Building Social Movements for Brands - An Analysis of Global Movements

Building Social
Movements for Brands
An Analysis of Global Movements

John Bell, Tom Boland and Erin Carter
March 2013

Table of Contents
Executive Summary 3

Our Approach 6

Our Findings 7

Movement qualities that drive social actions 11

Profiles of Movements Obama ‘08 – Yes, We Can 15

Political Movement Obama ‘12 – It Begins With Us 16

Political Movement Romney ‘12– Believe in America 17

Social Movement Earth Hour 18

Social Movement It Gets Better 19

Social Movement Occupy Wall Street 20

Social Movement Tsunami Relief Fund 21

Brand Movement Amex Small Business Saturday 22

Brand Movement Nike Foundation, The Girl Effect 23

Brand Movement Pepsi Refresh 24

Appendix A: Top Ten Pages on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube 25

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BUILDING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS FOR BRANDS
MARCH 2013

Executive Summary

D
igital and social media have changed of membership, such as the number of
how causes and movements grow and subscribed fans of a Facebook page, for
accelerate. Building movements is hard instance, determines the pool of people we can
work, and doing it well is an art and science drive to save energy, support gay rights, adopt
practiced by NGOs, political candidates, and a more sustainable lifestyle, or some other
supporters of social causes. The collaboration action or behavior change.
and communication advantages of digital and
social platforms have reduced the overall How does the number of people driven to
cost of organizing supporters, but not the action by the 2012 campaign to re-elect
complexity. Sharing via social networks, President Obama compare to a brand program
using content effectively, and managing like Pepsi Refresh Everything? How does the
relationships with individuals can affect engagement level of a global social program
elections, environmental movements, brand like Earth Hour, that promotes energy-saving
movements and more. behaviors, compare with a brand program
like Nike’s The Girl Effect? And how do the
As more brands aspire to build movements engagement levels of various movements
around causes that intersect with the online compare to the most popular phenomena in
community and their business, understanding social media, like Psy’s Gangnam Style, that
the benchmarks of scale and success drive more than a billion actions?
becomes key. Brands want big movements
that drive people to action. But how big is big? As movements aspire to drive people to some
The size of a movement matters. Most brands type of action or behavior change, what does
will be as concerned about overall reach of a success look like? What do brands need to do
program as the various types of engagement differently? What lessons can we learn?
they can inspire in people. The actual size

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What are social actions? How do different movements
compare to each other?
Whether a political movement, a social
movement or a brand movement, all are Entertainment Phenomena, Political, Social
trying to do more than simply reach people. and Brand Movements, fall into a descending
They need to drive action, whether as simple order of magnitude.
as sharing a Facebook post or retweeting a
message, or as complex as changing energy- Entertainment phenomena, like Justin Bieber
saving behavior. To compare movements, and Gangnam Style, earn more than a billion
we looked at a variety of typical engagement social actions. Political campaigns, like the
metrics, from liking a Facebook page U.S. Presidential, race garner hundreds of
(“fanning” a page) to watching a video to millions of social actions. Social and Brand
following a Twitter handle. We consider Movements fall below these levels, often
each a “social action.” Most are triggers for earning between five to ten million social
additional advocacy. Facebook shares, for actions.
example, broadcast our action to our own
friends and followers via our own personal Political campaigns rely on paid media to
page, and expand the reach of a program. spark owned and earned media to a massive
The value of social actions are not all equal. scale in a short period of time.
Some stimulate more sharing or drive more
time spent with content. Each is a discrete Presidential elections have a singular purpose
action, and we have grouped them into a — to get a candidate elected by a fixed date. As
single number to make comparing movements such, they need to capture people’s attention
easier. Detail of social action types can be and drive action in a concentrated period of
found in the Profiles of Movements section. time. Even the established movements with
millions of members, like the 2012 campaign
to re-elect President Obama, need to grow
and update their existing member base, and
increase the actions they are likely to take.
Invariably, these campaigns rely on paid media
to grow the member base fast and drive them
to social actions in a short period of time.

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MARCH 2013

Social and Brand Movements can achieve a Large movements have at least four common
similar level of scale to each other, and do so characteristics.
more slowly, often over a few years.
Enduring “truths” have emerged about what
Nike’s The Girl Effect drove more than 8 it takes to sustain large movements. These
million social actions in 2012, its sixth year include singular, focused purpose; a genuine
of activity. Earth Hour after four years has or authentic motivation; low barriers to
expanded across global markets, and grown to entry; and a commitment to the people and
more than 6 million actions — many focused at resources to cultivate growth and action.
a signature moment in the year.

Brand Movements that do not align and
support current business goals are often
discontinued before earning the full benefits
of multi-year growth.

Pepsi Refresh achieved 8 million-plus social
actions in just two short years, fueled by an
integrated, paid, owned and earned1 program
to acquire supporters and drive action.
Still, this program was either coincident or
correlative to a period of a drop in product
sales. While the program may have improved
brand measures, few programs can maintain
internal support when actual product sales or
growth are hurting.

