Remember that summer five years ago when you couldn’t sign into Facebook without seeing your friends or favorite celebrities dumping a bucket of ice over his or her head?
Ice Bucket Challenge
If you were one of them, thank you for participating in the Ice Bucket Challenge as you had done your part to raise awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, which is also commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The ALS Association, a national nonprofit that funds research for and promotes awareness of ALS received approximately $22.9 million between July to August 2014, all thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge. The donations received was $21 million more dollars compared to the same period last year.
In addition, the challenge had also raised awareness with 2.4 million ice bucket related videos posted to Facebook and 28 million people having uploaded, commented on, or liked an ice-bucket related video.
#ALSIcebucketchallenge that swept all over has become one of the most wide and best examples of viral marketing. This initiative has achieved something that’s every marketer’s dream: going viral and capturing wide attention across the nation in a month or two.
Surprisingly, too much of sudden attention and money for a nonprofit charity can have their disadvantages. There are a few concerns regarding to the campaign.
- Spending more money on bagged ice than on ALS research
Some of the bucket challenge videos uploaded did not contain any substantive information about the disease, why the money was needed, or how it was used. More than anything else, the ice bucket videos felt like an exercise in raising awareness of one’s own altruism or attractiveness in a wet T-shirt, instead of ALS research.
2.The ice water bath was supposed to be a punishment for not donating, not a requirement
Sometimes people were just doing the ice bucket and not donating, and then challenging other people. But the main aim of the campaign was to encourage people to donate money. That’s why Charlie Sheen just poured money on himself to represent the amount he would donate to ALS Association.
“That’s $10,000 in cash which I am donating to the ALS Foundation because let’s face it, ice is gonna melt and this money is actually going to help people.” said Charlie Sheen in the video.
3. Not Environmental-friendly
The campaign was criticized for wasting ices and water with some countries and states such as California experiencing a drought at the point of the time.
4. Spike in donation affected decline in funds in the future
Donations could temporarily affect ALSA’s standing with nonprofit watchdog groups like Charity Navigator and the Better Business Bureau, which track and rate how charitable organizations spend their money. This could potentially affect their status of a non-profit organisation.
Conclusion
The ice bucket challenge encouraged people to respond immediately and unthinkingly when taking part in, but failed to deliver key message on how ALSA is going to do with the charitable donation.
Let’s not forget the main goal here. Raising awareness and donating are far more practical than joining the hype in getting likes and views from viewers. I believe ALSA will be coming up with even better campaigns to spread their cause.
Mandy's Marketing life 