People’s Insights 100+ thinkers and planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss inspiring projects on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship on the MSLGROUP Insights Network. Every week, we pick up one project and curate the conversations around it — on the MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also on the broader social web — into a weekly insights report. Every quarter, we compile these insights, along with original research and insights from the MSLGROUP global network, into the People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine.
In 2013, we continue to track inspiring projects at the intersection of social data, crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a focus on projects that are shaping the Future of Citizenship. Do subscribe to receive our weekly insights reports, quarterly magazines, and annual reports, and do share your tips and comments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
We have synthesized the insights from our year-long endeavor throughout 2012 to provide foresights for business leaders and changemakers — in the ten-part People’s Insights Annual Report titled Now & Next: Ten Frontiers for the Future of Engagement.
People’s Insights weekly report
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
People’s Insights quarterly magazines
People’s Insights Annual Report
Inside Foreword by Pascal Beucler
Editorial by Gaurav Mishra and Nidhi Makhija
Purple: Purpose + People by Gaurav Mishra
Collaborative Social Innovation
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Grassroots Change Movements
The City 2.0
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Half the Sky Movement
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Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties
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Earth Hour
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Sygenta Thought for Food Challenge
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Participant Media + TakePart
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GE + NFL Head Health Challenge
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Shahbag Movement
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IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
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P&G Secret - Mean Stinks
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HP Social Innovation Relay
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Alpenliebe 365 Days of Positivity
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Shell Eco-marathon
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Pascal Beucler, SVP & Chief Strategy Officer, MSLGROUP
Foreword I am delighted to introduce the first issue of People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine Volume 2, which pulls together the best insights on social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship from our global network of 100+ planners.
citizenship, with a focus on projects in the areas of collaborative social innovation and grassroots change movements.
In our first year, we curated conversations around 52 inspiring projects and presented them to you, along with original research from our network, in our quarterly magazines. We further distilled these insights to identify the ten most important frontiers that will define the future of engagement in our annual report, titled Now & Next: Future of Engagement. In this issue, we continue to track inspiring projects at the intersection of social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and
I am happy to share that this issue coincides with the first anniversary of PurPle (Purpose + People), our awardwinning global citizenship offering. As you read our magazine, do consider how purpose-inspired marketing continues to be as important and relevant for marketers and business leaders today. Feel free to write to me at pascal.beucler@ mslgroup.com to share your feedback on the magazine, or start a conversation on how we can help you win in the areas of social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship.
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Editorial
Nidhi Makhija, Manager - Insights, MSLGROUP
Gaurav Mishra, VP of Insights, Innovation & Social, Asia, MSLGROUP
People’s Insights
online magazine.
The People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine pulls together insights from MSLGROUP’s Insights Network — a private network created on our proprietary People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform — in which 100+ planners within MSLGROUP share and discuss thought-provoking research and inspiring projects in the areas of social data, crowdsourcing, storytelling and citizenship.
In this issue of the magazine, we track inspiring projects at the intersection of social data, crowdsourcing and storytelling, with a special focus on PurPle projects – purpose-inspired projects that are shaping the future of corporate citizenship.
Every week, we pick one project from the MSLGROUP Insights Network and curate conversations around it — on the network itself but also on the social web — into a weekly insights report. Every quarter, we present the thirteen insights reports to you, along with original research from our global network, as an
People’s Insights Quarterly Magazine, Volume 2, Issue 1 In this issue, we share thirteen case studies on how organizations and changemakers are catalyzing grassroots change movements and creating collaborative social innovation in the areas of environment, health, education and human potential.
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Collaborative Social Innovation
Source: grafixer on Flickr
Grassroots Change Movements
Source: untitlism on Flickr
• How changemakers are crowdsourcing ideas around preparing cities for the future, encouraging collaboration and mobilizing urban citizens take action, with platforms like TED’s The City2.0. • How governments are energizing local leaders, non-profits and private foundations to collaborate in the fight against childhood obesity, with programs like Let’s Move! Cities Towns and Counties. • How brands like Sygenta, HP, Shell, IBM, and GE and NFL are inspiring students, employees, innovators and local authorities to co-create solutions around sustainability, health, nutrition and education, with collaborative social innovation challenges.
• How people are mobilizing supporters to protest against injustices and demand government action, with decentralized movements like the Shahbag Movement. • How changemakers are inspiring people to go from simply sharing their support to contributing to real solutions, with movements like Earth Hour and Half the Sky. • How media organizations like Participant Media are mobilizing people to take social action, with the use of powerful stories and social advocacy platform Take Part. • How brands like P&G Secret and Perfetti Alpenliebe are inspiring people to change their behavior and perform acts of kindness, with purpose-inspired multi-year marketing movements. Do subscribe to receive our weekly insights reports, quarterly magazines and annual report, and do share your tips and comments with us at @PeoplesLab on Twitter.
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PurPle: Purpose + People PurPle (Purpose + People) is MSLGROUP’s global offering for helping business leaders drive positive change by catalyzing collaborative social innovation and grassroots change movements. Grounded in the new triple bottom line - purpose, performance and participation - PurPle puts people at the center of its proprietary strategic communications process and helps unlock purpose for companies, to maximize participation and performance.
From Green to Blue to PurPle Over the first decade of the 21st century, what it means to be a good corporate citizen has changed dramatically. The intersection of four seismic shifts – end of trust, power to people, quest for meaning and rise of shared value – has made it imperative for organizations to integrate purpose, participation and performance.
1. The end of trust: People have more information than ever before and people don’t trust organizations. In fact, trust in all organizations, including corporations and governments, is at an all-time low across the world. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, has pointed out that “if [social media activists] can bring down the Egyptian regime in a few weeks, they can bring us down in nanoseconds.”
2. Power to the people: People have new sources of power and people believe that only they themselves can come up with innovative solutions to our most pressing problems, not governments or corporations. Jill Beraud, former CMO of PepsiCo America Beverages, shared that the Pepsi Optimism Project research study showed that young people believe that normal people, not public figures, are most likely to “motivate and inspire curious minds and creative spirits to achieve a greater good.” 3. The quest for meaning: People are searching for meaning connections with communities and organizations around a shared purpose, and expect organizations to enable such connections. 4. The rise of shared value: People are demanding that organizations not only rediscover their social purpose but also put it at the core of how they conduct their business and engage with their stakeholders, to create shared value. Jeff Immelt, CEO of GE, believes that “successful companies can only create solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems by working collaboratively” and argues that “business must engage — with communities, governments, customers and each other — because the status quo is not an option.” Therefore, to stay relevant to their stakeholders, organizations need to move from green (with a focus on environment) and blue (with a focus on sustainability), to PurPle (with a focus on purpose and people). Environment and sustainability continue to be important, but they are not enough. Organizations need to rediscover their unique purpose and realize it by inspiring, organizing and energizing their people. In short, organizations need to move from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Collaborative Social Innovation (CSI).
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From Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to Collaborative Social Innovation (CSI)
Services at P&G, believed that “the opportunity for businesses today is to become networks— with a culture of collaborative innovation, stewardship and integrity.” 3. From responsibility to innovation: Organizations need to not only do good, but also collaborate with their stakeholders to co-create innovative and sustainable solutions that create value for all stakeholders. Mark Parker, CEO of Nike, sees “sustainability, both social and environmental, as a powerful path to innovation, and crucial to our growth strategies.”
Photo from seyyed_mostafa_zamani on Flickr
1. From corporate to collaborative: Organizations need to not only rediscover their purpose, but also work together with their stakeholders to discover a shared purpose that all their stakeholders can commit to. A. G. Lafley, CEO and Chairman of P&G, had shared that “consumers are beginning in a very real sense to own our brands and participate in their creation… we need to begin to learn to let go.” 2. From social to social squared: Organizations need to not only create solutions that benefit the society, but also collaborate with all their stakeholders to co-create them. Filippo Passerini, former President of Global Business
Michael Dell, CEO and Chairman of Dell, sums up the opportunity this positive multi-stakeholder approach opens up for all of us: “The new engine of innovation driven by collaboration, openness, stewardship and the power of the social web gives all of us an opportunity to drive even more rapid, meaningful change across global institutions.” To help organizations navigate this journey, we have created two powerful tools: the PurPle Opportunity Matrix and the PurPle Journey Matrix. The PurPle Opportunity Matrix helps organizations identify opportunities for collaborative social innovation that integrate purpose, participation and performance. The PurPle Journey Matrix helps organizations navigate the journey from corporate social responsibility (CSR) to collaborative social innovation (CSI).
The PurPle Opportunity Matrix We have seen that collaborative social initiatives are designed at the intersection of the corporation’s internal strategic pillars and external opportunity areas.
Four internal strategic pillars
Global CEOs recognize that, in order to effectively drive strategic change internationally, it’s important for them to pursue “good growth” – growth that is financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable.1 For global CEOs, the four pillars to drive strategic change internationally include: customer-centricity, innovation, talent and a shared policy agenda. 1 PwC Global CEO Survey 2011, 1200+ business leaders across 69 countries.
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1. Customer centricity
3. Talent
Responding to changing behaviors in Western markets and new demands from fast growing markets in Asia, for both consumers and enterprise customers. Specifically, responding to growing customer sentiment about environmental, social and governance practices. For instance, Dell inspires young social innovators to share ideas to tackle the world’s problems and empowers them with access to peers and mentors and a chance to win funding, with the Dell Social Innovation Challenge.
Bridging skill mismatches to address the unique needs of a two-speed world, with slow growth in the Western markets and fast growth in Asian markets. Specifically, attracting the talent to deliver on the social innovation and change management strategy. For instance, IBM sends teams of employees to different countries for four week community based development projects intersecting business, development and society, with its Corporate Service Corps program.
2. Innovation Co-creating products and services by collaborating with partners and customers, often in non-home fast growing markets. Specifically, co-creating socially beneficial products and services. For instance, Heineken inspired people to share ideas on creating sustainable packaging for beer, with the Ideas Brewery: Sustainable Packaging Challenge.
4. Shared Policy Agenda Collaborating with government agencies in the areas of education, workforce health, intellectual property and infrastructure. For instance, IBM collaborated with local governments to develop sustainable systems with $50 million worth of IBM technology and expertise, with its Smarter Cities Challenge.
External change opportunity areas
There are millions of causes, but the three most important opportunity areas for organizations to truly integrate business and societal objectives are: environment, health and education. In addition, we have added a fourth opportunity area related to “happiness, kindness and human potential”, based on our analysis of socio-economic trends and corporate messages. 1. Environment, energy and sustainability Key socio-economic trends driving the environment opportunity include: energy insecurity; pressure from NGOs like Greenpeace; and consumer willingness to pay a premium for green products. For instance, Sygenta challenges students to answer the question ‘how will we feed 9 billion people by 2050,’ with the Thought for Food Challenge. 2. Health, wellness and nutrition Key socio-economic trends driving the health opportunity include: rise in lifestyle related
diseases; rising cost of healthcare; and consumer willingness to pay a premium for organic and healthy products. For instance, GE inspires businesses, innovators, entrepreneurs and students to share solutions around head health and cancer detection, with the Healthymagination Challenge. 3. Education, learning and capability building Key socio-economic trends driving the education opportunity include: gaps in public education; gap between demand and supply of mid-skilled manpower; and global war for high-skilled knowledge workers. For instance, HP partnered 9
with Junior Achievement to empower students around the world to build their capabilities and become social innovators, with the Social Innovation Relay. 4. Happiness, kindness and human potential Key socio-economic trends driving the happiness opportunity include: prolonged recession in the West, the gap between aspirations and reality in emerging markets, and our increasingly solitary lives. For instance, Doritos empowered youth in Argentina to come together with a movement to bring slow dancing back. The PurPle Opportunity Matrix Organizations can find opportunities to integrate purpose, participation and performance at the intersection of four internal change drivers and four external opportunity areas.
one interviews and group workshops with the organization’s leaders, to understand the values of its founders and the strategic priorities of its leaders. We then invite employees and stakeholders to participate in an online network to reaffirm these values and strategic priorities and explore external change opportunities that are relevant to both the organization and its stakeholders. Finally, we organize a workshop with the organization’s leaders and stakeholders to synthesize their ideas and create platforms and programs that truly resonate with both the organization’s internal strategic priorities and external change opportunities.
The PurPle Journey Matrix We have seen that organizations typically go through four phases in the journey from corporate social responsibility (CSR) to collaborative social innovation (CSI). Purpose and people are at the core of this shift, which we call PurPle (Purpose + People), and we created a 2X2 matrix called the PurPle Journey Matrix to help organizations think about this shift.
The PurPle Opportunity Matrix is essentially a left-brain tool for visually representing the right brain approach of synthesizing complex priorities into a compelling narrative.
To help an organization rediscover and recommit to its shared purpose, we start with one-toVolume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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The Y-axis of the PurPle Journey Matrix is potential versus protection. Most organizations first engage in protection initiatives to minimize negative impact, as the perceived punishment for negative impact is higher than the perceived reward for positive impact. However, once most organizations adopt protection initiatives, they simply become expected of any organization. As organizations begin to see that meaningful potential initiatives can help them engage with their stakeholders, including employees, at a deeper level, they start exploring them more seriously.