1 Owned media includes all of the content and platforms controlled by a brand or
organization, such as websites and content, like videos. Earned media describes
all of the community advocacy (e.g., sharing inside Facebook) as well as the
non-paid stories run in professional and semi-professional media outlets. Paid
media includes all forms of paid advertising.

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MARCH 2013

Our Approach

W
e examined social actions across and other factors. For example, liking a
three types of movements, and Facebook page may carry less weight than
compared these to a fourth sharing and commenting on a post; viewing
category of the most popular entertainment a video may be a more passive social action
phenomena. than retweeting a brand’s tweet. We primarily
looked at activity across the three major
ƒƒ Political movements included US social networks most often used by these
Presidential elections, as well as emergent movements- Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
phenomena, like the Arab Spring.
We reviewed 10 different movements from
ƒƒ Social Movements included advocacy and across the globe, looking for those that were
behavior change efforts around social developed for political campaigns, social
causes. causes, or brands. These 10 were culled from
a list of 30 movements overall. We analyzed
ƒƒ Brand Movements included focused efforts each category, looking at total social actions,
from major brands to drive action around a as noted above, as well as the duration of the
social cause aligned with the brand. program: was it in its infancy, or had it been
in existence for a few years? The objective
ƒƒ Entertainment phenomena captured the was to reveal strengths and weaknesses
artists and media with the absolute highest of different movements, especially those
level of social actions. designed to contribute to driving sustained
behavior change. For a deeper understanding
For the sake of this analysis, we have assumed of individual movements’ strengths and
that all social actions are weighted equally. weaknesses, a ranking and analysis of each
Understandably, how one social action is political, brand and social movement we
weighted may depend on the category, timing, explored can be found in the final section.

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MARCH 2013

Our Findings

Entertainment rules…by a lot! Political 400,000,000

Movement
Comparison Obama ‘12
Across all platforms, players in the 300,000,000
Total Social
entertainment category quickly emerge as Actions in
the most popular. Psy (Gangnam Style), who One Year
200,000,000
took over the top spot on YouTube in less
than a year, had been viewed more than one
billion times by year’s end. Those who reign Obama ‘08
100,000,000

on Twitter and Facebook are not the same as
50,000,000
the leaders on YouTube, but nearly all those Romney ‘12

who lead in these social networks are in the 0

entertainment industry. Few brands, and even
fewer non-entertainment individuals rise the New York Times reported social actions of
to the very top on these networks. Notably, nearly 50mm for President Obama, and only
no causes or movements seeking behavior 9mm for Governor Romney. Political election
change were at the top. For a full list of the top movements can get big quickly, fueled by a mix
pages on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, see of integrated marketing and very sophisticated
Appendix A. message targeting driven by data insights.

These campaigns were not merely social. They
represent integrated programs that combine
Political movements in the US owned, earned and paid media, for maximum
are becoming more effective in impact. At their heart is a sophisticated
the use of “integrated” social approach to email-driven CRM, combined
both with paid advertising and action-oriented
media. programs in social media. The 2012 campaign
Measured by social actions, President to re-elect the President of the United States
Obama’s recent re-election campaign put more emphasis on mobile fundraising
achieved almost three times the impact of his to match changes in user behaviors. The
2008 campaign. Compared to his opponent, campaign also achieved greater results with
Governor Mitt Romney, who had an impressive lower ad spend. This was due to at least
social media footprint, President Obama four factors. The Obama campaign had
clearly led in social actions. In October 2012, an established base of followers on social

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MARCH 2013

Comparison of 8,000,000

Social vs Brand 7,000,000 Pepsi
Movements Refresh
6,000,000
Total Social Actions Amex Small
5,000,000
Business Earth Hour
Social
4,000,000 It Gets Better
Brand
3,000,000
Nike The
2,000,000
Girl Effect
Tsunami
1,000,000
Occupy Wall Street
0
1 2 3 4 5 6

Years

networks from the previous election cycle. the activity and engagement with those who
These users had four years of growth in their participate in the movement nearly stops
own reliance on social networks. Meanwhile, completely.
the campaign developed increasingly more
sophisticated CRM practices,as well as data- International, non-election, political
driven targeting. movements work differently. They are smaller,
and the dollars available are often insignificant
Political movements generate an amazing in comparison to what is spent on election-
amount of social actions over a short period based political movements. Many also lack the
of time. They are designed to educate and organization of election-based movements.
influence an audience to accomplish three For example, the Egyptian movement We Are
specific short-term goals: drive advocacy, All Khaled Said, which expressed outrage over
encourage fundraising, and generate votes. Khaled Said’s death at the hands of Egyptian
They rely on advertising dollars online and police, lacks the scale for a true comparison,
offline to “jumpstart” election programs. By with only 293,000 Facebook fans. The Anti-
June 2012, the Obama re-election campaign Japan Sentiment in China, although growing
spent $31mm in online advertising alone. This in news coverage, is not a cohesive, mobilized
was four times what Mitt Romney’s campaign movement that supporters could join, never
had spent, though both candidates spent mind be driven to common actions.
between $400-492mm on total ad spend in the
course of a year. After the election, though,

