Livingston

Sep
25
2007

Era of Conversation Case Study: Gates Foundation’s ED in ‘08 Campaign

Our final Era of Conversation (October 4, 2007 in Washington) speaker is Mindshare’s Colin Moffett who will be talking about the Gates Foundation’s campaign “ED in ‘08″ campaign. For those of you that don’t know Mindshare, it is one of the leading interactive marketing firms in the DC region. Work includes Ebay, the Business Software Alliance and HP.

In a world where presidential debates and candidates’ issues are largely dictated by public opinion polls, theoretically the American people have the power to decide which issues will be tackled not only during the campaigns and elections, but also once a candidate is put into power.

The Bill & Melinda Gates and Eli Broad foundations, with the help of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, conceived Strong American Schools—a project that seeks to promote sound education policies for all Americans. Strong American Schools engaged Mindshare to create a brand identity that would mobilize support, with appeal across the demographic board.

The Gates Foundation’s Approach to Social Media

Moffett and the Mindshare team recognized early on that interactive platforms and their young, edgy audiences would be the crucial spring board for this election’s candidates and issues. Mindshare started by dropping the long “Strong American Schools� name, and proposed that a faux candidate be created to run alongside the presidential hopefuls and take the election in ’08. “ED� was born, gracing the Foundations’ campaign with the fun, easy-to-remember name, “ED in ’08.�

The rest of the “ED in ‘08� campaign followed from the same logic. To stand out among the candidates’ logos, “ED in ‘08� assumed a cool logo that breaks from the traditional red, white, & blue themes.

edin08.jpg

With the proper mood set, the “ED in ‘08� logo was rocketed into the public realm via rallies, social networks, viral media, photo galleries, email, the campaign website, and with multiple micro-campaigns.

The Results

The campaign’s carefully crafted, smooth personality meshed, not only with teachers, parents, and concerned politicians, but also with the coveted 14-24 y/o demographic. With intelligent placement strategy, ED in ‘08 leveraged channels such as MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Eventful.

The solid “ED in ‘08″ website served as a base, providing information and a central meeting point, while social media outreach enabled the “ED in ‘08â€? campaign to spider and spread across the online community, garnering staggering support along the way.

In the first 3 months of the campaign, ED in 08 has enjoyed:

  • 541 MySpace friends
  • 1,375 Facebook friends
  • Almost 3,000 views on YouTube

And the numbers keep growing…

  • A recent partnership video with Kanye West has seen over 80,000 views on YouTube in the first 2 days.
  • ED in ‘08 is launching its own social networking functionality this month which will allow supporters to link together and form groups
  • The I am ED campaign has received over 20,000 orders for a limited 4,000 endorsement kits
  • ED in ‘08 have amassed a list of over 100,000 supporters in 4 months
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by Geoff Livingston | Internet Marketing |

6 Responses to “Era of Conversation Case Study: Gates Foundation’s ED in ‘08 Campaign”

  • Troy Turner Says:

    September 25th, 2007 at 9:01 am

    Although this report says that the campaign’s “personality meshed…with teachers, parents…”, and reports thousands of supporters, alas, not everyone in the education field is in alignment with this Ed in ‘08.

    Matt Tabor, blogging about education-related issues, wrote on 13-Sep-07 in his blog at http://www.matthewktabor.com, that he has specific concerns about the campaign, and has contacted the organizers to voice these concerns. Not being satisfied with the campaigns response, he lays his thoughts out in his 13-SEP-07 post:

    “Ed in ”˜08 seems to think that [Kanye] West is a fine representative of their campaign; I don’t. I find their decision offensive to education professionals - public school teachers, employees, administrators, researchers and private advocates - and a blow to the dignity of public education, all for the sake of unhinged, unstructured awareness. Ed in ”˜08 may think that all publicity is good publicity, but such a move can’t be at the expense of the professionals who dedicate their lives to delivering quality education.

    Here’s the permalink: http://tinyurl.com/3xhegc

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 25th, 2007 at 9:12 am

    Thanks for dropping by, Troy. I appreciate that some spokespeople polarize audiences. In this case, you have to admit that the campaign is generating results. That’s what this post is about, not Kanye West’s merits, but whether or not social media worked as a marketing tool. And it did.

  • Troy Turner Says:

    September 25th, 2007 at 9:31 am

    Very True, and as they say, you’ll never please everyone all the time.

    In this case, Minshare’s social media strategy is very effective. Interestingly, those not so enamored with the effort are using the same tools to put voice to their views. So as far as a case-study proving the efficacy of social media, this case shows both sides.

    Finally, thanks for twittering this, I would have caught your article eventually through my Google Reader feeds, but seeing it pop up on my cell phone got me there a lot quicker!

  • Richard Becker Says:

    September 25th, 2007 at 7:36 pm

    It looks like it might be working, but most of the results are buzz results. How many additional donations? How many non-profits introduced to volunteers.

    Of them all, this is the best one: The I am ED campaign has received over 20,000 orders for a limited 4,000 endorsement kits. As for the supporters, I like the idea, but am unsure how to really gage their level of support.

    Great round up though. It’s nice to see social media doing good.

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 25th, 2007 at 10:17 pm

    Brand image and impressions can be an important result, too.

  • Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: NpTech Tag Summary: New Tools, Old Cultures, Tis the Season, and Facebook Social Ads Says:

    November 27th, 2007 at 4:42 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] tangible results need to come to the forefront through measurement and case studies. (Here’s a case study about the Gates [...]

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