• Online/Offline synchronization

Orkut community & application
http://orkut.com/endpoverty

Interactive video game on Youtube
http://youtube.com/endpoverty2015

Online/offline synchronization

Success
• 15,043 total blog posts on “poverty” during the campaign days
with 13,498,280 combined readership
• 116 Million participation worldwide with all efforts combined
together which includes 73 million, highest number of
participation from Asia
• Inclusion of social media strategy resulted in 62% growth in
participation in 2008 compared to year 2007

Future prospects
• Social media campaigns can be recycled and
reused over time resulting in repeated ROI
for one time investment
• Getting sponsors on-board for the social
media profiles; a new medium for
monetization of the efforts put online

Rupesh Mandal
rupeshmandal@gmail.com
http://fundubytes.blogspot.com