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MARCH 2013

Social and Brand movements from North America to over 25 global markets.
achieve similar levels of scale. Earth Hour has grown across the world,
driving a synchronized and simple activity
Social and brand movements designed to among its followers. While it is relatively
sustain action over several years are often straightforward to tally up the social actions
smaller than the compressed efforts of an taken in a program like Earth Hour, or even
election campaign. Election movements to understand how many people turned their
have a simple, singular call-to-action, whose lights off during the actual “Earth Hour,” it is
relevance is broadly clear to a community. much harder to evaluate whether the program
They also have large advertising budgets and causes, or correlates to sustained behavior
sophisticated social CRM techniques. change. Are people participating in the social
and symbolic actions of Earth Hour actually
Even while some brand movements, like Pepsi changing the way they live every day to save
Refresh or American Express Small Business energy? “Social actions” is a simple measure
Saturday, may support their efforts through of how much engagement, and even digital
some paid media budget, these are dwarfed advocacy, we may be driving. All movements
by the money spent during an election cycle. have a more tangible behavior goal that must
Social and Brand movements often rely on be tracked, as well.
sophisticated use of owned and earned media,
with some “strategic” paid media. Conversely, Occupy Wall Street — a
movement that received significant media
Social movements perform well when they attention and led to popular social memes —
have low barriers to entry and simple calls to has receded. The call to action is not clear. The
action. The Girl Effect, which advocates rights actual goals of the movement are confusing.
for young women, and Earth Hour, which People may be interested in the movement,
promotes energy conservation, have both been but don’t know how to best participate. Indeed,
active for over four years. They enjoy large Occupy Wall Street bills itself as a “leaderless
social footprints as the ideas have spread to resistance movement,” which could be part
different regions of the world. It Gets Better, of the reason that interested parties are not
a program which seeks to eliminate bullying entirely clear on how to effect change on any
of gay and lesbian youth, has also grown a reasonable scale.
significant social footprint, as it has expanded

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MARCH 2013

Brand movements need to align cause itself, which already had meaning for
with business success to be people before American Express embraced
sustained. it. Rather than fabricating an issue or cause,
American Express chose to champion one that
The best brand movements generate people were already invested in and talking
impressive social participation figures when about.
they have low barriers to entry and a clear
call to action. But if a movement does not There are common characteristics to the
support the business goals of a brand, few best-performing movements. Between the
brands will stay committed, as is the case with high-performing, election-based political
the Pepsi Refresh Project. While it may have movements and the more modest social and
boosted brand reputation with 6.6mm social brand movements, some qualities stand out as
actions in support of the movement, it did not more critical keys to success:
translate into a sales lift, and correlates to a
period of overall sales decline. Pepsi reported Social and Brand Political
that they “measured our results by the level
of engagement between the brand and our ƒƒ Low barrier to ƒƒ A strong CRM
consumers, social ROI [impact made] and entry. program connected
brand-equity results. And, by these measures, to social.
we [were] more than satisfied.” However, it’s ƒƒ Clear call to action.
been argued that the cost of the program ƒƒ Owned, earned and
compared to the weakening sales and market ƒƒ Measureable paid media working
share made it unsustainable in the long-term.2 actions together.

American Express Small Business Saturday, ƒƒ Addresses a ƒƒ Leverage big data
on the other hand, has been in the market for personally or locally to find and activate
two years. Consumers and merchants are relevant cause. key opinion leaders
supporting the program, which has translated (KOLs).
to a 23% increase in small business revenue.3
Part of its success may be explained by the

2 http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/186127/why-pepsi-canned-
the-refresh-project.html
3 http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/american-express-small-business-
saturday/

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MARCH 2013

Movement qualities
that drive social actions
Relevant Cause: part of something bigger, and could show their
involvement via Facebook. Most movements
Supporters generally need a strong cause to are keenly aware that emotional cues, rather
rally around and support. While it can be about than rational reasons, drive action and invest
a global or national issue, it must have some in strong storytelling to inspire action and
personal and/or local relevance. The beauty of belief. All of these are simple examples of the
Small Business Saturday in the United States art and science of behavioral economics that
is that everyone has a local business that explain why any of us would actively support a
they care about. Most causes have emotional cause.
as well as rational drivers —something
participants are passionate about, and can Clear Call-to-Action
“put their heart into.” Often, it is not connected and Low Barrier:
to a brand or buying a product. When causes
blatantly connect to selling a product, they can Successful movements have a clear call
come across as being too “sales-y” or focused to action and make it easy for people to
on making money, rather than promoting participate. Removing barriers to participation
the cause. The Girl Effect, Earth Hour, Small and encouraging simple, everyday actions that
Business Saturday and It Gets Better are all are easy for people to do on a regular basis
good examples of strong, relevant causes. can help allow a movement to catch hold.