The X-axis of the PurPle Journey Matrix is corporate reputation versus consumer activation. Most organizations first started thinking about their purpose from a corporate reputation perspective. Over the last decade, many have been tempted to tap into the growing consumer sentiment for doing good by creating cause marketing and (increasingly) movement marketing initiatives. Over time, these initiatives have turned into a cacophony of copycats and consumers have become critical of communications campaigns that are not rooted in commitment. So, most organizations now realize that corporate reputation and consumer activation are intrinsically interlinked. The four quadrants created by the intersection of protection/ potential and corporate reputation/ consumer activation create the four phases of the PurPle Journey: corporate social responsibility, philanthropy-based cause marketing, purposeinspired cause marketing and purpose-inspired movement marketing. While we are seeing a shift from protection to potential initiatives, protection initiatives are still table stakes. Similarly, like we said earlier, corporate reputation and consumer activation have become intrinsically interlinked. So, organizations need to have initiatives in all four quadrants, but weave them into a cohesive PurPle Ecosystem. The PurPle Journey Matrix helps organizations navigate this new normal at two levels. At one level, it helps organizations transform their protection initiatives into potential initiatives by adding the magical element of people and participation to them. At another level, it helps organizations map out their PurPle initiatives against relevant others, identify opportunities to connect them into a cohesive PurPle Ecosystem, and tell a consistent, compelling story around them. But, first let’s understand the nuances of each of the four stages of the PurPle Journey themselves. Corporate social responsibility (protection/ corporate reputation) Corporate social responsibility initiatives typically focus on protecting corporate reputation by minimizing the organization’s negative impact on the society or compensating for it via philanthropic donations. We have identified three types of corporate social responsibility initiatives: sustainability, philanthropy, and volunteering.
1. Sustainability initiatives typically involve restructuring operations and supply chain to reduce energy or material consumption, apart from ensuring regulatory compliance and reporting. For instance, Volkswagen has launched various local sustainability initiatives to create a culture of sustainability internally and externally, and to produce fuel-efficient products as part of its Think Blue philosophy. 2. Philanthropy initiatives typically include making philanthropic donations to non-profits and foundations. For instance, JPMorgan Chase and its Foundation gave more than $190 million to nonprofit organizations in 37 countries in 2012 as part of its global philanthropy program. 3. Volunteering initiatives often encourage employees to volunteer time or money for causes supported by the organization, via programs like designated volunteering days or matching donations. For instance, Wells Fargo matches employee’s financial contributions to eligible schools and educational foundations, through its Matching Gifts Program. Philanthropy-based cause marketing (protection/ consumer activation) Philanthropy-based cause marketing initiatives typically focus on supporting a cause, by linking philanthropic donations to consumer actions, like buying the company’s products, talking about the cause or voting for the cause. We have identified three types of philanthropybased cause marketing initiatives: retail cause marketing, philanthropy contests, and viral cause marketing. 1. Retail cause marketing encourage consumers to support causes by buying specific products, by linking philanthropic donations to sales of the company’s products. For instance, several brands have partnered with (RED) and contribute a portion of (RED) product sales to the Global Fund Against HIV/AIDS. 2. Philanthropy contests ask non-profits to activate their networks to vote for them in a contest to win philanthropic donations. For instance, Toyota empowered people to decide which non-profits should qualify as recipients in its philanthropy program 100 Cards for Good. 3. Viral cause marketing initiatives link philanthropic donations to number of virtual actions or conversations about the cause, using embeds, likes, or retweets. For instance, Samsung donated £1 to local children’s 11
charities for every mile of activity tracked on the Samsung Hope Relay mobile application. Purpose-inspired movement marketing (potential/ consumer activation)
typically focus on inspiring consumers to act as change agents within their own communities and create grassroots movements around a shared purpose, or Social Heartbeat.
Purpose-inspired movement marketing initiatives
MSLGROUP’s Alpenliebe Kindness Movement
We have identified three types of purpose-inspired movement marketing initiatives: behavior change platforms, change agents platforms and programs to crowdsource social change. 1. Behavior change platforms create the tools and the support system to enable individuals and communities to change deeply entrenched behaviors. For instance, Alpenliebe has catalyzed a grassroots change movement in China by inspiring millions of Chinese youth to share, appreciate and engage in everyday acts of kindness. 2. Change agents platforms provide the tools and the enabling ecosystem for people to act as change agents in their communities. Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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For instance, in 2009, Starbucks encouraged consumers to volunteer five hours of their time to community projects. 3. Crowdsourcing social change initiatives involve creating broad contests with consumers to crowdsource ideas for social change. For instance, in 2010 and 2011, PepsiCo gave grants worth $20 million per year to ideas that can refresh the world.
Collaborative social innovation (potential/ corporate reputation) Collaborative social innovation initiatives typically focus on inspiring, organizing and energizing
stakeholders, including employees, to co-create innovative and sustainable solutions around a shared purpose, or Social Heartbeat.
Source: MSLGROUP’s Dell Go Green Challenge
We have identified three types of collaborative social innovation initiatives: platforms to crowdsource social innovation, social innovation ecosystems and public-private networks. 1. Crowdsourcing social innovation initiatives involve creating focused contests with relevant stakeholders to crowdsource ideas for social innovation. For instance, as part of its commitment to “imagine and build innovative solutions to environment challenges”, GE has created the $200 million GE Ecomagination Challenge to fund ideas that can reimagine powering the grid, or powering homes. 2. Social innovation ecosystems are open networks that catalyze an ecosystem of social innovation by bringing together stakeholders and know-how. For instance, as part of its Mahindra Rise purpose to enable its stakeholders to rise, Mahindra Group created the Spark the Rise challenge in 2011 to support ideas that can propel innovation,
entrepreneurship, and positive change in India. The platform not only gives grants to the most popular ideas, but also enables others to support them by donating time, equipment, expertise or funding. 3. Public-private networks are public or private networks that bring together stakeholders from business, government, academia and civil society to institutionalize social innovation. For instance, Walmart has created 14 Sustainable Value Networks since 2005 to bring together diverse stakeholders to develop solutions to fulfill Walmart’s commitment towards renewable energy, zero waste and sustainable products.
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Three reasons to go PurPle Your organization might have just started on the PurPle Journey through a corporate social responsibility or a cause marketing program. Or, it might have a number of initiatives spread all over the PurPle Journey Matrix. In either case, our PurPle approach can help you rethink the interconnections between purpose, participation and performance.
In summary, here are three reasons for your organization to go PurPle and build a more meaningful engagement with your stakeholders: 1. Inspire your stakeholders to co-create innovative and sustainable social innovation solutions.
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2. Inspire consumers to act as change agents and create grassroots movements. 3. Connect existing initiatives into a cohesive PurPle Ecosystem and tell a compelling story around them.
Collaborative Social Innovation
The City 2.0
What is The City 2.0? In 2012, TED announced a new platform, The City 2.0, to crowdsource ideas on how cities can be better equipped for the future, encourage
collaboration and inspire urban citizens take action. Ten of the best ideas would be awarded $10,000 each to kick start change.
Source: thecity2.org
As Nate Berg, staff writer at The Atlantic Cities said: “TED unveiled a new website that aims to crowdsource ideas on city-focused projects and award mini-grants to enable the best ones.” According to TED, the vision for the platform is to build an “ever-expanding network of citizen-led, scalable experiments.” Writer Anthony Flint describes The City 2.0 as: “a kind of global Wikipedia connecting citizens, political leaders, urban experts, companies, and organizations, with the goal of improving the 21st
century city using up-to-the-minute crowdsourcing techniques. “The ambitious goal is to create a clearinghouse for tools and methodologies and best practices to reshape cities around the world.”
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Source: 2012 TED Prize Wish: The City 2.0
The City 2.0 platform was re-designed in January 2013.
Inspiring people to become changemakers Source: theatlanticcities.com
The platform and the ‘The City 2.0 challenge’ are supported by a $100,000 TED Prize and funding from private foundations and corporations. Changemaker Conor WhiteSullivan noted: “The platform is supported with $250,000 in funding from the Knight Foundation, and a number of large corporations are throwing their weight behind it as well, including IBM and Autodesk.”
The City 2.0 mobilizes people to participate in the process of driving change. As Inhabitat’s Tafline Laylin commented: “It’s a novel idea, but it is also incredibly inspiring. Instead of placing the responsibility of our future in the hands of a few politicians, TED is encouraging all citizens to take it back into their own.” People can participate online by sharing inspirations, stories and projects on The City 2.0 platform, submitting resources, competing for a grant and sharing feedback. Offline, people can organize or participate in TEDxCity2.0 events and TEDxLive viewing parties.
Source: thecity2.org/tips
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Collaborative Social Innovation
The City 2.0
To learn more about city initiatives, The City 2.0 encourages people to browse through city-themed TED and TEDx talks and has created a book City 2.0: The Habitat of the Future and How to Get There.
TEDxCity2.0 – An amplification channel The City 2.0 is further supported by the TEDx program, through which passionate individuals and changemakers organize independent TED-like events in their communities. In October 2012, 28 global TEDx communities hosted TEDxCity2.0 events, helping the initiative increase its reach, build a network of changemakers, crowdsource more ideas and inspire action at the grassroots level. AlexanderDSM commented: “With TED’s City 2.0 [the focus is] not just big American cities, but cities around the world. TED’s core competency is not just in the curation of ideas, but it’s also worth noting the TEDx program. With over 3,000 TEDx events in three years, there is the chance for the TEDx communities in cities to embrace this year’s TED prize and enact it in their local communities.”
leaders right in our backyard, but it will take all of us working together to become the City 2.0 “ To encourage sharing of stories, inspirations and projects, TEDxCity2.0 introduced a new initiative – Action Pitch Sessions – which invites five members to share their ideas onstage in a two minute pitch. After the pitches, event organizers encourage the audience to support one or more of these ideas and help bring them to life. Talks and Action Pitches from the TEDxCity2.0 events are available on YouTube here and here. A second TEDxCity2.0 day will be organized in 2013.
The City 2.0 Challenge The City 2.0 Challenge bootstrapped the crowdsourcing process and served as an incentive for participation. People submitted their ideas online, and winners were announced on a rolling basis first at TEDGlobal in June 2012, and then on the TED blog. The winners received $10,000 each to fund their project. ArchDaily’s Vanessa Quirk reported: “The Award, which offers $10,000 to 10 innovative ideas in Urban Transformation, has been awarded – so far – to an eco-artist, a Wikipedia of house-building, a noise mapper, a couple of sign-post rebels, and a public-health activist and educator.”
Source: ted.com/pages/tedx_tedxcity
Mark Dewey, who organized a TEDxCity2.0 event in San Diego, commented on the event’s contribution to creating a global community of changemakers: “Being a part of this global event opened the exchange of ideas to include what has and has not worked in other cites (sic) and questions about we can adopt best practices from proven models. Far too often, these events only dive into local problems with local solutions. Sometimes we need to expand beyond our zip code to understand what our problems really are. We have an incredible pool of thought
Source: Playlist: 8 City 2.0 award-winner videos
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Can crowdsourcing drive civic change? While The City 2.0 benefits from the size and reach of the TED and TEDx communities, thinkers debate the potential of the crowdsourcing platform in creating the city of the future in real life. Jake Barton who runs a similar platform, Change By Us, commented: “Creating a website is not terribly difficult. But creating a project that actually has an impact on communities? That’s really hard. From my experience, the website is a great way to gain attention and motivation and traction, but to actually make real change happen, it’s people.” Diana Lind, director of Next City and one of the winners of The City 2.0 Challenge, believes the challenge model is more efficient than the open collaboration platform: “While the Internet is great for ordering shoes or reading blogs, it might just not be the best holistic system to organize people or to
create change in cities. We have realized that the public sector isn’t going to solve every civic crisis alone, but in fact works best when partnering with the private and non-profit sector. It could be that the Internet, by itself, is also insufficient. “While the competition portion of The City 2.0 is clearly oriented toward that kind of inperson collaboration that is required to create change in cities, the TED prize, with its “wish list,” suggests that the Internet is the magic wand that’s going to jumpstart change in our communities.” Blogger Kyle Rogler feels the ideas shared can inspire solutions: “Crowd sourcing ideas from citizens may not provide exact solutions to the problems faced by a city, but it will help inform general opinions and generate a huge variety of unique ideas that designers can draw inspiration from to provide more precise solutions.”
Models of innovation Several changemakers and organizations have used crowdsourcing and collaborative social innovation to drive civic change. For instance, crowdsourcing initiatives like Open Ministry in Finland and programs that incorporate collaboration like Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties in the U.S. are seeing early signs of success in enabling citizens to propose new laws and mobilizing local leaders to take action.
Source: Open Ministry (avoinministeraio.fi)
Source: Let’s Move! Cities, Town and Counties (healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org)
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/peoplesinsights-volume-2-issue-6-the-city-20 Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Collaborative Social Innovation
The City 2.0
Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties
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What is Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties? Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties is a part of Michelle Obama’s national Let’s Move! initiative to combat obesity in children. LMCTC encourages collaboration among various U.S. government departments, elected officials, non-profits and private foundations to bring about change at the grassroots level. To date, 205 local elected leaders have joined the program.
local leaders. It was re-launched in July 2012 with a new framework, specific goals, guidelines for measuring progress, and the inclusion of Counties. Leaders can sign up for the program online and must commit to meeting five goals that promote healthy eating in and out of schools, and creation of play spaces. Rachel White, a reader of the Chicago Sun-Times, commented: “I think what gives this program its great protential (sic) is that it take (sic) a holistic approach. In other words, it just doesn’t focus on school lunches, although school lunches are a huge problem.” The National League of Cities spearheads the initiative and offers local leaders resources such as an LMCTC toolkit, monthly seminars and access to technical partners and philanthropists at national conferences. Innovation and problem solving occurs at the local level.
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
As Michelle Obama said:
How does it work? The program was initially launched in 2010 as Let’s Move! Cities and Towns and focused on creating awareness and gathering support from
“What we know we need to do is give parents, communities and families the tools and information they need to make choices that are right for them. And there’s no one size fits all solution.”
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
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Collaborative Social Innovation
Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties
Collaboration and Knowledge sharing Elected officials collaborate with early care and education providers, and schools to identify local problems and find relevant solutions. For instance, Beaumont City in Texas is enlisting the help of athletes to encourage more students to participate in school breakfast and lunch programs. As The Examiner’s Kevin King reports: “One of the plans that the city is considering is starting a public service announcement program using local athletes and through the medium of the Lamar University communication department.” Leaders are also encouraged to reach out to other leaders in similar neighborhoods for guidance, and to share their own learning among the LMCTC community. Leaders can use a comparison tool on the Healthy Communities for a Healthy Future website to identify similar cities, towns and counties (based on population, race breakup, age, land and income) and compare performances. The National League of Cities also organizes blog posts, webinars and conferences to showcase success stories. Nidhi Makhija, member of the MSLGROUP Insights Network, commented that the initiative could benefit from being more social in nature.
