Even with celebrity support it’s not always easy to get good coverage so when a fundraising event is talked about in the New York Times and on the BBC News website you know someone’s doing something right.
To mark World Aids Day Keep a Child Alive is ‘killing off’ a host of celebrities. The ever growing list includes Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Kim Kardashian (pictured above), Katie Holmes, Alicia Keys (pictured below), Usher and Ryan Seacrest. You can see the line-up on the event's website. Of course these stars won’t really be dying; they will be killing their digital lives for a day – no tweets and no facebook updates. Before they go offline each star will post a ‘Last tweet and testament’.
But fans need not fear since they can bring their favourite celebrities back to digital life by donating to the charity. The money is used to provide HIV medication to children in Africa and India
It’s a clever idea that, like Christian Aid’s Quiz Aid, uses the fan base of a celebrity and combines it with social media – bypassing more traditional approaches such as producing print materials and using direct mail.
The money collection – always an important part of any big fundraiser – is also fast and immediate with donations of US$10 via text or online. Alternatively supporters can scan the barcode on the t-shirt, using a smartphone, to donate. For a small organisation it’s an ambitious fundraiser that punches well above its weight. With the celebrities having around 30 million fans, if only 1% of their followers donate that could turn into US$3m from one event; not bad for a charity which brought in US$4.3m in 2008 (last year for which figures are available). In addition that’s 30 million who’ll be made aware of the issue and their work.
The social media model of fundraising is still in its infancy so it’ll be interesting to see how well this works. I’ll update when they announce some figures.
Having just extolled the virtues of this celebrity led project I can hear celebrity managers across the UK running for cover as their fundraisers demand a similarly stellar line up to promote their own ‘big fundraisers’. But there’s a little fact I haven’t mentioned; the name of one of the charity’s co-founders. It’s none other than Ms Alicia Keys – she’s passionate about the Keep a Child Alive’s work and has visited its projects in Africa . Being on the celebrity circuit and having strong music industry contacts may have had just the smallest influence on stars signing up to a small charity – sometimes it’s not what you know it’s who you know.
This is an interesting one, but despite being unusual / innovative, I think the celebs are barking up the wrong tree here...
ReplyDeleteSocial media is a key conversational medium for the celebs themselves to talk to supporters; and methinks it's more important to the celebs than it is to those following them (if you see what I mean).
It's rare (unless you are Stephen Fry) to cause a furore if you announce you're "quitting Twitter", and it strikes me that most people will kind of go "oh well" and get their celeb gossip from Heat or the tabloids instead. They're unlikely to part with their cash to have the "privilege" of following a celeb on Twitter or Myspace or Facebook - because the privilege is the celeb's. They get to have an unmediated channel with which to air their egos and can bypass traditional media and its agendas and misquotes.
I think this "social suicide" is mistaken form of conversational castration. Fans may not miss them at all...and fame is fickle.