Application of Behavioral Earth Hour is an example of a movement that
Economics: had a low barrier to entry, asking participants
to give up electricity for just one hour during
For the sake of this paper, we will consider the the entire year. As noted previously, however,
broad discipline of driving people to action via getting people to do something once a year
behavioral insights as “behavioral economics.” may not result in a sustained habit.
From social proof to confirmation bias to
letting people be creative and display their
involvement, great movements know how
to trigger action. Pepsi Refresh Everything
invited people to vote to determine which
non-profits would receive $20mm of funding.
Participants became invested in the outcome,

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MARCH 2013

Measureable Actions: may not lead to sales growth, as was the
case with Pepsi Refresh Project. (One of
Not only do supporters need to know the things that helped make The Girl Effect
what goals they are working toward with successful is that the Nike brand is not
the movement they have joined, but it is readily evident as a sponsor; because the
important for the organizers to be able to movement is unbranded, it has a scope and
measure whether the movement has “moved vision much larger than athletic gear.)
the needle” in any significant way. The key
performance indicators will vary, depending 3 Given the demands on consumers’
on the mission statement of the movement, time and attention, the more a brand or
and could be connected to product sales, movement can limit barriers to entry, the
social change, or political gain. Being able more likely it is that participants will join.
to track year-over-year results allows the Complicated requirements for support
movement’s organizers, supporters (and can be a hindrance to participation and/
detractors) determine success. or duration of a movement. Simple actions
and simple messages work best. The
Four enduring lessons for artful management and targeting of simple
movements: messages and actions in the campaign to
re-elect President Obama was part of its
1 Understand and be able to articulate the success.
cause behind the movement and the actions
required of participants. Without a clear 4 Be prepared to invest time, effort, and
vision, a movement cannot succeed (e.g., dollars to assist the movement’s growth.
Occupy Wall Street). Additionally, it is vital Part of the success of the Obama 2008
that brands be clear on financial and brand and 2012 campaigns came from the sheer
reputation goals, and set appropriate volume of dollars and work effort involved
metrics against which to measure the from paid staffers and volunteers. Similarly,
positive impact on business in addition to American Express has invested significant
the community impact. amounts of money in paid media and other
resources to support their strategy and
2 Some of the most successful movements efforts for Small Business Saturday. While
are those that are perceived as genuine some movements are successful and “go
and organic. Trying to develop and define a viral” with little financial investment, this is
movement connected to a product, or where rare. The biggest brand movements require
the purchase of the product is key to the financial support, allowing them to grow
movement, may be perceived as inorganic on a scale that unsupported movements
and forced. Connecting directly to a product cannot.

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MARCH 2013

Movements Rankings

Social Total Social Facebook Twitter YouTube YouTube Google+
Movements Actions Fans Followers Views Subscribers Followers

Obama ‘12 It
1 350.6mm 33mm 28mm 287mm 284k 2.4mm
Begins With Us

Obama ‘08 Yes,
2 123.5mm 3.2mm 109k 120mm 150k 0
We Can
Romney ‘12
3 Believe in 44mm 7.9mm 1.23mm 34mm 32mm 882k
America

4 Pepsi Refresh 6.7mm 4.0mm 65k 2.6mm 2k 0

5 Earth Hour 6.3mm 768k 81k 5.4mm 72k 8k

AMEX Small Biz
6 5.0mm 3.2mm 16k 1.8mm 0k 0
Saturday

7 Nike Girl Effect 4.4mm 306k 36k 4mm 4k 0

8 It Gets Better 4.1mm 287k 77k 3.8mm 46k 642

Tsunami Relief
9 773k 38k 50.5k 682k 302 3,364
Project

Occupy Wall
10 585k 411k 172k 0 0 2,732
Street

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MARCH 2013

Sub-Category Rankings

Political Total Social Facebook Twitter YouTube YouTube Google+

Obama ‘12 It
1 350.6mm 33mm 28mm 287mm 284k 2.4mm
Begins With Us

Obama ‘08 Yes,
2 123.5mm 3.2mm 109k 120mm 150k 0
We Can *
Romney ‘12
3 Believe in 44mm 7.9mm 1.23mm 34mm 32mm 882k
America
* no official Google+ channel

Social Total Social Facebook Twitter YouTube YouTube Google+

1 Earth Hour 6.3mm 768k 81k 5.4mm 72k 8k

2 It Gets Better 4.1mm 287k 77k 3.8mm 46k 642

Tsunami Relief
3 773k 38k 50.5k 682k 302 3,364
Project

Occupy Wall
4 585k 411k 172k 0 0 2,732
Street*
* no official YouTube channel

Brand Total Social Facebook Twitter YouTube YouTube Google+

1 Pepsi Refresh 6.7mm 4.0mm 65k 2.6mm 2k 0

AMEX Small Biz
2 5.0mm 3.2mm 16k 1.8mm 0k 0
Saturday

3 Nike Girl Effect 4.4mm 306k 36k 4mm 4k 0

*Facebook page and Twitter page are no longer live

Data reflects a snapshot in time, as of Tuesday, 11/27/12

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MARCH 2013

Profiles of Movements
Obama ‘08 – Yes We Can
Description Strengths
The “Yes We Can” movement ƒƒ Barack Obama became the 44th
became nationally recognized in president of the United States
the United States during Barack in an election that saw 130mm
Obama’s 2008 campaign for people vote, the most ever in a
president. presidential election.