Incentivizing participation LMCTC uses elements of gamification, such as challenges, badges and leader boards, to encourage a spirit of competition and to award successful leaders with recognition. Kelly Liyakasa, associate editor at CRM magazine, points out the benefits of gamification strategies in organizations: “Introducing game techniques into the enterprise can motivate employees to perform specific behaviors, but it can also improve morale and excitement around tasks, projects, and even job roles.” LMCTC’s five goals or challenges ensure that leaders are focusing their efforts in meaningful areas. Leaders share their progress on these goals regularly via an online survey. When they meet specified benchmarks, they are awarded bronze, silver or gold medals. These medals – and the absence thereof – are visible on the LMCTC website – Healthy Communities for a Healthy Future, along with details of the local leader. People can look up the progress of all participating cities, towns and counties and also see the overall medal standings.
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
Source: peopleslab.mslgroup.com
The medals also reflect well on the cities, as the editorial team at online newspaper RecordJournal, pointed out: “As part of Let’s Move! rewards, Meriden now has its own page on the National League of Cities website. When young families consider moving into the area and Google this city, they will come upon this site which speaks well of the community. Thus, recognitions by Let’s Move! and KaBOOM! could appeal to potential homebuyers, who bring in new business and neighborhood interaction.” The National League of Cities has awarded 669 medals to date.
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The grassroots factor In addition to energizing stakeholders at the grassroots level, the LMCTC initiative also attracts plenty of local coverage – especially when medals are awarded to cities, towns and counties.
Paul Wohlleben, a columnist at FedTech Magazine, believes that “Big Data Is a Big Deal for Government” and can help result in more effective governance: “Government can use big data to gain the same benefits as for-profit firms. Government would be improved by better understanding the discrete needs of its constituents, by improving the efficiencies of its processes, by understanding performance and results, by preventing fraud, by preventing loss — the possibilities are endless.”
Other collaboration models The Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties initiative resembles an early-stage collaborative social innovation ecosystem. More mature innovation ecosystems, like the Ashoka Changemakers platform, facilitate online collaboration and idea sharing, and direct access to funding. Others, like Sygenta’s Thought For Food Challenge and Mahindra’s Spark the Rise use innovation challenges to attract and build a community of changemakers.
Source: eyeonannapolis.net, downtownstpete.ilovetheburg.com, columbiamissourian.com
Measuring success with data Another unique aspect of the LMCTC initiative is its use of data. The National League of Cities aggregates data provided by local leaders through online surveys to track progress over time and identify technical assistance opportunities. For instance, data shared by participating leaders indicates they are unfamiliar with the USDA MyPlate nutrition guidelines – a requirement that makes up Goal II. The distribution of medals too indicates this is an area in which local leaders could use more assistance from the National League of Cities.
We are also seeing collaboration emerge in “design-led innovation” in which people collaborate on platforms like OpenIDEO, and governments set up innovation units like Denmark’s MindLab, or work with non-profits like Code for America, to co-create new public solutions. View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/peoplesinsights-vol-2-issue-2-lets-move-cities-towns-andcounties
Source: healthycommunitieshealthyfuture.org
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Let’s Move! Cities, Towns and Counties
Thought for Food Challenge
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What is the Thought for Food Challenge? The Thought for Food Challenge is a global student innovation challenge, established in 2011, to inspire a new generation of thinkers and innovators around food security. The program challenges students to answer the question – how will we feed 9 billion people by 2050. TFF is sponsored by global agri-business Sygenta to engage global youth and build a community of changemakers. Source: Initiate. Energize. Solve. Thought for Food Challenge 2012
How does it work? In its first year, TFF invited student teams from ten leading European universities to participate in the challenge. Now, in its third year, TFF invites university students from across the globe to participate. In round 1, students are given four missions: research and understand food issues, brainstorm solutions, create and publish a project proposal and conquer social media. As in previous seasons, TFF offers resources to support
students in these missions, in the form of educational reading material and tips and tricks on using social media. After two months, and a round of public voting, five finalist teams will be selected based on the project’s potential to create awareness and incite social change, and the business plan’s demonstration of long-term and out-of-the-box thinking.
Source: http://www.tffchallenge.com/
The finalists will then enter round 2, a four month phase where they work with $1,000 seed money and professional mentorship to refine their idea. The five teams are then invited to the TFF Global Summit in Berlin to present their proposals and compete for $5,000 and $10,000 startup investments. Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Thought for Food Challenge
Reaching out to colleges Organizers contacted leading colleges with invitations to participate in the challenge and offered promotional support to help excite students and professors: “To get started, please click “Join the Challenge” for more information. We’ll simply ask you to encourage your students to form teams of five and sign up by April 9th at www.tffchallenge.com. We’ll even provide you with everything you’ll need to get started, including: • A sample email you can send through your communication networks
• A poster you can print and post around campus • An info doc introducing the Thought for Food challenge • Testimonials from previous participants Feel free to pass on to student groups or professors that may be interested in helping pull together teams.” Colleges participate to enhance their reputation and offer unique learning opportunities to their students.
Source: borlaug.tamu.edu
In our Now & Next: Future of Engagement report on Collaborative Social Innovation, we highlight participation of education institutions in collaborative social innovation initiatives as a growing trend in 2013-2015. 27
Engaging the Next Gen With TFF, Sygenta joins companies like Dell, HP, Siemens and Samsung, in reaching out to school and university students to energize them around real issues and subjects declining in popularity, like STEM education and agriculture.
“I like it because it focuses its attention on the future generation (us) and because it demonstrates how easy social media and the Internet allow for easy get-together’s of like-minded people that can help share ideas.”
Christine Gould, Senior Manager of Global Public Policy and Head of Next Generation Engagement at Sygenta noted:
In the first two editions, TFF winners were flown to the One Young World conference to present their ideas to other student changemakers. Here’s a video of the TFF winners sharing their learnings and ideas at the conference:
“Young people are increasingly becoming disconnected from agriculture and don’t understand the complex challenges and opportunities facing us. As we focus on the long-term vision to improve agriculture, the environment and communities around the world, we are taking this opportunity to engage some of the brightest minds of the next generation.” Through design, structure and gratification, TFF aspires to bring in a cool factor and create excitement. The program is also designed to make students talk about their project, publish their ideas on websites (like Team Demeter) and YouTube (like University of Reading’s Mission 3), and gather votes, thus spreading the cause to their networks as well.
Source: TFF Challenge winners take to the One Young World Stage
And here’s a video of how TFF engaged other young delegates at the One Young World conference:
Source: Thought For Food 2012 @ One Young World
Source: twitter.com/AUTFFChallenge
Students participate for the forum to share their ideas and the opportunity to do meaningful work. As Beau Barnette, member of one of 2012’s winning teams, said: “I love to seek real life solutions to supposedly out of reach problems. Researching to develop ideas and confronting the individual aspects of the situation is a thrill. As a landscape architecture student, it is of course exciting to pursue design problems and solutions outside of the classroom setting.” TFF also piqued the interest of other students like Pascal Muller, who commented: Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Quality of Responses Organizations usually opt for collaborative social innovation challenges to reach out to new and numerous thinkers. Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of open innovation platform Innocentive, highlights this point in his recent Tedx Talk: “What we have created are systems where we build large facilities and large buildings full of the researchers that we think can solve the most important problems. We hire the best in the world to work on those problems, but we all know the fundamental limitation of that kind of system. We couldn’t hire all the smartest people in a given field if we wanted to, we can’t.”
Collaborative Social Innovation
Thought for Food Challenge
In addition, organizations are looking for fresh ways of looking at the same problems or, as TFF puts it, ideas that “Disrupt the Status Quo.” Students who participated in the challenge have diverse educational backgrounds (in business, psychology, architecture, technology and agriculture) and also diverse personal experiences (like teaching part time at a local school) and beliefs (like freeganism). As a result, their responses varied from slam poetry sessions, flash mobs and research experiments to generate awareness at the grassroots level; to plans that proposed insects as alternative food choices, and eco parks and behavior change games to educate people about the food generation process.
“The best sources for the great ideas we’ll need to keep moving forward are the people we surround ourselves with everyday… friends, children, parents, and grandparents who motivate and inspire curious minds and creative spirits to achieve a greater good.”
Source: facebook.com/tffchallenge
Source: University of Reading: Food for Thought challenge Source: facebook.com/tffchallenge
Evolution of the TFF challenge model In 2011, TFF was positioned as an idea generation and awareness platform. Recent changes to the 2013 program structure indicate a move towards building a community and support platform for youth changemakers. In year 3, TFF invites sustainable business proposals that last beyond the six months of the challenge, and encourages students to create their own start ups with investment grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Also new in 2013 is the introduction of a Thought for Food Global Summit in Berlin to connect student innovators with other changemakers around the world.
Changemaker platforms While some brands use collaborative social innovation initiatives as a way to give back to society (Samsung Solve for Tomorrow) and recruit talent (Siemens Green Dream contest), we are seeing more brands, like Sygenta, create long lasting platforms to connect and support changemakers (Dell Social Innovation Challenge). Branded changemaker platforms have had significant traction, with platforms like Dell Social Innovation Challenge and Mahindra Spark the Rise crossing 250,000 members each.
TFF’s community-model of inspiring innovation is showing early signs of success, with former participants sharing their current entrepreneurial plans and commitment to their winning ideas on the TFF Facebook page. Indeed, as Jill Beraud, former CMO, PepsiCo Americas Beverages once said: Source: sparktherise.com
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Source: dellchallenge.com
Michael Dell, CEO and Chairman of Dell, sums up the opportunity this positive multi-stakeholder approach opens up for all: “The new engine of innovation driven by collaboration, openness, stewardship and the power of the social web gives all of us an opportunity to drive even more rapid, meaningful change across global institutions.�
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/peoplesinsights-vol-2-issue-1-thought-for-food-challenge
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GE NFL Head Health Challenge
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What is the GE NFL Head Health Challenge? In March 2013, GE and NFL launched the open innovation Head Health Challenge to mobilize innovators around head health: to help diagnose mild traumatic brain injury and improve the safety of athletes, members of the military and society overall. The challenge is a part of the Head Health Initiative a new four-year, $60 million partnership between GE and NFL to research the brain.
The challenge launches amidst growing concerns around the safety of professional footballers. CNN’s Chris Isidore notes the importance of this initiative not only for the NFL, but also the larger public: “Experts say beyond the legal risks, the growing concern about football’s brain injuries could hurt the sport’s popularity. The threat of brain damage, especially to young players, is prompting a growing number of parents to hold their sons back from playing competitive football… “People outside of football, including injured members of the military and those with degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, will also benefit from the joint effort.”
How it works Like most online collaborative social innovation initiatives, the Head Health Challenge follows a contest model in which GE and NFL post the challenge on a platform and invites individuals, groups of individuals or other organizations to submit innovations.
Source: nflgebrainchallenge.com
Forbes’s Monte Burke explains the initiative: “There will be two parts. The first will involve a $40 million research project headed up by GE, designed to better diagnose mild head trauma and predict its outcomes. The second will be two different challenges, led by Under Armour, but accessible to anyone and called the “open innovation challenge.” The first of those will also involve diagnosis and prognosis. The second will focus on trying to design materials that help protect the head from trauma.”
NY Times’ Judy Battista explains the crowdsourcing process: “G.E. would run, with an initial investment of $20 million, what it calls an innovation challenge, asking inventors, entrepreneurs, scientists and academicians to submit ideas for how safety equipment could be improved. The most promising ideas would be selected, financed and brought to market, opening the field to ideas that have not sprung from G.E. or helmet manufacturers.” The $20 million prize money will be spread over the two parts of the challenge. Part I launched in March 2013 and calls for submissions by July 2013. Part II is scheduled to launch in the second half of 2013 and continue into 2014.
Source: forbes.com
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GE + NFL Head Health Challenge
Source: ninesights.com
Proposals are judged according to set of technical criteria, and a panel of external medical experts will advise GE and NFL on the selection of awardees. The Head Health Challenge offers two types of Guided Funding Awards designed to enable collaboration between GE and NFL and the award winners. Awards range from $100,000 to $300,000 and will support development of proof of concept. Awardees will receive the cash in installments – the first after agreeing to a guided funding plan with GE and NFL, and the second upon submission of a progress report after six months. This structure instills the need for accountability and protects the interests of GE and NFL, while also providing a structured approach for the award winners. At the completion of the funding and concept development, winners have the opportunity to discuss additional funding or business relationships with GE and NFL.
Collaborative social innovation at GE
For instance, since the launch of the GE ecomagination Challenge to find innovations in energy and sustainability, GE has committed $134 million to 22 investments and commercial partnerships, granted $1.1 million in seed funding to early stage companies and entrepreneurs, and acquired one of the businesses that entered the challenge.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF1UCsLn8Fs
In addition to the series of ecomagination challenges around sustainable living, GE has also launched a Healthymagination Challenge to find solutions in the fight against breast cancer.
GE has launched several similar open innovation challenges as part of its business strategy, to co-create innovative and sustainable solutions that create shared value. With this model of crowdsourcing, GE is usually looking to invest in or acquire the innovation, or promote it by supporting it with its business scale. 33
Why open Innovation
Big data and sensors in healthcare
New this year is GE’s decision to launch the challenge on open innovation platform Nine Sigma, which has a community of 2 million solution providers including businesses, universities, government agencies and innovators. The challenge is also open to innovators beyond the NineSigma community.
