What makes a GREAT social marketing program?

This blog is developed to search for the best examples of social or community marketing and then examine what made them successful. In this post, I want to present one example and attempt to identify its elements of success. Your assignment...take a look at this site and identify what makes it a successful buzz marketing program.

Ever hear of the One Second Film?

Located at http://www.the1secondfilm.com/. The One Second Film is a great example of using social community sites to raise money, awareness, and passion for a particular cause. Here is their story [from their site]

The 1 Second Film is a non-profit collaborative art project that anyone can be part of, from celebrities to great-grandmothers. As a global community, we're creating the World's Biggest Shortest Film.

The 1 Second Film began as a student project at California Institute of the Arts in 2001; a collaborative festival bought hundreds of people together to paint 12 large murals that collectively form one-second of animation. The project has since grown from the ground up by allowing anyone to become a Producer of the film by donating $1 or more. Producers will be listed in the film’s credits (in order of amount donated) and receive profiles on the1secondfilm.com, where they can participate more.

With thousands of Producers, our end credits will last over an hour; a feature-length making of documentary will play during the credits, detailing the collaborative process. All profits raised by the finished film will be donated to the Global Fund for Women.

The 1 Second Film is the flagship production of The Collaboration Foundation, a non-profit art organization with a 5 Phase Plan to bring people around the world together, using collaborative art to foster global community and social change.

The project is the brainchild of Nirvan Mullick, an award winning filmmaker who began the project while a student at CalArts. Nirvan began fundraising on the streets with a xerox flier; person by person the project continues to grow.

Take a look at their site:

Their site is a great example of a social marketing site. They have a cause but, rather than make a traditional appeal, they decided to take a community oriented approach by 1] creating a way to get involved with the cause for a low cost, 2] making it possible to become a part of the solution and join the cause, and 3] made it easy to encourage others to join in the cause

If you take a look at the bottom of their site, you will see they are saavy marketers in the way they show their contributors and allow them to be a part of the whole one second film experience. Notice how they provide links to all of the major social sites so you can ask others to join as well as steps you can take to support the one second film and their marketing activities [including an expedition to Oprah

Do you think this type of marketing works. Search for them on Google. You will find over 35 million references to this project. Also, check out the blog references. What makes it successful? There are several things

1. Its a cause which is easy to support
2. Support is fun and intellectually engaging [it connect with you]
3. It is an approach which is fun to communicate with others [great buzz potential]
4. Their approach requires you to visit the site multiple times to see your progress
5. It allows you to become directly involved & can give you your 15 minutes of fame on the sites home page [which keeps you involved]
6. It is a program with a number of legs - making the film, other contributors, expedition to Oprah, celebrity tie-ins. It keeps you in contact with the program.

Take a look at their site and tell me what you think makes it work.