Target The message was powered by ƒƒ The Pew Research Center
US a massive media buy, including determined the 2008 election
digital and social media, which was the most racially and
Sustained Action helped harness the grassroots ethnically diverse in US
Duration of 2008 base and generated the largest history, which reinforces
election cycle voter turnout in US history. how successful the Obama
campaign was at attracting new
Size Call to Action voters.
123.5mm
social actions The desired behavior of this Weaknesses
movement was to identify and
Key Engagement activate a new group of voters ƒƒ Detractors point to Obama’s
Platforms who would help fundraise, $740mm media spend as a
YouTube, Social campaign, and vote for a leader major driver of his election
Networks, Twitter, who promised to bring real campaign.
Email, Paid Media change. Obama’s campaign
Spend and in- team introduced new forms of ƒƒ Bloomberg published Obama’s
game advertising technology to fundraising that spending, which eclipsed the
combined the traditional reach combined $646.7mm that
of old media with the targeting Bush/Kerry spent four years
SOURCES:
capabilities of digital/social media. earlier.
http://mashable.com/2010/12/30/ad-
agency-obama-campaign-purchase/
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://www.k-state.edu/
Cause
actr/2010/12/20/three-simple-
words-a-rhetorical-analysis-of-the-
slogan-_25e2_2580_259cyes-we-
can_25e2_2580_259d-molly-mcguire/
default.htm
Elect Barack Obama to the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_
Obama_presidential_campaign,_2008
Presidency in 2008.
http://www.slideshare.net/mjmetekohy/
srmguruobama2008012 9sho
rt212338595089952692-1950834
http://www.politico.com/news/
stories/1108/15306.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
news?pid=newsarchivesid=a
erix76GvmRM

15
MARCH 2013

Political Movement
Obama ‘12 – It Begins With Us
The “It Begins With Us” ƒƒ Barack Obama won a second
movement became nationally term as President of the
Target recognized in the United States United States by leveraging big
US during Barack Obama’s 2012 re- data and cloud computing to
election campaign. generate 2.2mm volunteers, the
Sustained Action largest grassroots campaign
Duration of 2012 Again, President Obama in political history.
election cycle leveraged new media and big data
to help target and connect with ƒƒ To illustrate, the Economist
Size new voters. Through his message reported on how President
350.6mm and innovative marketing strategy, Obama spent the lion’s share of
social actions Obama won his re-election by a his funds on online advertising
margin of 50.35% to 48.13%. to develop “a huge network of
Key Engagement volunteers, to proselytize on his
Platforms Call to Action behalf.”
Social Networks,
Reddit, Tumblr, The desired behavior of this Weaknesses
YouTube, Twitter, movement was to identify and
Email, Paid Media activate new groups of voters, to ƒƒ Some point to the fact that
help fundraise, campaign, and Obama had four years as
vote for a leader who promised to president to gather support
SOURCES: keep moving the country forward. through social networks and
Obama_presidential_campaign,_2012 To do this, Obama’s campaign other media outlets, whereas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-
VZLvVF1FQ team introduced leveraged big the Republican candidates
http://www.barackobama.com/
http://adage.com/article/campaign- data and cloud computing to were not afforded the same
trail/romney-outspent-obama-
advertise/238241/ improve his targeting capabilities. opportunity.
Obama_on_social_media

Cause
http://www.bluestatedigital.com/work/
case-studies/barack-obama
http://www.economist.com/
node/21552590
www.linkedin.com/today/post/
article/20121009061552-33767-obama-
vs-romney-in-social-media-who-s-
using-it-best?
Re-elect Barack Obama to the
Presidency in 2012.

16
MARCH 2013

Political Movement
Romney ‘12– Believe in America
The “Believe in America” ƒƒ Utilized multiple social
movement became nationally networks, from Facebook to
recognized in the United States Pinterest to Spotify, to capitalize
Target during Mitt Romney’s 2012 on a range of audience
US campaign for president. segments and communication
formats.
Sustained Action It was based on the theory
Duration of 2012 that Romney’s experience in ƒƒ Although he had lower follower
election cycle the financial sector could help numbers on Facebook, Romney
address the economic situation made strategic Facebook ad
Size the United States was facing, and buys so that his ads would
44 mm social put America back “on a course to appear next to terms such
actions greatness.” as “Obama” and “Democrat.”
The result, according to one
Key Engagement Call to Action report, is that Romney gained
Platforms Facebook followers at double
Facebook, The desired behavior of this the rate of Obama.
YouTube, Twitter, movement was to encourage
Television, people to vote for Romney, Weaknesses
Google+, email who, if elected, promised to
grow the economy, create jobs, ƒƒ As Forbes notes, although
and increase financial checks the campaign had access to
SOURCES:
and balances in the federal a significant amount of data
http://www.nytimes.com/
interactive/2012/10/08/technology/
government through social networking,
campaign-social-media.html
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes. it failed to utilize it in such a
com/2012/11/15/social-and-anti-social-
media/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
Cause way that drove actions that
markfidelman/2012/11/11/5-ways-
romney-could-have-won-the-election-
would lead to a Romney win on
with-data-social-and-mobile/
http://adage.com/article/campaign-trail/ Elect Mitt Romney to the election day.
infographic-obama-romney-social-
media/236798/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_
Presidency in 2012.
Romney_presidential_campaign,_2012
http://www.businessinsider.com/winner-
ƒƒ Romney was forced to spend
of-the-obamaromney-social-media-
campaign-2012-9?op=1 much of his campaign prior to
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/
article/20121009061552-33767-obama- the nomination dealing with
vs-romney-in-social-media-who-s-
using-it-best
Republican opponents, and
defending himself against
detractors in his own party,
which led to a split focus.