One of the possible areas of innovation in the Head Health Challenge involves the use of sensors as a research tool. As Education Week’s Bryan Toprek notes:
In a recent TEDx Talk, Dwayne Spradlin, CEO of open innovation platform Innocentive, highlights the benefit of tapping into crowds: “What we have created are systems where we build large facilities and large buildings full of the researchers that we think can solve the most important problems. We hire the best in the world to work on those problems, but we all know the fundamental limitation of that kind of system. We couldn’t hire all the smartest people in a given field if we wanted to, we can’t.” On the Head Health Challenge website, GE shares its own experience with crowdsourcing: “The power of collaboration between diverse networks cannot be overstated. Our experience has shown us that at GE we don’t have all of the solutions, but rather the unique opportunity to seek out great ideas and accelerate their growth. We can leverage our scale and expertise to nurture innovation wherever its seeds grow.”
“In an interview with the Associated Press after Monday’s announcement, Goodell mentioned the possibility of players wearing helmets with sensors to help detect hits that could cause concussions. Such helmets are already being used by researchers to determine the severity of hits during youth-football practices, for instance.”
Source: bigstory.ap.org
In our previous People’s Insights reports, we have examined the use of sensors, wearable tech and data to drive behavioral change and help people make better decisions (see our weekly report on the Nike FuelBand). These technologies are now becoming more common as start-ups and big health care companies explore the use of sensors and data as a research tool, to identify new patterns. GigaOM’s Ki Mae Heussner notes:
GE and NFL play complementary roles within their partnership. In an interview with Fast Company, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell noted the need for a partner to process the proposals and derive solutions:
“In the last couple of months, startups like Brain Sentry and X2 Bio systems, which use sensors to monitor head impact, have attracted funding from investors.”
“I must get several proposals a day: ‘We have a solution,’ ‘We have the next best material,’ ‘We’ve got the helmet.’ We don’t have a disciplined system to evaluate and learn from each of those, because it’s usually not one or the other. Maybe it’s the combination. That’s the challenge of innovation.” And, GE CEO Jeff Immelt pointed out NFL’s potential to “make brain advancements a public priority”: “With a lot of research, you really want a catalyst so other people will join in. Very few institutions have the convening power that the NFL does.”
Heussner also notes: “Already, big companies and emerging startups are leading the way in the smart use of data. At GigaOM’s recent Structure: Data conference, Aetna’s head of innovation Michael Palmer talked about how the company is using data to prevent diabetes and heart attacks. Startup Asthmapolis (which this week raised $5 million) is using GPS data collected via sensors attached to inhalers to help individuals, physicians and public health officials uncover asthma-related patterns.” We cover the rise of data and sensors in our annual reports on Behavior Change Games and Collective Intelligence. View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/ge-nfl-headhealth-challenge-peoples-insights-volume-2issue-11-18476256
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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GE + NFL Head Health Challenge
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
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What is the Smarter Cities Challenge? IBM launched the Smarter Cities Challenge to collaborate with local governments and cofund technology-based solutions to city-specific
urban challenges. Through the Smarter Cities Challenge, IBM aims to help 100 cities across the world address urban issues with $50 million worth of IBM technology and expertise.
Source: fastcompany.com
IBM focuses on cities that collect data, and leverages its own technology and expertise to integrate city systems and solve problems. As former IBM-er Adam Christensen blogged: “Cities have tremendous opportunities to use data, connectivity, and sophisticated software tools to know themselves better and improve their efficiency and effectiveness as providers of services and engines of economic growth.” The Smarter Cities Challenge was launched as a three-year initiative in 2011. By the end of 2012, IBM has sent 300 experts to work with 60 cities around the world. Winners of the final phase of the challenge were announced in November 2012.
How it works Cities applied to the challenge online over three years and IBM announced 20 to 35 winners each year. Blogger Itir Sonuparlak noted: “In order to receive the funds and the expertise, the cities had to be prepared to match IBM’s investment with their own commitment of time and resources. The submissions that were favored included urban concerns that could be addressed using “smarter” technologies, the availability of data, and cities that demonstrated a record of innovative problem solving.”
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Source: IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
A team of IBM experts visits each winning city and spends three weeks working with local authorities to analyze the city and recommend smart city solutions. Collaborative Social Innovation
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
Fast Company’s Ariel Schwartz wrote: “The program… will give $250,000 to $400,000 worth of services to each city selected through the competitive grant process. Those services may include access to City Forward (an IBM tool which allows cities to analyze and visualize data across systems), workshops on social networking tools, time with top IBM talent, and assistance with strategic planning.” In addition, cities are also introduced to the IBM Intelligent Operations Center, a robust tool that monitors and manages city services, in its effort to create smarter cities.
simulation of an urban city and the challenges it faces. As Fast Company’s Ariel Schwartz noted: “Cities considering the application process might want to take a look at IBM’s CityOne, a city simulation game intended to help developers and city planners deal with issues related to climate change, electrical grid management, banking and more. The game could, in other words, help cities pinpoint problems that might be alleviated with a little help from IBM.”
Writer Heidi Schwartz noted: “These pilots leverage IBM technology and will combine high volumes of data from sensors and databases (aka “Big Data”) with a layer of analytics software. This infrastructure will allow officials to visualize and manage operations more efficiently.” Source: IBM CityOne Trailer: A Smarter Planet Game
Writer Rachel King pointed out: “Essentially, IBM’s concept is to build a new user interface that exists between inhabitants and their city.” To demonstrate the capabilities of its technology, IBM created the game CityOne – a virtual
In their journey to make cities smarter, IBM experts address urban issues ranging from administration, citizen engagement, economic development, education & workforce, environment, public safety, social services, transportation and urban planning.
Source: smartercities.tumblr.com
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Then, IBM documents the experience and learning from each city into an executive report or case study and shares this on the Smarter Cities Challenge website – giving other cities and thinkers the opportunity to explore solutions. Jen Crozier, Vice President of IBM Global Citizenship Initiatives, shared: “While the first two years of the program were about building expertise and connecting city leaders, the third year of the program will focus on synthesis, and the ways in which the lessons learned from one city can be combined with those from another, to yield unexpected insight into the challenges facing cities.”
Source: triplepundit.com
Data, crowds and smart cities Entrepreneurs, organizations and governments are keenly exploring the use of data, connected objects and crowdsourcing to make cities smarter – especially as cities become more crowded and congested.
IBM’s purpose The Smarter Cities Challenge is an evolution of both IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative to address sustainable development, and also the IBM Corporate Service Corps pro bono consulting program to assist governments in developing countrieswith projects that intersect business, technology, and society. The challenge reflects IBM’s vision of using technology to connect, monitor and analyze systems to create smart systems – smarter grids, smarter traffic management, smarter cities, smarter healthcare, smarter food distribution and so on – to achieve economic growth, sustainable development and societal progress. As such, Smarter Planet is a part of both IBM’s business strategy as well as its CSR strategy. Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer at ad agency Mullen and professor at Boston University, noted:
Source: fastcompany.com
IBM’s City Forward is an open interactive platform that allows people explore city data and discuss findings with the City Forward community. IBM has also created the community People for a Smarter Planet to connect thinkers and changemakers around this challenge.
“It’s a tagline, an ad campaign, a social media program, an attempt to educate customers and influencers, a library of thought leadership, an employee motivational program, and a clearly defined corporate mission. Most importantly it’s a way to sell IBM and its services by framing the importance of, and the need to, harness the intelligence in the world’s and a company’s connected data.” Blogger Mary Catherine O’Connor wrote: “Does this grant project mark the dawn of philanthropy 2.0? Or is it a handy tool for IBM to market its services to urban leaders? It’s both. And for IBM, it’s also a way to advance its Smart Planet platform, which is all about building more efficient systems through analytics, sensor networks, cloud computing, building automation and other systems.” Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Source: City Forward Introduction
Governments too are opening up data and problems to entrepreneurs, coders and citizens, with challenge platforms like Code for America, Data.gov and Challenge Post in the U.S. and Spark Central in the UK.
Collaborative Social Innovation
IBM Smarter Cities Challenge
Anthony Townsend, director of research at the Institute for the Future, argues that cities have a lot to gain by opening up to citizens: “Why can’t the technology that makes the Web an intuitive and interactive, yet deeply personalized and social realm, be grafted onto the physical world in a similar fashion?...
Finally, several entrepreneurs have launched projects to crowdsource ideas on how cities can prepare for the future (see our People’s Insights report on TED’s The City2.0 platform).
“In the coming decade each city must strive to be as good a civic laboratory as it can be. It must provide a physical and social support system for hackers and entrepreneurs to experiment within.”
Source: thecity2.org
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/peoplesinsights-vol-2-issue-3-shabag-movement
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HP Social Innovation Relay
What is the Social Innovation Relay? In 2010, HP and Junior Achievement launched an online collaborative social innovation challenge, the Social Innovation Relay, to mobilize students around the world to become social innovators. The relay invites students between the ages of 15 – 18 from up to 13 countries to think like entrepreneurs and develop concepts that could
have a significant positive social impact in their local communities or around the world. With the support of HP volunteers, students learn more about social innovation and the use of technology both as a collaboration tool and as a potential solution to social issues.
Source: facebook.com/SocialInnovationRelay
Blogger Ray Maota notes that the program will help prepare students for the job market: “The aim was to close the gap in the job market between young people who have opportunities to learn about technology from a young age and those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.�
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Over the past two years, 30,000 students have submitted 1,000 social innovation concepts under the guidance of 300 HP mentors. In its third year, the Social Innovation Relay aims to reach 40,000 students with the support of 22 Junior Achievement offices.
Source: ja-ye.org
The top 20 teams in each country qualify for the Social Innovation Relay and are paired with HP e-mentors. Students collaborated with their mentors via HP Virtual Rooms or in person.
Source: facebook.com/SocialInnovationRelay
How it works Students register for the Social Innovation Relay online and participate in interactive online case study presentations, where HP volunteers explain the concept of social innovation and go over real life examples.
Source: HP Junior Achievement Social Innovation Relay
Students then test their knowledge with an online quiz and win Responsible Business Certificates if they answer 80% of the questions correctly. Next, students brainstorm and submit their own social innovation ideas.
Deepti Bansal, member of the winning team in the U.S., reflects on her mentor’s guidance: “We would give him ideas and then he would respond with questions that got us thinking about potential problems with our idea. This made us think more analytically and ended up strengthening the project. He didn’t just give us the answers; he made us think for ourselves.” The top 10 teams participate in a national final held online and present their ideas to HP employees who volunteer as judges. One team is selected as the winner, presented with HP prizes, and qualifies for the global round of the Social Innovation Relay, also held online. Global winners win an all expense paid trip to Estonia for the Junior Achievement – Young Entrepreneurs Alumni Europe conference.
As blogger Ray Maota noted: “Following that, they group themselves into teams of three to five members, and are required to develop a socially innovative business idea that would alleviate a problem affecting their communities.”
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Source: 2012 Winning team in Bulgaria: Team Optimum (via: facebook.com/ SocialInnovationRelay)
Collaborative Social Innovation
HP Social Innovation Relay
Caroline Jenner, CEO of JA-YE Europe and Senior Vice President at JA Worldwide, points out: “The program was designed to improve students’ business savvy, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. At the same time, it improves their awareness of how to create opportunities for themselves while also making the world a better place.”
skills among young people. HP employees volunteer their time to programs like the Social Innovation Relay and various other training initiatives. In fact, HP was recently awarded the Junior Achievement U.S. President’s Volunteer Service Award in recognition of the HP employees’ efforts.
In 2013, HP and JA introduced offline case study presentations held at local schools and HP offices: “Students interested in social entrepreneurship had the opportunity to interact with HP volunteers and to analyze contemporary examples of social innovations. They also contributed with their ideas of social innovation as solutions to important problems identified in their community.” HP employees and non-HP volunteers attended volunteer training sessions to prep for these presentations. The offline presentations have been introduced in schools in Romania, Kenya and Indonesia, and expand the reach of the program.
HP’s Purpose HP is committed to innovation in education and with initiatives like the Social Innovation Relay, fulfills its purpose of “working with students, teachers, and entrepreneurs to redesign and complement the learning process.” HP has worked with Junior Achievement since 1996, to meet this goal and develop new ways of building entrepreneurship and business
Source: facebook.com/SocialInnovationRelay
HP also emerged as a top performer in education and human potential in the MSLGROUP PurPle Index, which measures the strength of engagement for the Fortune Global 100 around PurPle opportunity areas of health, environment, education, human potential and purpose.
Source: Initiatives Driving Engagement in Education (view the full PurPle Index infographic here)
In addition to the Social Innovation Relay, HP has also launched initiatives like online learning- platform HP Life to equip students and aspiring entrepreneurs with business skills and technology training. 43
Social Innovation and youth unemployment
Junior Achievement’s Caroline Jenner highlights the role that governments and businesses can play in combating youth unemployment:
Thinkers believe that collaborative social innovation challenges help combat youth unemployment, a pressing issue especially in the U.S. and Europe.
“Through programs like [the Social Innovation Relay], governments (through supportive policies in the school system and teacher training) and business communities (through engaging employees and global networks) have co-invested in entrepreneurship and social innovation education, and supported strong school-to-work schemes—and they are achieving great results in the fight against youth unemployment.”
Erin Krampetz, Co-Founder and Community Director at Ashoka U highlights the need to complement educational programs with such initiatives: “Many of today’s most pressing challenges – climate change, to government deficits, to poverty both in the U.S. and globally – will be the job of tomorrow’s leaders to address. Yet our nation’s institutions of higher learning, the breeding ground for future leaders, have fallen behind in their ability to provide students with the mindset and skill set essential to effect positive social change and to create solutions where none seem possible.”
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Other branded initiatives to tackle youth unemployment include Benetton’s recent Unemployee of the Year challenge and CSR initiatives from Starbucks, Citibank and Microsoft.
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/hp-socialinnovation-relay-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-9
Collaborative Social Innovation
HP Social Innovation Relay
Shell Eco-marathon
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What is the Shell Eco-marathon? The Shell Eco-marathon is collaborative social innovation challenge that inspires students and young engineers around the world to design and build the next generation of fuel-efficient vehicles. The Shell Eco-marathon traces its roots to 1939 when it was an internal challenge amongst employees. Now, the eco-marathon takes place annually in three continents – the Americas, Europe and as of 2012, Asia. Students compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to set new records.
sustainable mobility. In recent years, Shell has begun opening up the event to the public through offline labs at the Shell Eco-marathon in Europe and the Americas, an online Shell Energy Run Game on Facebook, and a series of blog posts and videos documenting behind-thescenes action.
