A Case Study in Digital Activism

As readers of this blog already know, Waterfall Mobile worked with Participant Media/TakePart – the studio behind terrific, socially relevant films like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Syriana,” and “Good Night, And Good Luck” – to create a mobile activism campaign for the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.”

The campaign was and continues to be a huge success, and Waterfall Mobile’s work with “The Cove” is a great example of converting viewer interest into social action.  That’s why we’re going to share the full case study with Mobile Demystified readers.

The campaign objectives included:

• Build a mobile subscriber list
• Engage viewers before they leave the theater
• Get people to sign a petition in support of closing the cove in Japan
• Stop the slaughtering of more than 20,000 dolphins and porpoises
• Prove mobile to be a viable option in driving activism

The highlights of the successful campaign include:

• High conversion rate during the first weekend of domestic release with a 9 percent opt-in rate of moviegoers
• Adding tens of thousands of subscribers to its mobile list (and it’s still growing)
• Proving mobile is a viable platform for TakePart/Participant Media to get its messages out

It’s quite a tale, and you can download the full case study here.

And if you’d like to learn how you can help the cause, visit http://www.takepart.com/thecove/ or text DOLPHIN to 44144.

We Are All Abuzz…

Some very exciting news.

Waterfall Mobile, along with Participant Media, is being honored with an Adweek “Buzz Award” for the mobile activism campaign Waterfall and Participant created for the Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove.”

The Buzz Awards honor the best in brand/media integration for innovative campaigns that catch fire and invade pop culture.

Waterfall will be included in the May 3, 2010 Buzz Awards special section that will run in print in that week’s issues of Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek.  The coverage will also appear online at www.adweek.com.

As you may already be aware, Waterfall Mobile powers the mobile activism campaign for “The Cove,” a hard-hitting film from Participant Media, the company behind “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Syriana,” and “Charlie Wilson’s War.”

This already successful campaign went truly viral on Oscar night, after one of the filmmakers held up a sign emblazoned with the mobile call-to-action during the telecast.  After an initial spike in text-ins to the “Cove” list, new subscriptions grew substantially during the hours after the telecast – due to an impromptu grassroots digital activism campaign that took place on Twitter and other social media platforms.

In the days that followed, “Text DOLPHIN to 44144” received tens of thousands of tweets, retweets, Facebook mentions, blog posts and mainstream media stories.  The list is now well over 90,000 members strong.

You can see a complete list of Buzz Award winners here.

And the Oscar goes to…

I would like to take a moment and give a big congratulations to our client Participant Media, and everyone involved in the Best Documentary Oscar-winning film, “The Cove.”

If you missed the big win last night, you can catch it here under “Acceptance Speeches: Documentary” (Make sure to pay attention for the mobile call-to-action).

I don’t think I’m the only one who noticed the cameras quickly pan away from one of the filmmakers’ banner with the call-to-action spelled out (right?). Luckily, people have other means of distributing a message rather than live television, and we saw that first hand last night as the Twittersphere blew up with support for the cause.

You can’t force something to go viral, but Participant Media tee’d this one up perfectly and found the perfect trigger to get its message out.  Since last night’s win, we’ve seen the mobile subscribers more than double – and the numbers are still flowing in fast.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to text DOLPHIN to 44144 to add your name to the list to continue to save the tens of thousands of dolphins and porpoises slaughtered each year in Japan.

You can also VOTE TODAY (this is the last day for voting) for Participant Media and Waterfall Mobile in Adweek’s Buzz Awards – People’s Choice Award for the mobile campaign supporting this cause.

Also, the movie is already available on DVD, so don’t forget to add it to your queue.

Again, a huge thanks to all to tweeted to get this word out.  The film has a powerful message, and we are thrilled to be a part of this campaign.

Mobile Engagement for Cause-Based Marketing

I posted recently about Waterfall Mobile’s involvement with The Cove, a documentary about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan.

But here’s the latest: I am excited to report that the results for this cause-based mobile engagement campaign have been through the roof.

Our new client Participant Media – the studio behind terrific, socially relevant films like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” “Syriana,” and “Good Night, And Good Luck” – produced “The Cove,” and leveraged the Msgme platform to create a mobile messaging campaign for the movie.

The mission? Convert viewer interest into social action.

A mobile call-to-action runs with the film’s closing credits, and the opt-in rates have been remarkable. For instance, over the film’s opening weekend 9% of viewers texted in after seeing the movie.

9%! At this scale and for this type of project, anything close to 4-5% would be cause for whooping and high-fiving in the office.

But that’s not all. Thousands have texted in to date, and when Ric O’Barry (the film’s star) sent out a video message, 19.5% of subscribers clicked through.  The following week, 22% of the list clicked through to sign an online protest letter. Based on the initial success of these links, the link to the letter was added to the automated response for all new subscribers. As of last weekend – five weeks into the film’s theatrical run – that link has seen an amazing 28% click-through rate.

Those numbers are off the charts and I’m happy Waterfall could chip in to help this extremely worthy cause.

It’s not too late to get involved! If you’d like to learn more, visit The Cove or text DOLPHIN to 44144.