17
MARCH 2013

Social Movement
Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a worldwide ƒƒ Supporters highlight Earth
movement organized by the Hour’s global adoption by 150
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) countries, measureable impact,
and held towards the end of and four years of activity as
March encouraging households evidence of success.
and businesses to turn off their
non-essential lights to raise ƒƒ For example, Commonwealth
Target awareness about the need to take Edison (a utility company that
Global action on climate change. services Chicago) reported that
about 840,000 pounds of carbon
Sustained Action Call to Action dioxide were kept out of the
Once-a-year atmosphere during Earth Hour
activation, that has The goal of this movement is 2008.
taken place for the to reduce energy consumption.
past four years Every March 27th, WWF
encourages supporters to shut Weaknesses
Size down all their power (lights,
6.3mm heating, air conditioning, etc.) ƒƒ Detractors label Earth Hour
social actions for exactly one hour (known as as a failure because the once-
Earth Hour). Participants are a-year program generates
Key Engagement encouraged to spread the word to insignificant short-term and
Platforms their friends and family through long-term behavior changes,
Facebook, Twitter, social channels. beyond a symbolic action.
Website, Google+,
YouTube and TV Cause ƒƒ To illustrate, Roger
Sowell published a report in
A small act by a large group of 2009 that showed no apparent
SOURCES: people can make a big difference. decrease in the power load
http://worldwildlife.org/pages/earth-
hour
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour
Using this principle, Earth Hour throughout the state of
https://twitter.com/earthhour
https://www.facebook.com/earthhour
aims to show the world that by California during Earth Hour.
http://sowellslawblog.blogspot.
com/2009/03/busted-earth-hour.html
making small sacrifices, there
can be some hope in reversing the
effects of global warming.

18
MARCH 2013

Social Movement
It Gets Better
It Gets Better is an Internet- ƒƒ Supporters classify It Gets
based movement founded in Better as a success due to the
the United States in 2010 by movement adoption in 25 global
Dan Savage and his husband markets and two years of
Terry Miller, in response to the sustained activity.
Target suicides of teenagers who were
Global bullied because they were gay or ƒƒ For example, President Obama
(NA heavy to date) suspected of being gay. shared his support by making a
promotional video that had over
Sustained Action Call to Action 461K views to date.
Continuous
The goal of this movement is Weaknesses
Size to prevent bullying and suicide
4.1mm among LGBT youth. To do this, It ƒƒ Detractors point out It Gets
social actions Gets Better encourages gay adults Better should focus on parents,
and straight allies to help convey not teens, to help reduce LGBT
Key Engagement the message that LGBT teens’ suicide.
Platforms lives will improve.
Facebook, Twitter, ƒƒ To illustrate, The Family
Website, Google+, Cause Acceptance Project’s research
YouTube and has demonstrated that
Tumblr Everyone deserves to be “parental acceptance, and
respected for who they are. even neutrality, with regard
to a child’s sexual orientation”
SOURCES: can bring down the attempted
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Gets_
Better_Project suicide rate.
http://www.youtube.com/user/
itgetsbetterproject
http://www.whitehouse.gov/itgetsbetter
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=HzcAR6yQhF8