Shaun Stone, team manager, Aston University noted: “The purpose of the competition is to go as far as possible on 1 litre of fuel, with off track awards for aspects such as sustainability and design also available.” Through the eco-marathon, Shell aims to inspire a new generation of engineers passionate about
Source: Shell Eco-Marathon Legacy
Source: shell.com
The initiative has achieved significant scale – 513 teams from 45 countries are participating in the Shell Eco-marathon this year.
How it works Students spend a year in designing, building and testing their vehicles. Students can choose from two classes of vehicles and seven types of fuel: “The Prototype class focuses on maximum efficiency, while passenger comfort takes a back seat. The UrbanConcept class encourages more practical designs Cars enter one of seven categories to run on conventional petrol and diesel, biofuels, fuel made from natural gas (GTL), hydrogen, solar or electricity.” Shell uses Facebook as its central platform of coordination, with invite-only groups for each region. Here, students and Shell representatives answer technical questions and clarify contest rules. In addition, Shell uses YouTube to share information around event logistics, technical engineering concepts, and even an animated video of the track. Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Source: facebook.com/groups
Finally, students compete in the annual race on city streets or on a professional circuit: “Over several days, teams make as many attempts as possible to travel the furthest on the equivalent of one litre of fuel. Cars drive a fixed number of laps around the circuit at a set speed. Organisers calculate their energy efficiency and name a winner in each class and for each energy source.”
Collaborative Social Innovation
Shell Eco-marathon
Prepares students for the real world The Shell Eco-marathon is a good outlet for students to test their skills and creations, to face real world challenges and to explore a future in engineering and sustainable mobility. A staff report in The News Star notes: Source: Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2012 from Rotterdam
Integration at schools and universities Sometimes, students develop the cars over years, as older students graduate and new students join the teams. As a result, universities produce multiple, diverse eco-cars and students can build on past efforts.
“The Tech students, who come from many different academic degree programs, participate in the project as volunteers and do not get class credit. They design, build, paint and test the cars on their own time, usually in the evenings, after class and on weekends. They also assist with fundraising and publicity. While employing skills they learn in the classroom, these students are also developing leadership and project management skills that will serve them throughout their careers.”
The team at Chalmers University of Technology reflected: “At the competition we realized that it was not that easy to complete a race, and definitely not to be competitive. Many teams had spent several years and (in some cases) several millions and it was clear that we would have to wait a few years before we could expect to be among the best.” Indeed, some schools, like Purdue University, have been building eco cars since 1993 and participating in the Shell Eco-marathon since 2008. Purdue Solar Racing even showcased their eco car at the recent New York International Auto Show. Source: stalbertgazette.com
Engineering junior and participant John Rockwell reflected: “There’s a lot of stuff I’ve learned on this team that I wouldn’t be able to normally. Working with companies and sponsors ... you definitely don’t get that just sitting in a class.” Journalist Christine Des Garennes reported:
Source: pcmag.com
“The prize is a trophy and $2,000, but the real reward, many [University of Illinois] team members said, has been the learning experience that has come along with designing the vehicle and working with a group of students with backgrounds in a wide range of subjects.” Faculty advisor of the Saint Thomas Academy Experimental Vehicle Team Mark Westlake reflected on the experience: 47
“Members of your team tend to blossom when given enough time to fail. Students surprised me with how creative they were and how willing they are to learn new skills.”
Engaging the public Online, Shell engages people around the event through video series such as the two part “Road to Houston.” Structured like a reality show, the series documents the behind-the-scenes activity and challenges faced by the teams in preparing for the contest. Other video series feature the teams participating or cover live events at the various Shell Eco-Marathons. In addition, Shell partnered with National Geographic to cover the eco-marathon on National Geographic’s
The Great Energy Challenge Blog. Participants and Shell community managers contribute to the blog. Many students also document their own experience and design process online on Facebook or on team websites and blogs (Chalmers University of Technology, Aston University). In 2012, Shell launched a social game on Facebook, the Shell Energy Run Game, that enables people to participate in the Ecomarathon virtually. Players design their own car and race it on a virtual circuit. The game provides educational tips to help people increase their virtual car’s fuel efficiency, and incorporates elements like points, trophies and a leaderboard to keep people playing.
Source: facebook.com/Shell
Offline, Shell has organized activations like the Mobility Footprint Zone at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas and the Het Lab at the Shell Eco-marathon Europe. Writer Flori Meeks covered the experience in the Americas: “New this year is an interactive learning experience for visitors. Activities include a “Mobility Footprint Zone” with a kinetic dance floor where visitors can race toy cars powered by salt water, a Formula 1 car display, a self-guided tour through Shell EcoMarathon Americas and the mPowering Action Mobile Recording Studio, where visitors can record songs or messages about their energy solutions for the future.”
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_ detailpage&v=iDg7rdVW3vw
In Europe, Shell and creative agency Imagination used RFID cards to make the experience more interactive and memorable: “Visitors used RFID cards to store photos, videos and data from their visit, and could afterwards ‘Replay the Day’ by entering their personal code on the micro-site.” Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Collaborative Social Innovation
Shell Eco-marathon
Larger social impact As collaborative social innovation programs become more common, thinkers are beginning to place more emphasis on measuring success and finding successful models. Indeed, Ashraf Engineer, member of the MSLGROUP Insights Network, noted: “I think [the Shell Eco-marathon is] a superb idea. The question is this: Will the competition translate into an actual ultra-fuel-efficient vehicle? The quest for such a vehicle has been on for decades and prototypes have been paraded in automobile shows for years. Yet, there are hardly any successful models.” Participants note that the eco-marathon has helped inspire a new generation of environment conscious engineers. Several participants have gone on to intern or work not only at Shell, but also the larger engineering industry. High school junior and participant Jake Nyquist reflected: “It’s very valuable, especially for high school students. There are all sorts of students who would never consider going into engineering as a career, or looking at fuel consumption, without this.”
Bloggers and faculty advisors also note that the technology developed for the eco-marathon would eventually enter the mainstream. Blogger Vijay noted: “The competing vehicles are highly specialized and optimized for the event and not intended for every day use. The designs represent what can be achieved with current technology and offer a glimpse into the future of car design based on minimal environmental impact in a world with reduced oil reserves. Nevertheless, the work of the participants can still be used to show ways manufacturers could redesign their products.” Purdue University team’s faculty advisor and mechanical engineering professor Galen King said: “I don’t think we’ll see these cars on the road, but the tech used in them will always be incorporated. Carbon fiber material, computer-integrated control systems, electric propulsion—you’ll see all those components.”
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/shell-ecomarathon-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-10
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Grassroots Change Movements
Half the Sky Movement
What is the Half the Sky Movement? The Half the Sky Movement creates awareness about women’s issues and highlights solutions through a stream of transmedia initiatives and social media campaigns. The movement was launched by journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn following the success of their
book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide in 2009, and is supported by celebrity advocates, media partners, NGOs and people who have engaged with various initiatives.
Source: halftheskymovement.org
Most notable is the movement’s focus on providing ways for people to get involved and contribute to solutions.
Transmedia storytelling approach Transmedia programs ensure the movement reaches a diverse range of people and, as Magazine’s Randy Astle points out, encourages participation: “One of the most intriguing things about transmedia when compared to traditional film, particularly documentary, is that through its multiple entry points and interactive experiences it has the potential to more fully engage viewers in causes. It doesn’t just inspire people to action, in other words; at its best, it gives them the tools and initial opportunities to take action then and there.” Half the Sky uses content to share the stories of real women, and partners with NGOs and organizations to create educational material and engagement opportunities around these stories. The movement also uses diverse channels, such as exhibitions and social games, to reach new people,
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While the book was initially the heart of the movement, the stories featured have been brought to life through a four hour documentary featuring the authors and celebrities America Ferrera, Diane Lane, Eva Mendes, Meg Ryan, Gabrielle Union, and Olivia Wilde. The series was broadcast in full on PBS, with excerpts available on YouTube and a shortened version available for screening events.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRfDzznfEOU&feature=youtu.be
Grassroots Change Movements
Half the Sky Movement
These stories are also used as an educational tool. Half the Sky partnered with The Independent Television Service (ITVS) to create five lesson plans that complement the stories and can be used in a classroom setting. Half the Sky also partnered with women’s health organization Engender Health to create a chapter by chapter Reader’s Companion that expands on the issues raised in the documentary. In late 2011, Half the Sky created an exhibit to bring the stories to life with ‘visual art, immersive sound installations, and interactive experiences.’ In early 2013, Half the Sky launched a Facebook game that invites people to follow the daily struggles and life of a fictional character Radhika and make decisions on her behalf. Each medium also focuses on driving action. On YouTube, people are encouraged to donate to the cause. On Facebook, people are encouraged to play the game to unlock corporate donations. Blogger Doreen Anderson commented on the call to actions in the book: “The last page of the book offers “steps you can take in the next 10 minutes” to make a difference-so you are not left feeling, Yeah, but what can I DO? In those 10 minutes, my first step was to connect with KIVA, one of many suggestions on that page, to begin my involvement with this issue.”
Source: halftheskymovement.org
Half the Sky launched 30 songs in 30 days to reach out to music fans, giving away a song a day from established and emerging female musicians in the month leading up to the premiere. Musicians were honored to be a part of a good cause, and promoted the campaign on their social networks.
Transmedia programs are also used to reach out to the women who are facing the struggles. Half the Sky has launched three mobile games in India and East Africa to educate women about pregnancy, dangers of intestinal worms and family choices.
Promoting the documentary Half the Sky launched a series of campaigns to reach out to different audiences and build buzz for the documentary premiere, and created a social TV experience to engage fans during the premiere. Half the Sky involved celebrities in both phases of promotion to increase reach. Half the Sky launched Hashtagart Mosaic to reach out to the Twitter community, inviting them to tweet with #HalftheSky to have their profile photo featured in a virtual mosaic.
Source: kimyadawson.tumblr.com
During the premiere, people were invited to join the conversation on social networks (Twitter and GoodReads) and social TV apps (GetGlue and Yap TV) for the chance to win virtual goodies, exclusive content, books and DVDs. Natan Edelsburg, Vice President of Sawhorse Media, commented: “They used Getglue to allow viewers to earn a special sticker for watching both nights of the broadcast. They did this by offering two half stickers, something that hadn’t been done before on GetGlue.” 53
According to Kara Tureski, associate director at non-profit FHI 360: “All three games use two common models to achieve social impact—adventure and simulation. Players are exposed to characters that can serve as role models, and will be rewarded for positive actions, such as killing the worms inside their stomachs or seeking antenatal care. Players also face choices, such as making decisions that lead to a delay in marriage and betterment of the family.” She quotes Asi Burak, co-president of Games for Change, on why games have potential for driving social change:
Source: getglue.com
In addition, Kristof, WuDunn, celebrities featured in the documentary and part organizations live tweeted during the broadcast to create buzz. As Mashable’s Zoe Fox points out, the movement makes good use of its social currency: “New York Times columnist Kristof, the paper’s first blogger and a journalist touted for his early embrace of digital platforms, has more than 1.3 million followers on Twitter. Two actresses featured in the documentary have major followings as well — Gabrielle Union has more than 800,000 and Olivia Wilde has more than 650,000. These influencers’ tweets and use of the #HalftheSky hashtag are part of a social strategy to drive lasting conversation.” According to Twitter, the launch promotions were quite successful:
“Social games offer a unique way to reach your audience in a way that is not didactic or preachy. By playing a role and making choices, players are participating in a rehearsal for life. They experiment with scenarios and consequences that may be part of their future, and at the very least, this experience triggers reflection, debate, and a new perspective on their present situation.” The Half the Sky social game launched on March 4, 2013, as “the first Facebook game with direct virtual to real-life translation.” By playing the game, people can unlock donations worth 500,000 from Johnson & Johnson and Pearson. The game was produced by non-profit Games for Change and is backed by foundations and corporate sponsors.
“On the day that the first part of the @Half documentary aired on @PBS, #HalftheSky trended In the United States. @PBS kept the momentum going with Promoted Tweets and #HalftheSky trended worldwide on the day that the second half aired.”
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_ embedded&v=N6Ahpocmjs0
Blogger Brandy Shaul summarizes the gameplay:
Source: business.twitter.com/success-stories/pbs
Gaming for good Half the Sky uses mobile and social games to drive change at ground level, and to energize people in the developed world. The mobile games were developed in English, Hindi and Swahili and were made available for free through local mobile app stores. Half the Sky also created videos and a short manual to help NGOs and advocacy groups promote the games in India and East Africa. Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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“The Half the Sky Movement game follows fictional female characters that might be forced to change their way of thinking or living in order to better their own lives, the lives of their children, and more. Quests offer educational content, and for every quest that’s completed, players are given the opportunity to donate real money to a matching cause (a quest about vaccinations may give players the chance to donate to a real world vaccination center, for instance). Play enough, and you’ll unlock Grassroots Change Movements
Half the Sky Movement
a sponsor gift for free, without actually spending any money.” Ariel Schwartz, senior editor at Fast Co.Exist, reflects on the addictive nature of games for good: “In some ways, Half the Sky’s game is similar to WeTopia, another Facebook game that lets people donate to nonprofits through gameplay… After covering WeTopia on Co.Exist, I became very, very addicted--and I’m not a big Facebook game player at all. There’s something gratifying (and yes, addictive) about knowing your insignificant actions on a social network make a real-life difference. That will serve Half the Sky well.” As with the other transmedia programs, the social game is designed to target new audiences. Indeed, as player Lisa Alcock commented on Facebook: “My 7 year-old son & I are both playing this game & he was so proud when he got to the point where a book was donated just because he was playing! He’s starting to ask questions about the world & why it’s different in other countries. Thanks for the fun way to raise awareness & start conversations! :)” Kristof and WuDunn hope to capture 2% of the 300 million social gaming audience
and to inspire people to drive real change. If successful, the game could boost the gaming for good industry and position social gaming as a philanthropic tool.
