Should you do the #icebucketchallenge? 12 reasons why it works so well.

This could be the most comprehensive blog about ALS or MND's #icebucketchallenge ever written (by me..) But the quick answer to the first question, is YES. Anything, and I do mean anything, that helps raise an unprecedented £48 million in less than a month in a flood of donations from more than 1.7 million people is a good thing. No arguments from me.

But if you have any arguments against it – that’s ok – watch this and come back. (It’s about the man who started it and why)

And if your argument is about this being a new version of ‘slackism’ or almost anti giving as all you give is your time and energy – then you miss the point of what viral marketing needs. And you should read on (after reading this point from Seth Godin.)

People who post their video but don’t donate do something perhaps even bigger than donating – they market the idea, they spread the virus, they make #icebucketchallenge what it is.

They also normalise behaviour and give the movement the oxygen of publicity, which is a massive thing to do.

And yes I have done it (because my daughter nominated me) and have donated and posted and nominated….even me.

But should we like where our money is going?

I had to look into this and the answer is "Yes."

As reported in Mashable, the Charity Navigator, an industry watchdog group that provides Consumer Reports-like ratings of charitable organizations, rates ALSA four out of four stars. That ranking is based on 2013 data for ALSA's financial health and its accountability and transparency. So our donations are in good hands. ALSA spends roughly 72% of its donations on programs and services, according to Charity Navigator.

BUT the next part (the second question) is much BIGGER i.e.

Why should the idea work so well?

To answer this is to answer why anything goes viral – which I liken to predicting where lightening will strike in a storm.

We can tell you about storms, we can tell you what makes lightening, and we can even make lightening more likely to happen at a certain point – but we CANNOT tell you unequivocally where and when it will strike. Simple fact. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

However, there are (like with everything in life) certain rules you can deduce from viral successes. I put all of the ones I can think of from my marketing and psychological understanding of the process.

12 reasons why the #icebucketchallenge works.

1. KISS IT: Keep it short and sweet – Keep it simple stupid.

Make sure it something everyone can do and understand. Make it a no brainer. Make sure your #hashtag is short enough. The brand recognisable (not necessarily for the charity but for the idea). #ice #bucket # challenge. Done.

Make the challenge something everyone can do. Most people have a phone that can take videos. Most people can tip water over their heads. Most people can post to Facebook. Done.

2. Understand early adopters. And what they DO.

This is critical as without this you can never get to the mainstream. And here I am not saying that Frates (or anyone else knew this) but sports people are ‘early adopters’ when it comes to challenges. They will do it for the heck of it. Add to that – it’s a sports person they know that is asking (and cannot do it himself – see article above) and you are on to winner.

Ed – even if it was a golf guy* who started this craze – the point is the same. Sports people will do stuff like this (look at the end of season celebrations in most bloke sports….) Whether or not the organisers knew this is another point.

3. Timing is key. Summertime is hot.

An icebucket challenge in the winter time in Manchester? Would it work? Probably not as well as in America in the summer time. And remember KISS – keep it simple stupid. In the summer people have ice buckets, they are prepared to get cold, the barrier to entry is so low – anyone can do it – more importantly they will do it

4. Give the illusion of power.

As you nominate people, you get to GET the next guy – which is very much a sports person thing for early adopters.

5. Give the illusion of urgency.

You tell them they have 24 hours. You are the boss. You are a mafia boss. If they don’t do it – the world will get them. They have to do it. But remember point 1. If this was giving money no matter what – people wouldn't do it.

6. Give the illusion of choice.

You can either give or not give. But you have to do the challenge. And once done – you are not likely to not post it on Facebook or Youtube or What’s App it to friends.

7. Peer group pressure.

Once doing the #icebucketchallenge you want to nominate others, and they will feel they have to do it. It is an irony (and something the detractors dislike) that many people are missing the point, doing it for fun, or because it’s cool. But this is why marketing works. Not everyone needs to be wearing Nike trainers, but people do because their mates do. Or maybe it’s more because their ‘society’ tells them they should.

8. Let people put on a show. Their own show.

This is critical for the viral success of the movement. Everyone gets to be feel famous for 15 seconds. They get to control their own challenge, they get to nominate their own friends, they get to put on a show – which requires no acting or ability.

9. Cross the chasm with the power of celebrities. They love to show off.

Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Mark Zuckerberg and even George W. Bush are among the famous faces that have drenched themselves in freezing water for a good cause.

In fact you could argue that the viral sensation went from non famous people locally, local sports people, to famous sports people, to techies, to techie bosses, to famous techie bosses, to the famous, to the rest of us.