19
MARCH 2013

Social Movement
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a ƒƒ Supporters highlight how OWS
protest movement that began on is currently active in 1,500 cities
9/17/11. The main issues are social globally and how technology
and economic inequality, greed, and social media are increasing
corruption, and perceived undue awareness and participation.
Target influence of corporations on
Global government. ƒƒ In November 2011, Public Policy
Polling did a national survey
Sustained Action Call to Action which found that 33% of voters
Continuous supported OWS.
The goal of this movement is to
Size fight back against the richest 1% Weaknesses
585k of people who are writing the
social actions rules of an unfair global economy. ƒƒ Detractors often criticize OWS
OWS encourages supporters to for not having clear demands
Key Engagement follow the revolutionary Arab and thus not being able to
Platforms Spring tactic to achieve their accomplish any goals.
Facebook, Twitter, goals, and encourages the use
Tumblr, Website of nonviolence to maximize the ƒƒ Ginia Fellafante points out
and Celebrities safety of all participants. in the New York Times that
(Michael Moore, OWS supporters have a lack of
Nancy Pelosi) Cause focus, highlighting some who
note that “no one who uses an
Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless Apple computer can possibly
SOURCES
resistance movement, with say anything critical about
http://occupywallst.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_
people of many colors, genders capitalism.”
Wall_Street
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring and political persuasions. The
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-
power/occupywallstreet?gclid=CLOX one thing all participants have
jv2p67MCFYd9Ogod1DgACQ
http://www.yesmagazine.org/people- in common is that We Are The
power/five-ways-occupywallstreet-has-
succeeded
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/
99% who will no longer tolerate
top-ten-richest-celebrities-supporting-
occupy-wall-street/# the greed and corruption
http://stpeteforpeace.org/occupyarrests.
sources.html of the 1%.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/
nyregion/protesters-are-gunning-for-
wall-street-with-faulty-aim.html?_r=2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_
Policy_Polling

20
MARCH 2013

Social Movement
Tsunami Relief Fund
There were many organizations ƒƒ Supporters proudly highlight
delivering relief, or funding relief that the Tsunami fundraising
programs, in the wake of the movement is currently 93% of
Japanese Tsunami. GlobalGiving the way to its goal, with $8.8
was one organization that million dollars raised out of a
Target effectively connected donors $9.5 million goal.
Global with disaster areas or grassroots
projects in developing worlds. ƒƒ For example, Makoto
Sustained Action Potential donors could browse Katakeyama explained how
Continuous and select from a wide offering of he received relief money from
projects, and could easily transfer GlobalGiving so he could start
Size funds to the area of interest. oyster farming again, which
773k social actions directly benefited his local
Call to Action economy and increased the
Key Engagement local food supply.
Platforms Following the Japanese
Facebook, Twitter, earthquake and tsunami in March Weaknesses
Website, Google+, 2011, GlobalGiving established
mobile/texting a fundraising goal of 9.5 million ƒƒ Detractors label GlobalGiving
dollars for tsunami relief. They as fiscally irresponsible
solicited and collected donations because it takes 10% of
SOURCES: from multiple platforms, donations for operating
http://www.globalgiving.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalGiving including, digital, mobile, social expenses.
http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/
japan-earthquake-tsunami-relief/ and TV.
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.
cfm?bay=search.summaryorgid=11648 ƒƒ To illustrate, Charity Navigator,
Cause
http://ecopreneurist.com/2008/11/21/
low-ranked-charity-not-a-scam-but-
skip-global-giving-if-you-sleep-in-this- the well-respected non-
black-friday/
profit watchdog, only gives
GlobalGiving is a charity GlobalGiving three out of a
fundraising movement that gives possible four stars (a concern,
social entrepreneurs and non- since a four-star rating isn’t
profits from anywhere in the hard to achieve).
world a chance to raise the money
that they need to improve their
communities from anywhere in
the world.

21
MARCH 2013

Brand Movement
Amex Small Business Saturday
American Express started ƒƒ American Express helped drive
Small Business Saturday in sales in small, local stores, as
2010 as a way to generate more 102mm customers shopped on
awareness of local, small Small Business Saturday.
businesses, and to assist in
Target generating sales for their small ƒƒ Mashable reported that
US business merchants. American Express “saw a
23% increase in transactions
Sustained Action Call to Action at small business in 2011,”
Once a year which was a win for the small
Shop small and shop local — go businesses, as well as Amex.
Size into your local stores and give
102 million US them your business. Weaknesses
consumers
shopped “small” Spread the word — tell others to ƒƒ Critics point out how the
on Small Business shop small and shop local. one-day affair has limited
Saturday in 2011. sustainable impact, how
Cause American Express charges
5mm social very high fees to vendors
actions. Small businesses across America (~2.5%), and how this
need the enduring support campaign is designed to help
Key Engagement of local shoppers. While the Amex, rather than the small
Platforms benefits of big chains and big box business community.
Facebook, Twitter, retailers cannot be dismissed, it’s
Website, Merchant America’s small businesses that ƒƒ Inc.com recently reported
Kits, CRM, serve our communities best. that the program is “a
Advertising monetary boom if they can
get more people to use the
card…but there’s been no
SOURCES: reciprocal kindness back
www.americanexpress.com/Business
http://mashable.com/2012/03/22/ to the merchants.”
american-express-small-business-
saturday/
business/american-express-to-refund-
85-million.html
http://www.inc.com/eric-markowitz/
small-business-saturday-real-effects-
on-merchants.html