Innovative social media campaigns In addition to being transmedia savvy, Half the Sky is also very social media savvy, creating innovative campaigns and experimenting with emerging tools and platforms. To create buzz around the launch of the social game, Half the Sky challenged people to participate in a #halfathon on Twitter: “Unlike traditional game-a-thons, we are not asking that you play for 24 hours consecutively, but that you recruit as many friends as possible to play in this 24-hour period. The more people play, the more real impact we can make, and all it takes is a 15-minute session to make a difference.” To boost effectiveness of the campaign, Half the Sky encouraged people to ‘RSVP’ on Thunderclap, a service that broadcasts the same message on behalf of all supporters at the same time.
Source: thunderclap.it
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On International Women’s Day, Half the Sky invited Twitter users to participate in Change Her Story and craft a “collaborative story about empowering women” on Twitter. 103 people crafted the life of Radhika, the main character of the Half the Sky social game. Half the Sky has also used launched a crowdfunding program, designed to energize both supporters of the cause and NGO partners with leaderboards and incentives. As blogger David Cohen notes: “Viewers can donate to any Half the Sky Movement charity or their NGO partners via online fundraising site CrowdRise, with the team raising the most to be matched by a $20,000 donation.”
Source: facebook.com/halftheskymovement
Source: crowdrise.com/halftheskymovement
The Half the Sky website acts as a central repository for these initiatives and programs, and also acts as a social advocacy website with information on how people can get involved. View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-4-half-the-sky-movement Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Grassroots Change Movements
Half the Sky Movement
Earth Hour
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What is Earth Hour? Earth Hour is a global movement that mobilizes people to show their support for the environment by switching off their lights for one hour every year. Organized by WWF, the movement began in Sydney in 2007 and has since spread to 7,000 cities & towns in 150 countries & territories. An editorial in the Philippines Daily Inquirier mentions: “First held in 2007, Earth Hour has grown from a citywide activity in Sydney, Australia, to a worldwide event held every March to cut power consumption and highlight the need to raise awareness of climate change and the dangers everyone faces… “Earth Hour has happily become a public-private partnership, with individual and corporate entities as well as government agencies taking part in the collective action.”
Source: Earth Hour 2013 Official Video
In its seven years, Earth Hour has achieved tremendous scale and is widely regarded as the
“the world’s largest movement for the planet.” Now, Earth Hour strives to go beyond one hour and drive meaningful change – both as a natural evolution of the movement as well as a response to the rising cynicism and criticism it faces.
Building Scale Local chapters of WWF lead the efforts to towns, by partnering with local authorities and organizing Earth Hour events. The movement also carves out a role for individuals and organizations. People can volunteer as Earth Hour organizers, write to local authorities to support the cause, introduce Earth Hour within their schools, work places and communities, and spread the world with posters, online banners and email signatures. And, organizations are encouraged to participate, share their story and partner or sponsor events. People, celebrities and organizations have marked their commitment for Earth Hour in diverse ways and helped build the profile of the movement. For instance, Google turned its homepage black during Earth Hour 2008. National Geographic Asia and Cartoon Network suspended programming during Earth hour 2010. Celebrity activists and ambassadors spread the word amongst their vast following on social media. And in 2013, astronaut Chris Hadfield contributed to the buzz by tweeting photos of cities before and after Earth Hour from outer space.
Source: twitter.com/aliciasilv
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Earth Hour
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_hour
or Women’s Day, and participate to engage with their audience.
Source: campaignbrief.com
Source: twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield
People, organizations and local leaders participated to mark their solidarity for the environment and commitment to sustainable living. As Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje commented: “Earth Hour is another way to highlight Ann Arbor’s commitment to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and raise awareness on how citizens and government play a part in addressing climate change.” Organizations also seem to view Earth Hour as other established days, such as Valentine’s Day
In addition to grassroots efforts, local chapters of WWF usually organize concerts and screenings around the event, and local campaigns such as encouraging Singaporean government agencies to turn up thermostats by one degree, and giving away a solar power system to an Australian community that pledges to switch to renewable energy. Blogger Anna Rudenko shares: “WWF Canada is doing its part by writing the first crowd-sourced anthem for Earth Hour—creative minds are invited to create lyrics for the songs, which will express their deep love for the planet and explain why we should take care of it.” Globally, Earth Hour encourages participating cities to switch off lights at prominent landmarks, and has recently launched I Will if You Will and Earth Hour City Challenge to increase reach and inspire commitments beyond one hour.
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Source: How To Upload an ‘I Will If You Will’ challenge Source: http://news.sky.com/story/1069000/earth-hour-world-landmarksswitch-off-lights
Earth Hour City Challenge
I Will if You Will Launched in 2011, I Will if You Will is a platform that enables people, celebrities and brands to rally their networks around the cause in a fun way. As Duncan Macleod, editor of The Inspiration Room, summarizes: “The IWIYW campaign uses the Earth Hour YouTube channel to encourage people to share personal dares with the world, by asking “What are you willing to do to save the planet?” The concept of the campaign is based on a social contract for two parties – connecting one person, business or organization to a promise and their friends, family, or customers to a challenge.”
Launched in 2011, the annual Earth Hour City Challenge invites cities to compete for the title Earth Hour Capital. Cities submit development plans that show their commitment to switching to renewable energy and an international team of judges selects a winner. Winning cities gain access to technical assistance and financial grants. Linda Nowlan noted: “With more than 70 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions generated by cities, the Earth Hour City Challenge is designed to mobilize action and support from cities in the global transition toward a climate-friendly future.”
Source: earthhour.org/citychallenge Source: youtube.com/earthhour
Earth Hour encourages people to upload their own I Will challenges and lets them choose from nine You Will challenges, thereby retaining control and ensuring meaningful challenges are proposed. The You Will challenges are also a fun way to show people what they can do beyond limiting their electricity usage.
Cities also compete for a People’s Choice Award, based on public voting. People can vote by clicking on a button, sharing a photo of their city on Instagram or by posting a suggestion on how the city can become more sustainable.
Source: ehcitychallenge.org/peopleschoice
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Earth Hour
Cynicism and controversy While both I Will if You Will and the City Challenge are designed to encourage cities, organizations and people to go beyond the one hour, the overall movement is still associated mainly with the one hour lights off. The Earth Hour FAQ maintains this positioning: “Earth Hour does not purport to be an energy/ carbon reduction exercise, it is a symbolic action.” Blogger Jeff Sparrow points out that this opens the doors for criticism: “The problem, then, with purely symbolic actions like Earth Hour is that they might actually foster cynicism more than dispel it. Spratt, for instance, argues that only a mobilization on the scale we saw during the Second World War will make any difference. If that’s
right, then reassuring people that all they need to is turn off a switch is deeply disorienting.” Bjørn Lomborg, author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, recently published the article Earth Hour Is a Colossal Waste of Time—and Energy, in which he calls for more attention on real solutions to global warming and less trivialization of the issue: “[Earth Hour’s] vain symbolism reveals exactly what is wrong with today’s feel-good environmentalism. Advertisement Earth Hour teaches us that tackling global warming is easy.” The article has been shared 26,500 times, has rallied together Earth Hour skeptics and has sparked a debate around the role of Earth Hour.
Source: slate.com
Criticism around the movement echoes the concerns people have raised around slacktivism and movements such as Kony2012. Gordon Hinds commented: “We have a habit of doing faddish things that we feel make a difference and make us emotionally satisfied that we belong to some sort of like minded community, but the brutal reality is that nothing actually is achieved at all.” Several people argue otherwise, that large scale acts of solidarity are crucial to bringing climate change back into the limelight. Rupp Carriveau, a professor at University of Windsor who specializes in clean energy tech, commented:
Indeed, Earth Hour seems to have entered what social activist Bill Moyer terms “Stage 5: Movement Identity Crisis” in his “Eight Stages of Successful Social Movements,” where activists expect rapid success and often feel hopelessness and burn out: “The problem, however, is not that the movement has failed to achieve its goals, but that expectations that its goal could possibly be achieved in such a short time were unrealistic.”
“For the purists — yes, I can understand the argument against [Earth Hour]. But I still think that, in the big picture, it makes sense to unplug people for a while and have them think about it.”
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Movements need to stay authentic – and relevant Building awareness is a crucial step for a movement, but today’s audience demands meaningful action and real change. Marketer Adam Ferrier’s reflection on the Kony2012 campaign holds true for Earth Hour as well: “Through social media and the wisdom of the crowds everything that’s based on image, and lacking in substance gets torn apart.”
Jeremy Heimans, co-founder of Avaaz.org, GetUp.org and recently Purpose.com, believes that movements are for the long term, and must build with time: “It’s all about the simplest action rather than creating some big, grand plan. Don’t make it too hard for people to participate. Invite participation, but don’t require a huge commitment upfront. It’s also important to build people up over time, taking bigger and bigger actions.” In addition to more meaningful actions, more accountability and measurement are also key for a movement of this size. Nidhi Makhija, member of the MSLGROUP Insights Network, believes that data can play a larger role here: “Earth Hour has launched several initiatives that are driving real change – the Earth Hour Forest in Uganda, and the I Will if You Will petition to pass an environment protection law in Russia. Now, Earth Hour needs to start measuring the impact of these large scale actions and giving people ways to measure the impact of their individual actions. Companies like Opower and Green Bean Recycle are already using data to drive behavioral change.”
Source: forbes.com
(Earth Hour took place from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on March 23, 2013.) View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/earth-hourpeoples-insights-vol-2-issue-7
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Grassroots Change Movements
Earth Hour
Participant Media + TakePart
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What is Participant Media? Founded by former eBay president Jeff Skoll, Participant Media is a production house that uses powerful stories to inspire and energize people to take social action. The company has produced documentaries and films including An Inconvenient Truth, Food Inc., A Place at the Table and Waiting for Superman which tackle meaningful causes including global warming, quality of food and state of education in the U.S.After attracting viewers, Participant Media mobilizes them to act through social action campaigns, which live on the studio’s digital platform TakePart.
“When you hear a story, or when you connect with something, you’re perspective can really change. You’re allowed to see the world through their eyes, and that really builds empathy and understanding which is critical in confronting a lot of the issues we see in the world today.”
Good.is blogger Bekah Wright noted:
Huffington Post blogger Dr. Lloyd Sederer noted:
“A film can have the power to spur conversation and spark an audience’s empathy, passion, and curiosity. For Los Angeles-based Participant Media, the visual storytelling power of movies is an invaluable tool to create meaningful impact…
“Each Participant film is accompanied by a social action campaign to propagate the film’s message by enabling viewers to become involved. Each film has a small group of selected social sector organizations whose values and activities resonate with the film and who themselves are making change happen. Courage needs fellow travelers, and Participant Media picks theirs carefully.”
Participant Media typically partners with nonprofit organizations that share the same passion for each film’s cause. These organizations support the promotion efforts of the film, and Participant Media encourages viewers to support the organizations’ initiatives.
“Continuously gaining momentum, Participant focuses on three elements for each of its film projects: quality, well-told stories, commercial potential, and social relevance.”
Fast Co.CREATE’s Ari Karpel noted: “Participant’s social action campaigns begin months in advance of a movie’s release, with screenings for people who are the experts. That helps to build word-of-mouth within the industries affected; often those groups will bring their stakeholders to theaters on opening night and Participant will sponsor conversations and invite the media.” TakePart makes it easy for viewers and first time activists to get involved, by offering a ladder of actions – from simple online pledges to offline actions such as volunteering or contacting local authorities. These social advocacy actions are curated and promoted on TakePart.
Source: documentary.org
As is mentioned on the Race2BHuman blog:
Film critic Joseph Jon Lanthier pointed out:
“TakePart not only moves these discussions forward through the social activism propagated by the films they promote, but also provides direction on what you can do for almost any aspect of your life to live healthier, more aware, and more a part of positive change in our country.”
“Unique to Participant’s model is its devotion to content that entertains first and compels social change second, a prioritization that speaks less to the commercial nature of the company than to the order in which audiences are inspired to get involved.” Michael Reynolds, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Canada, explains why storytelling is an effective tool in inspiring action: Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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Grassroots Change Movements
Participant Media + TakePart
TakePart – social advocacy platform TakePart provides a stream of original content – blog posts and videos – on issues around environment and wildlife, health and food, culture and social justice. The platform also curates content around the same topics.
Most blog posts are accompanied with a “Take Action” button: “Just think: Every day, millions of people read stories around the web that make them wish they could do something about the issue they just learned about. That’s where the TakePart Take Action button comes in. It matches inspiring content to relevant and credible actions you can take to make a difference. We’ve partnered with the leading organizations across dozens of fields to deliver trustworthy actions intended for real good.” As an example, here are the actions linked to a blog post on captivity and mistreatment of marine wildlife – also the subject of the Participant Media production The Cove:
Source: takepart.com
TakePart pledges are structurally similar to crowdfunding campaigns, displaying amount of time left to raise support and progress made towards the goal. The “Take Action” section of the website provides an overview of all ongoing pledges and petition.
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Source: http://www.takepart.com/actions/sign-keep-promise-aids-pledge
Another interesting aspect of the TakePart platform is the Impact Dashboard, which lets people keep track of their actions: “The Impact Dashboard is where you can track the progress of all the actions you take, discover new actions, and find recent news and information related to important causes.”
TakePart – action centers TakePart also creates a microsite or “action center” for each film it promotes. For instance, the Action Center for The Cove provides background around the issue and lists the steps
Source: takepart.com/cove/takeaction
people can take to contribute to a solution. The Action Center for A Place at the Table shows the faces and stories of people who have benefitted from food assistance, mobilizes people to sign a petition and call their local congressman and offers resources for people in need of help. People can also stay up to date via email newsletter and SMS.