As the challenge started many moons before it went viral. It was only after Aug. 13, when Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella filmed himself taking on the challenge—and before long, the tech community at large embraced the trend. Mark Zuckerberg joined the cause on Aug. 15, prompting another spike in buzz.

Volume really took off on Aug. 17, when Justin Bieber posted his video, and mentions peaked on Aug. 18 as more and more celebrities participated. Celebrities like Drake and Lady Gaga, athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo, and tech industry leaders, like Tim Cook, all rallied around the cause.

Here is probably the best 40 celebrities doing it – thanks to the Telegraph.

Now everyone is doing it. Teams, digital marketing companies, families, even me.

10. Own the hashtag but not the idea. Let it go "viral".

If this was done by a brand then often the natural changing of the meme would be curtailed. This time the opposite – a grass movement created by a person (not a team of marketing people) created hybrids often done by celebrities – my favourite Charlie Sheen’s version with him throwing a bucket of the money he is donating over himself. ($10,000 by the way)

Some kept to the brand values – some lived the brand values as they live with the disease themselves.

Some were just stupid - in what just might be the dumbest take yet on the ALS ice bucket challenge yet.

And some moments from the movement became famous in themselves but for the wrong reasons. For instance, here's a foul-mouthed two-year-old taking part: which has got 1.7 million views. Viral marketing at its best but probably not great for the brand.

11. Tap into the power of psychology

There is so much here that makes it work

- Modern narcissism – the rise of the "selfies" on steroids – this is ME doing something, sometimes looking good in a bikini / white t-shirt.

- Schadenfreude – getting pleasure from someone else’s displeasure. And for a good cause too and with no one really getting hurt (there are exceptions and they are even better because of it.)

- Shock power – people love seeing something new – each #icebucketchallenge is new – they are new people you have never seen, doing something know to you. And you want to see the reaction.

- It has the The Benjamin Franklin effect. Which is a psychological phenomenon showing that someone who has already done a favor for someone is more likely to do another favor for that person than if they had received a favor from that person. Lost?

Originally, the Ice Bucket Challenge went like this: Donate money OR dump ice water on your head. But many people, after dumping ice water on their head, are still donating. The Benjamin Franklin effect says that by doing a single favor (like the pouring ice water on your head to build awareness for a cause), you’ve subconsciously told yourself that whoever you were doing the favor for is worthy. And after you’ve done the first favor, you’re more likely to support them again (maybe by donating money, for example.)

12.Tap into the power of technology.

What came first people loving themselves or the phemonema of the “selfie”? Friends of mine were taking selfies 15 years ago – but very few people saw them. Now with face facing cameras everyone can do it (and many do.)

The same goes for the #icebucketchallenge – lots of people have iphones, lots of people can upload to YouTube. Facebook now let’s you upload videos straight to Facebook, all of this and more (including bandwidth and the lower costs of data) ALL of it made this phenomena possible.

So the reasons the #icebucketchallenge works are many. But…

Did it work?

As stated before the movement has raised over £50 million for a charity in a month (which is 50 times higher than its normal amount.)

From a marketing point of view it is HUGE, as of Monday afternoon, Sysomos MAP reports more than 10.3 million online mentions of the #IceBucketChallenge (or ALSicebucketchallenge):

• Blogs: 4,947
• Forums: 3,017
• Digital News: 8,885
• Facebook(public pages): 984,481
• YouTube Videos: 117,216
• Twitter: 9,367,911 mentions and growing…

Significantly 68% of the Twitter mentions were retweets

And 51% were tweeted by people with above average authority ratings.

So this hashtag went viral and was full of influential people.

Some of these people being celebrities gave large amounts i.e. $10,000 from Charlie Sheen. But according to the Mirror:

“Adding the Youtube and Facebook figures together, if everyone who took on the challenge raised $100 for ALS, we'd have seen $122,553,700 donated towards the cause.


However, the ALS charity website reported that only $88 million had been raised. It suggests that if we'd all reached into our pockets rather than running outside to throw water around, the cause would have raised an extra $40 million.”

This surely misses the point. £50 million has been raised because we ran outside and did silly things like this – without the water £1 million – I say more power to it all. And I hope this article shows in some ways how you can do it yourself for your brand.

What can we possibly take away from all this?

Something going viral is like lightening striking, it can happen naturally; when the perfect storm of conditions appear, usually in the summer time. Just like lightening it’s impressive, it’s quick and people wonder how it happens. And just like lightening you can help it – but very rarely if ever contain it or predict it.