22
MARCH 2013

Brand Movement
Nike Foundation, The Girl Effect
Founded by The NoVo Foundation ƒƒ Supporters highlight how
and The Nike Foundation, The Girl Nike was able to successfully
Effect is a movement to invest draw attention and interest
in and provide opportunities to to an important international
adolescent girls as a means social and economic issue, as
Target to end poverty in developing evidenced by $41mm donated to
Global countries. It is based on the the program in first three years
theory that, if given the right (2007-2009).
Sustained Action opportunities, girls and women
Continuous can be effective at lifting ƒƒ The Huffington Post reported
themselves and their communities on how the Girl Effect helped
Size out of poverty. decrease HIV prevalence by
4.4mm 60%, compared to peers.
social actions Call to Action
Key Engagement The desired behavior of this Weaknesses
Platforms movement was to end poverty in
YouTube, developing countries by focusing ƒƒ Critics have slammed the
Facebook, on, and investing in adolescent Girl Effect for playing up to
Twitter, Multiple girls in those countries. stereotypes of women and
Websites, Email, girls as natural caregivers,
Partnerships (with Cause ignoring questions of
Clinton Global structural inequality and
Initiatives, etc.) Ending poverty by investing power imbalance.
and PR/Blogger resources in girls around the
Outreach world. ƒƒ Aidwatchers openly
questioned, “Why reinforce
perceptions about “women’s
SOURCES: work” and “men’s work” by
http://youthinkyouknowme.girleffect.
org/ claiming that women make
http://www.girleffect.org/learn/the-
big-picture better homemakers?”
http://nikeinc.com/pages/the-girl-effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_
Effect
www.hks.harvard.edu/hauser/role-of-
brand/documents/girleffect.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-
development/poverty-matters/2012/
mar/23/girl-hub-strength-weaknesses
http://aidwatchers.com/2011/01/so-now-
we-have-to-save-ourselves-and-the-
world-too-a-critique-of-%E2%80%9Cthe-
girl-effect%E2%80%9D/

23
MARCH 2013

Brand Movement
Pepsi Refresh
The Pepsi Refresh Project began ƒƒ Built equity for the Pepsi brand,
in 2010 as an initiative to identify as evidenced in a 2010 Forbes
and fund projects that would and Reputation Institute study,
have a positive impact on their which indicated that Pepsi
community, states, or the country. moved from #16 to #5 among
Target Originally planned as a one-year the country’s most reputable
US campaign, Pepsi Refresh lasted brands.
for two years, and awarded
Sustained Action $20mm in grants to non-profit ƒƒ Empowered communities and
Two years organizations, businesses, and individuals to believe they could
individuals, who were chosen step up and change their world.
Size through a system of voting via
6.7mm social social media. Weaknesses
actions
Call to Action ƒƒ Didn’t correlate directly enough
Key Engagement to sales, as market share
Platforms The desired behavior of this decreased during the same
Facebook, movement was to encourage time period.
Twitter, Website, individuals and nonprofits to
Mobile, YouTube, ideate innovative and creative ƒƒ Faced criticism with how grants
and Advertising solutions to help move their were awarded, and there were
Celebrity tie-ins communities forward. many allegations of cheating.
(NFL)
Cause

SOURCES:
Refresh Everything (The Pepsi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_
Refresh_Project
Refresh Project) was conceived
http://adage.com/article/viewpoint/a-
teaching-moment-professors-evaluate- as a “ground-breaking initiative
pepsi-refresh-project/237629/
http://www.hugeinc.com/casestudies/ designed to fund good ideas, big
pepsi
http://www.pepsico.com/PressRelease/ and small, that help refresh our
The-Pepsi-Refresh-Project-Awards-13-
Million-to-Support-the-Publics-Favorite-
Idea03222010.html
world.”
business/06charity.html
http://helloenso.com/Pepsi-refresh

24
MARCH 2013

Appendix A:
Top Ten Pages on Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube

Facebook Twitter YouTube
Brand Fans Brand Followers Brand Views

1 Facebook 84,121,319 1 Lady Gaga 32,660,281 1 Psy 1,116,593,319

2 YouTube 67,719,238 2 Justin Bieber 32,372,480 2 Justin Bieber 817,886,738

Texas Holdem Jennifer Lopez/
3 67,666,376 3 Katy Perry 30,699,659 3 636,739,081
Poker Pitbull

4 Rihanna Eminem/
64,797,581 4 Rihanna 27,579,512 4 527,855,009
Rihanna

5 Eminem 64,490,260 5 Barack Obama 25,257,501 5 LMFAO 512,476,646

6 The Simpsons Charlie Bit My
58,826,643 6 Britney Spears 22,912,239 6 505,465,413
Finger - again!

7 Shakira 58,572,171 7 Taylor Swift 22,449,120 7 Shakira 504,975,753

8 Coca-Cola (Coke) 56,883,666 8 YouTube 21,435,228 8 Lady Gaga 502,934,765
Harry Potter
9 and the Deathly 54,723,452 9 Shakira 19,175,242 9 Michel Telo 473,010,286
Hallows

10 Lady Gaga 54,678,908 10 Kim Kardashian 17,050,528 10 Don Omar 415,846,863

Source: http://fanpagelist.com/ as of 1/3/13 Source: http://twitaholic.com as of 1/3/13 Source: http://www.youtube.com as of 1/3/13

25
MARCH 2013

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Building Social Movements for Brands - An Analysis of Global Movements

Building Social Movements for Brands - An Analysis of Global Movements

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