Source: dashboard.takepart.com
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Participant Media + TakePart
Source: actioncenter.takepart.com/apatt
Some TakePart campaigns use elements of transmedia storytelling to create a more interactive and social experience. About.com’s Kristina Duda describes the action center for the film Contagion: “If you visit Take Part’s website, you can find a wealth of information about pandemics. You will see interactive maps about where disease outbreaks are occurring in the world. You can take a quiz to discover how much you know about pandemic diseases. You can learn about “Virus Hunters” - the people who track the viruses that have the potential to develop into pandemics and work tirelessly to prevent that from happening. You can even track Patient X through Facebook and discover a whole new meaning to the term “going viral.”
Next steps - Reaching out to millennials In October 2012, Participant Media launched YouTube channel TakePartTV to expand its social reach. The channel features original video content and shows such as daily news show Brain Food Daily, and American Savage featuring Dan Savage (founder of It Gets Better).
Source: deadline.com
Participant Media also recently announced the upcoming launch of Pivot – a TV channel aimed at millennials – in August 2013. AdAge’s Maureen Maurrison noted: “Media companies, too, are catering to millennials. Participant Media, the company behind films like “Lincoln” and “The Help,” is launching a cable network targeting the demographic this summer positioned as a vehicle for content that inspires social change. Participant believes the generation has the strong desire and capacity to help change the world.”
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Not only does the company need to prove its impact on driving real change, it also needs to prove its model is financially sustainable. As Forbes’ Kerry Dolan noted: “The financial success of the Participant Network is far from guaranteed, particularly given the difficulties that Oprah Winfrey has had with OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network. Skoll has deep pockets, though, and is passionate about using media to influence change.”
Source: What is Pivot?
While some thinkers are skeptical about Participant Media’s foray into entertainment platforms, others believe that disruptive video will be a game-changer for brands in 2013.
After a conversation with Participant Media CEO Jim Berk, NY Times journalist Michael Cieply noted:
Deadline.com’s David Lieberman wrote: “The mission is admirable. But after seeing Current TV’s struggles, I wonder whether the socially conscious film and TV production company can attract many young YouTube viewers to a channel that focuses on weighty subjects including the elections, the environment, sexism and homelessness.” Forbes contributor Kare Anderson speculated on opportunities for brands to partner with TakePart TV:
“In measuring its success, Participant sometimes resorts to an unusual standard: On losers, the company assesses whether Mr. Skoll could have exerted more impact simply by spending his money philanthropically.”
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/participantmedia-takepart-peoples-insights-vol-2-issue-8
“Your organization might co-sponsor a crowdsourcing campaign to spur action related to the movie’s message, or crowdfunding of related project. Alternatively it could be co-hosting premieres, or your products as prizes for those with proof of advance ticket purchase to bring a group of their friends to the movie, the first week it is out. Or co-host a part of the TakePart TV YouTube channel for people to post their short videos of what they most liked about the movie and the action they will take as a consequence of seeing it.”
Measuring success Participant Media, like other social good campaigns, faces a challenge when it comes to measuring success. Participant Media’s EVP of social action and advocacy Chad Boettcher commented: “We’re moving more towards measuring outcomes. Did the film actually move towards impact? One of the keywords we’re looking at now is ‘shift.’ What shifted from before the film to after? And can we maintain that shift? It’s great if we can make change in the short term, but how do we sustain it?” Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Participant Media + TakePart
Shahbag Movement
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What is the Shahbag Movement? In February 2013, Bangladeshis around the world united around a shared purpose, to demand capital punishment for those found guilty of 1971 war crimes. The movement was sparked by bloggers and online activists, mobilized both online and offline participation, and has resulted in national discourse and government action. Like other global uprisings, the Shahbag Movement was organized by the youth and amplified by the use of social media.
the verdict have come to be known, were organized by bloggers and have attracted poets, artists, social activists and untold numbers of other citizens.” Unlike other uprisings, western media and activists were not initially supportive of the protesters’ demands of capital punishment. This resulted in a grassroots effort to educate people and foreign journalists about the 1971 war crimes, through the use of multimedia content and social media.
How the movement began Hours after the Mollah verdict was announced, the Blogger and Online Activists Network (BOAN) created a Facebook event and invited people to join an offline protest on February 5, 2013. Bangladesh writer Tahmima Anam described the momentum:
Source: technorati.com
New York Times’ Jim Yardley wrote: “Protests and strikes, common in Dhaka, are often coordinated and organized by political parties. But the Shahbagh protests, as the demonstrations over
“They set up camp in Shahbag, an intersection at the heart of Dhaka, near the university campus, and staged a small sit-in. They collected a few donations and ordered khichuri (a mixture of rice and lentils) to keep them going through the night. Word spread on Facebook and Twitter. The next day, a few news channels began covering their protest. By the end of the week, they had managed to put together the biggest mass demonstration the country has seen in 20 years.”
115,000 people were invited to the event. 14,000 RSVP-ed yes (via https://www.facebook.com/events/500274583347447)
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Shahbag Movement
Live coverage at Shahbag Square Like their Occupy and Tahrir Square counterparts, the Shahbag protesters declared they would not vacate Shahbag Square until their demands were addressed, and used digital technology to document activities taking place at the square. One individual set up a live webcam to stream events in real time. Another created a Twitter
account to document events taking place at the Square and around the movement in general. Yet others have created websites (Shahbag Movement, Shahbag Protest, Shahbag Mass Movement) to curate content around the movement, and Facebook pages (Shahbag Movement) to keep people up-to-date on latest news and events.
Source: twitter.com/ShahbagInfo
This coverage serves not only local Bangladeshis, but also involves the Bangladeshi diaspora. As Sabrina Rashid commented: “On behalf of many expatriates like us.. thanks a lot.. it makes us feel a lot closer to the protest..�
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Content to set context
Nidhi Makhija, member of the MSLGROUP Insights Network commented:
Shahbag protesters created articles, infographics and videos to educate people about the history of the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, and dispersed these using social media.
“In the recent Mumbai protests for women’s safety, people wanted to know what was happening on ground before they joined. If a crowd had gathered offline, people were inspired to join. If the crowd seemed violent, people preferred to stay home. Shahbag’s live webcam was a great tool to gather media attention, energize supporters and help maintain safety.”
Here is a video that explains the shared purpose that unites the protesters:
A column in the Indian Express comments on the larger impact of this type of activity: “A protest on such a scale is partly self-organising. It uses the internet like a decentralised command and control system and the media, traditional and social, as amplifiers. By bridging online and offline methods in a never-ending feedback loop, they are able to do a new kind of democratic politics in which the visible perception of numbers matters more than actual political leverage.”
Source: https://www.facebook.com/photo. php?v=4815339455061&set=vb.416320125123087&type
Here is an infographic created by the International Crimes Strategy Forum, a “global coalition of independent activists and organisations committed to the cause of bringing to justice the perpetrators of war crimes during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.” ICSF was set up in 2009 and organizes projects such as monitoring of related Wiki pages, creating factsheets and managing media archives.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/icsforum
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Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Shahbag Movement
Activist Jillian C. York points out that such online efforts plays a huge role in the lead up to an offline movement:
access real time updates on Twitter, tweet using #Shahbag and tag foreign journalists to create international awareness.
“Last year in Egypt the world watched, stunned, as a city, then a country rose up against the twenty-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. Indeed, what the world saw was a mass of humans converging upon a city square in protest. But what they missed was everything else: Offline actions— such as labor strikes—and online ones, such as the years of collective blogging about police brutality, torture, and other human rights violations. The online actions in particular served a dual purpose: They raised awareness amongst a certain subset of the population, certainly, but perhaps more importantly, they confirmed for many what they always knew but couldn’t talk about.”
The Shahbag.org team even posted a ‘how-to’ guide for people new to Twitter, and listed Twitter handles of foreign journalists.
Creating an army of supporters on Twitter Shahbag protesters encouraged supporters to
Source: shahbag.org/participate
Source: shahbag.org/participate
In an analysis of conversations taking place around #shahbag, CNN iReporter awalin noted: “Many of the tweets are from very new users, those people joined Twitter with the spirit to share the words, to tell the world how they feel about this movement, I could see that they still do not have any profile picture, so Twitter used the default ‘egg’ icon for their profile pictures.”
“Misrepresented by foreign media” Shahbag protesters also reached out to foreign media to report inaccuracies and dissatisfaction with international coverage. Bangladesh-born journalist Anushay Hossain observed: “most of the “western media” has either ignored the swelling numbers of ordinary Bangladeshis joining the movement, others have wrongly labeled it as a mass demand for capital punishment.” Online activist Tomal Dutt wrote:
Source: rss.ireport.com
“Many human rights activists are protesting themselves against the death penalty of the war criminals, to which Bangladeshi Facebook users are growing furious.” 73
Protesters addressed banners to foreign media companies and circulated photos of these to convey their point of view.
Source: shahbagmovement.com
Source: shahbagmassmovement
In addition, protesters urged foreign governments to express solidarity with the Shahbag Movement using online petition tools. An online petition to the White House collected 25,515 signatures.
Source: globalvoicesonline.org
Inaccurate media coverage was also one of the reasons Matir Manush set up the live webcam at Shahbag:
Some of these activities were successful in attracting local coverage.
“We just tried to speared (sic) this worldwide, cause media is not presenting right information.�
Expressing Solidarity Acts of solidarity amplified the movement, increasing its reach and showcasing the scale of support. In Bangladesh, the Shahbag protesters organized candle light vigils and called for 3 minutes of silence nation-wide in memory of the deaths of 1971 and to show solidarity with the movement. Politicians, teachers, students, Bangladesh Premiere League cricketers and supporters observed the silence. Overseas, Bangladeshis organized solidarity events and uploaded photos of themselves in front of global landmarks and important buildings. Online activists mapped the images to show the scale of global support. Source: guardian.co.uk
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Shahbag Movement
These activities show, yet again, that movements in the digital era have no boundaries and that social media has created a role for global citizens who share the same purpose. As Anushay Hossain wrote: “Trying to gage the emotion, and somehow partake in what is clearly a historic moment in Dhaka as a Bangladeshi abroad is both frustrating and exhilarating. Your friend’s Twitter & Facebook feeds keep you updated, yet angers you simultaneously for not being in your country right now. Perhaps like me, you feel like you are missing out.”
Individual contributions The Shahbag Movement seems to have no single public leader, but is made up of collection of passionate and united individuals who launched or supported a host of initiatives. Some decided to document action with a live webcam set up. Bizon Shariar commented: “To everyone: This whole thing was hosted and co-ordinated by 6 very young people and the whole idea was implemented in 2-3 hours. a 1Mbps Banglalion net was used. And these guys were roaming Shahbag whole day long carrying a web cam and a Laptop.”
Online and offline activism The Shahbag Movement used both digital media and technology as well as on-ground activations to gather momentum and drive policy change. The initial success of the movement implies that both online and offline activism is necessary to achieve scale and drive change. Daaimah S. Etheridge, a program coordinator at the Drexel Radiological Department, wrote: “For a movement to really work, it has to connect with what’s going on in the streets. Social media is designed to share information, but that’s only one aspect of activism. In order to create a sustainable movement, there must be on-the-ground organizing and people mobilizing in real space.” (The Shahbag Movement is ongoing and shows signs of a local revolution as people demand justice and clash with opposition forces. The protesters have given the government a deadline of March 26, 2013 to begin implementation of their demands.)
Others offered to fund initiatives. Abu Sufean Khan commented: “I am more than happy to Donate if you guys need funding for better streaming..” Yet others strived to create an independent archive of the movement. The founding editor of ShahbagMovement.com wrote: “Heads up photographers, bloggers and everybody else. Let’s not forget a single moment and document everything; A single page in Wikipedia is not enough, neither are Facebook Fan-pages – they will get washed out soon with time. So,register and start contributing event timelines, description of developments, photos, videos and everything else at this site. Keep every moment and progress documented.” Some created Songs from Shahbag, a collaborative initiative to compile all the songs created in the spirit of Shahbag.
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Mean Stinks
What is Mean Stinks? Mean Stinks is a purpose inspired movement launched by P&G’s Secret deodorant to combat girl-to-girl bullying in schools. The movement reaches girls through social media and challenges them to take action online and in real life.
Blogger Adina notes: “The goal is to empower all women, no matter if they are a victim of bullying or not, by providing tools and resources to aid in the fight against the mean behavior of bullying.”
Source: groundswelldiscussion.com
Secret launched the movement in 2011 and has sustained activity and buzz through a series of campaigns, celebrity endorsements and philanthropic initiatives. A new website and packaging redesign mark Secret’s commitment to the movement and P&G’s own purpose of making everyday just a little better for consumers. Today, Mean Stinks has a community of 475,000 supporters on Facebook.
A social heartbeat Secret unites girls around an issue they face on a daily basis. In a release, Secret highlighted: “The latest U.S. Department of Justice report shows 30% of female students grades 6 – 12 were bullied at school or cyberbullied during the 2009 – 2010 school year.”
203,000 who saw an ad. These are 203,000 who, of their own volition, expressed solidarity with Secret’s efforts.”
Blogger Nicole Gordon Levine commented on the potential value of the Mean Stinks platform: “Mean certainly does stink. I was bullied in High School and wish I had an outlet like Secret’s Mean Stinks Campaign.” The extent of the issue definitely contributed to the movement’s virality. As AdAge’s Bob Garfield noted:
Source: Secret’s brand purpose to make a difference
“Within a few weeks, 75,000 kids sent apologies to peers or posted friendly graffiti. The page drew 203,000 new fans in one day… These are not 77
Year 1: Inspiring girls to be nice Mean Stinks launched in January 2011 with a Mean Stinks Facebook page and a Good Graffiti app. Blogger Josh Eaton described the platform’s offerings: “Secret’s Mean Stinks Campaign provides tools for girls to stand up against bullying and have a voice. It allows them to talk to specialists, make videos confronting bullies or giving apologies, give encouragement to build up other girls (Be nice behind someone’s back), self reflect on your own actions, and deal with the many problems that come from being a teenager and going to school. They can interact with each other, be anonymous, and join the movement of overcoming bullying.”
Source: P&G-Secret “Mean Stinks” Campaign
The Good Graffiti app encouraged girls to send positive messages to friends - a total of 32,000 positive messages have been sent.
In addition, Mean Stinks created a Facebook store to sell T-shirts with anti-bullying messages to spread the word, and partnered with expert Rachel Simmons to support victims of bullying. Media Post’s Tanya Irwin reported: “Simmons, an author and expert on the social issues facing young women, has helped Secret in creating content for the dedicated “Mean Stinks” Facebook page that empowers young women by providing tools for them to face the difficulties and drama of bullying.”
Year 2: Building a movement In 2012, Secret introduced elements to encourage more social shares and conversations in real life. Online, Secret encourages girls to participate in weekly challenges – such as ‘write good graffiti on your school parking lot,’ ‘create a no joke zone,’ and ‘write “mean stops here” on your hand’ – and share it on the Mean Stinks Facebook page or on Twitter and Instagram with #meanstinks. One challenge invites girls to make music videos featuring a cover of an anti-bullying song or to write their own. Secret has also conducted a challenge on video crowdsourcing platform Tongal, with incentives of $40,000, to encourage high quality videos. These are featured on Secret’s YouTube channel.
Source: meanstinks.com/#challenges
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Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Mean Stinks
Girls can also visit a Facebook app to learn about the different kinds of bullying and take a quiz to find out how they can help end girl-to-girl bullying.
the unusual nail polish design and once they hear about the pledge, will also decide to take part in the campaign.”
Source: https://www.facebook.com/meanstinks
These challenges have resulted in a collection of photos and videos shared on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and also a loyal following. As Digital Training Academy team noted in a blog post:
Source: facebook.com/meanstinks
“The long term ‘always-on’ approach meant fans kept coming back for more. The company chose a subject that resonates with its consumers, created a catchy slogan, and filled its Facebook page with ways for fans to really engage with the content and to share their experiences with others. The Mean Stinks page hit a chord among users, enough for them to keep coming back to view or share more content on a regular basis.”
In 2012, Secret roped in singer-songwriter Demi Lovato as the brand ambassador for the Mean Stinks movement and challenged girls to gang up for good with Demi and take the ‘blue pinky’ challenge. Adweek noted: “For the 2012 school year, Secret evolved the focus of “Mean Stinks,” advocating for girls to “Gang Up for Good” and work together to put an end to bullying. Former teen star and current X Factor judge Demi Lovato, herself a victim of bullying, was signed as the celebrity spokes¬person. Girls are being urged on social media to paint their pinky nails blue as a sign of solidarity to the cause—what they’re calling the “pinky swear.” Examiner’s Evelyn Block wrote that the #bluepinky is designed to drive offline conversations: “One of the ideas of the campaign is for young women to make a “pinky-swear” pledge to not bully their peers, and as a reminder of that promise, to wear blue nail polish on their pinky fingers in the hope that other girls will become curious about
Source: https://www.facebook.com/meanstinks
Symbolism of the #bluepinky Movements typically use symbols to unite supporters and show solidarity. Writer-designer Steven Heller noted: “It may be true that every idea - especially good ones - can benefit from a mnemonic. A unifying element, sign, symbol or code adds allure and provides a rallying point. What’s more, we all love wearing labels of some kind to show our allegiance to some thing.” Blogger Charlotte points out that spotting blue pinky offers a sense of hope and support to victims of bullying: 79
“I know there were a few nice kids in the class that were probably afraid to say anything. I didn’t blame them for not sticking up for me and likely would’ve done the same thing myself at the time. How I would’ve loved a “mean stinks” campaign back then, to see blue pinkies uniting and sticking up for me!”
Year 3: Evolution to a hub In late 2012, Secret launched the Mean Stinks website to curate social conversations taking place around #meanstinks, #gangupforgood and
#bluepinky, challenges, tips and tools and peerto-peer advice. As the release states: “Unique to the site is the archived #NiceAdvice section, where girls across the country can share their experiences, offer words of encouragement and provide examples of how they’ve successfully “Ganged Up For Good.” They can also search for advice from girls just like them. Weekly ‘What Would You Do’ scenarios give girls the floor to share their perspective and success stories on how they would, or have, handled situations that could lead to mean behavior.”
Source: meanstinks.com
Commitment to a larger solution In addition to creating a support community for girls, Secret also encourages girls to trigger donations to anti-bullying and girl empower programs. In 2011, girls could request coupons online or download iAd wallpapers to trigger $1 donations to Pacer’s National Bullying Prevention Center. In 2012, girls could purchase special Mean Stinks Clinical Strength products to trigger a $1 donation to Girls on the Run. Mommy blogger Serena wrote: “They also launched a special Mean Stinks Clinical Strength product where they will be donating $1* from the purchase of each Mean Stinks Clinical Strength sold to Girls on the Run® to fund their girl empowerment programming and help prevent mean behavior before it starts.”
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Mean Stinks
Source: youtube.com/user/SecretDeodorant
Secret is also experimenting with a Gang Up For Good Kit with lesson and assembly plans to introduce the movement in schools and communities. - with this - Secret is also experimenting with a Gang Up For Good Kit – with lesson and assembly plans – to introduce the movement in schools and communities. At MSLGROUP, we believe that brands need a shared purpose to inspire people and drive good growth, and that companies should become PurPle. Visit purple.mslgroup.com to know more about PurPle (Purpose + People).
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7_b66gze6sM
View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/peoplesinsights-vol-2-issue-5-mean-stinks Source: meanstinks.com
Purpose inspired marketing According to AdAge, Secret sales rose “9% for the 26 weeks ended June 26, a period affected by the “Mean Stinks” campaign that launched in January on Facebook.” As Jim Stengel, former Global Marketing Officer at P&G said: “Great brands are built on improving the lives of the people they serve; maximum profit and high ideals aren’t incompatible but, in fact, inseparable.” 81
Alpenliebe 365 Days of Positive Power
What is 365 Days of Positive Power? 365 Days of Positive Power, a part of the larger Alpenliebe Kindness Movement, aims to inspire Chinese youth to actively live a life of kindness.
Alpenliebe created a new infographic every day with a specific call to action, to inspire fans to spread positive power through acts of kindness.
Source: e.weibo.com
Since 2011, MSLGROUP has helped Alpenliebe convert kindness into a shared purpose or social heartbeat, and catalyze a movement to inspire, organize and energize millions of Chinese youth to share, appreciate and engage in everyday acts of kindness. In 2011, an engaged community of 150,000+ members shared 151,000+ kindness stories and 3,270,000+ shares and comments across social networks, and the success of the campaign led to 330+ print articles and TV reports. In 2012, the community grew to more than 600,000 members and engaged in 3.1 million shares and comments across social networks, making Alpenliebe the third most influential brand on Sina Weibo.
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Year 1: Building an emotional connection In the first year of the movement, Alpenliebe established the brand purpose “Sweeten China with Small Acts of Kindness.”
MSL China’s Owen Wang explained that the content plan incorporated both trending topics and relevant news to capture people’s attention, and specific call-to-actions to inspire action. The positive theme of the campaign also helped rally support:
Scott Goodson, author of the movement marketing book Uprising, summarizes how movement marketing works: “You start by identifying a powerful idea on the rise in culture. You then join, fuel and add real tangible value to the idea through innovative marketing and social media. People who share the passion for the idea join the cause. And rally others to get involved too. And so, a movement is born, which smart brands can profit from.” Alpenliebe created a series of kindness videos on Tudou and a TV series with its celebrity kindness ambassador, crowdsourced kindness stories on a Renren minisite, partnered with key opinion leaders, created conversations across the social web, organized kindness trips with non-profit partners, compiled the most inspiring stories into a kindness bible, and honored them on the world kindness day.
Source: Alpenliebe Perfetti Kindness Movement
Year one also served as period of gathering insights. Alpenliebe tracked people’s interests, response to posts and preference of social actions, and used this knowledge to create the strategy for year two. (See our People’s Insights weekly report on the Alpenliebe Kindness Movement)
Year 2: Building brand re-call Alpenliebe leveraged learning from Year 1 to select Sina Weibo as the primary platform for driving viral change, tailor a content strategy around the preferences of its community and identify super fans and grassroots influencers. The brand then focused on energizing people to participate regularly with daily compelling content and badges as rewards. Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
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“I think it’s the Daily call-to-action mechanism which encourages people to share kindness and love when the weibo environment (or even the overall on-line environment of China) is filled with negative message and complains.” For instance, a single post from Alpenliebe inviting people to share photos of their smiles on World Smile Day inspired 1,000 people to participate. As co-founder of Purpose and movement maven Jeremy Heimans, pointed out: “Participation requires infrastructure - and strategy” To be successful, movements also require a base of energized and passionate people. Susannah Vila, co-founder of social advocacy think-tank the engine room, explains how to attract and manage influencers: “To move others in your direction you have to understand them, work within their behavior instead of trying to change it, and adapt your tactics and messages to them. Figure out the types of people that will be most receptive to your campaign and get to know them. Then approach them where they are already getting and sharing information.” Alpenliebe introduced badges to encourage social actions such as commenting, re-posting and responding to call-to-actions. Upon interacting with the 365 Days of Positive Power application, people would receive a badge on their Sina Weibo profile page. Gamification elements like badges are an effective incentive, can be addicting and help maintain enthusiasm and participation over time - especially where there are a wide range of badges people can earn (see 4SquareBadges List and Nike+ Trophy Collection). In our Future of Engagement essay on Behavior Change Games, we explain the role of incentives - like badges, points and prizes – in shaping actions:
Grassroots Change Movements
Alpenliebe 365 Days of Positivity Power
“Incentives are effective in attracting first-time players, helping them get started and creating fun and excitement. After they are hooked and begin to successfully complete missions, players receive the ultimate incentive to keep playing – they see a change in their behavior and experience a sense of pride and self-empowerment.”
Alpenliebe target fans’ passion and energy around popular interests like football and important events and news, creating content that inspires people to respond or share it on.
Real-time campaigns Increasingly, we are seeing brands embrace the real-time nature of social networks like Twitter and Sina Weibo. Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s VP of Global Brand Strategy succinctly summarizes this shift: “We’re moving from a world where we plan campaigns for the future, to one where we adapt campaigns to the moment.”
Source: mediapost.com
This message encourages fans to recall sweet moments and wishes for British footballer Michael Owen when he announced his retirement.
A play on words in reference to the new social term “Beijing Cough”
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Real-time posts have higher chances of spreading across the social world, and sometimes reach more people and create more buzz than paid communications – a phenomenon we witnessed with Oreo’s tweet during the recent Super Bowl blackout in the U.S.
Source: guardian.co.uk
As Henry Mason, head of research and analytics at independent firm Trendwatching commented:
Source: wired.com
Purpose-inspired movements The Alpenliebe Kindness Movement is one of the best examples of purpose-inspired movement marketing from China because of how it inspired behavioral change in Chinese youth through a sustained integrated marketing program across three years.
“For brands, it’s never been easier to surprise and delight audiences; whether sending gifts, responding to publicly-expressed moods or just showing that they care. Via social networks, brands can now access consumers’ moods, intentions, desires or frustrations as they happen, and can therefore address them in a much more personalised and timely fashion.” View this report directly on Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/mslgroup/alpenliebe365-days-of-positive-power-peoples-insightsvolume-2-issue-13
Source: Alpenliebe Perfetti Kindness Movement
The Alpenliebe Kindness Movement has helped Alpenliebe increase sales and stand out in the crowded confectionary category. MSL China’s Owen Wang noted: “Alpenliebe is regarded as a brand with strong sense of social responsibility on-line, according to our fans survey.”
Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future of Citizenship
Grassroots Change Movements
Alpenliebe 365 Days of Positivity Power
People’s Lab: Crowdsourcing Innovation & Insights People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform and approach that helps organizations tap into people’s insights for innovation, storytelling and change. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform helps organizations build and nurture public or private, web or mobile, hosted or white label communities around four pre-configured application areas: Expertise Request Network, Innovation Challenge Network, Research & Insights Network and Contest & Activation Network. Our community and gaming features encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and collaborate to find innovative solutions. The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform and approach forms the core of our distinctive insights and foresight approach, which consists of four elements: organic conversation analysis, MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, clientspecific insights communities, and ethnographic deep dives into these communities. The People’s Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing insights from conversations and communities.
Innovation Challenge Network: Chicco Artsana - Nataieri
Research & Insights Network: P&G Asia Thank You Mom
In 2012, Chicco Artsana & MSLITALIA used the People’s Lab platform to create a Nataieri.it, an open digital community with moderated access where 100+ parents discuss issues in bringing up children and sharing their experiences.
In 2012, P&G Asia and MSL Singapore used the People’s Lab platform to create a Social Media Regional Center, a secure, private community where 100+ P&G stakeholders and agency partners shared content and best practices for the “Thank You, Mom” campaign at the London 2012 Olympics.
Learn more about us at: peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab 87
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MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe's strategic communications and engagement group, advisors in all aspects of communication strategy: from consumer PR to financial communications, from public affairs to reputation management and from crisis communications to event management. With more than 3,700 people, its offices span 22
countries. Adding affiliates and partners into the equation, MSLGROUP's reach increases to 4,000 employees in 83 countries. Today the largest 'PR and Engagement' network in Europe, Greater China and India, the group offers strategic planning and counsel, insightguided thinking and big, compelling ideas – followed by thorough execution.
Write to us to start a conversation on how we can help you distill actionable insights and foresights from conversations and communities: Pascal Beucler, SVP & Chief Strategy Officer (pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com) Designed by MSLGROUP CREATIVE+
Janelle Dixon, North America Head of Insights (janelle.dixon@mslgroup.com) Dominic Payling, Europe Head of Insights (dominic.payling@mslgroup.com) Gaurav Mishra, Asia Head of Insights (gaurav.mishra@mslgroup.com) Volume 2, Issue 1, January - March, 2013
Future of Citizenship