Social Media Campaign is on…. #YTurnItOff

An amazing global campaign is encouraging people to save energy and water. Guess what’s the touch point? Yes, it's on social media!

The awareness drive, #YTurnItOff, is organised by the Zayed Future Energy Prize.

Each year it is held in Abu Dhabi, bringing together pioneering researchers, advocates, and entrepreneurs into the field of clean energy.

The latest initiative aims to generate popular appeal for energy efficiency and water conservation. The campaign organizers are inviting young people to post 15-second videos on Instagram, featuring inspirational messages on how they use fewer resources.

“Water and energy are vital resources to our economy,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and director general of the Zayed Future Energy Prize. “To preserve them for the future we must cultivate an ethos of sustainability in the next generation, alerting them to their responsibility to care for the environment by taking simple, individual actions.”

The campaign started with participants from ages 11 to 17 being invited to post their videos on the Zayed FutureEnergy Prize Instagram page. 

The deadline for submissions is December 20. A jury will select the best 20 videos with finalists shortlisted based on their creativity, innovation, and practicality of their proposed idea to save water and/or energy.

The winner will be decided through a public vote on Instagram from January 4th - 10th.

The 10 videos that generate the most “likes” will win special prizes, including a chance to attend next month's Zayed Future Energy Prize awards ceremony at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. Competition winners will join the 2015 Global High Schools winners and finalists as young ambassadors of the UAE.

I wish I were 15 to sign up for this contest:-( 

Well-done Zayed!!!

Hashtag: #YTurnItOff

Social Media Helps ISLAMofobia

I wonder what is going to happen to the creative briefs, seeing that the pace and efficiency of social media are increasing exponentially? We have gotten to a point that advertising for social causes has lost its power over human proactivity. 

We saw a few days ago that a social media campaign, #IIIrideWithYou, supporting Muslim Australians went viral. 

It started with one, Rachel Jacobs posting a status update detailing how a Muslim woman using public transport removed her hijab (head scarf), fearing a verbal or physical attack by a fellow commuter linking her religion to the extremism, which had taken place at Lindt Café, in Sydney a few days prior.

 According to Ms Jacobs,  she ran after the woman and told her to put her hijab back on before adding "I'll walk with you". Thousands more Australians tweeted their support, offering to ride with anyone scared of experiencing abuse on trains, buses and trams.

 Although the campaign portrayed an incident in Australia, it echoed globally. People from everywhere wanted to show compassion to the Muslim community, and as it seems, the philosophy "if you do, I will do it too" works and gives results. 

By this evening the hashtag #Illridewithyou was the highest trending Twitter topic both in Australia and across the globe with more than 90,000 tweets!

AH-mazing!

Going back to the advertising... How long will it last if the social media are taking over this much?

Hashtag: #IIIwillRideWithYou

When Ads Aren’t Ads At All

How many times have we hesitated to fast forward or skip YouTube’s advertisements? To be quite frank, I've always chosen to watch  those ads. Even though I’ve been majoring in advertising, I’m also a consumer. And if an ad isn’t relevant to us, we’ll skip or forward, indeed! 

So many brands out there are making ads sooooo good that people are choosing to watch and share them, and the best ads out there today are also some of the best content.

According to a case study by VP of ads at Google, Lisa Gevelber, consumers are choosing to watch more, every year. “People watched more than 1 billion minutes of the top 10 videos on the YouTube Ads Leaderboard this year, and the views for those ads are more than double what we saw two years ago when we launched the Ads Leaderboard, says Gevelber”.

 It seems that many brands are putting additional emphasis on creating entertaining content specifically for the medium, because viewers are demonstrating that they will watch branded content as long as it’s entertaining. Yes, we do love to be entertained.  

This is the tipping point of advertising, which is unfolding on YouTube.

Do you watch it or skip it?  

#MostWatchedAdsOn2014      

Grumpy cat makes more $ than a recent college grad…

While some recent college graduate students are dying for landing a job that pays only $35K/year, a random cat makes $ 50 million/year. And you know why who is responsible for that? Us, the audience. The picture of a random cat went viral and now the feline is a legit celebrity.
The cat, I mean, the Grumpy Cat became social media celebrity after the owner’s brother posted a picture online and of course, its relentless malevolence look. 

The cat’s owner, Tabatha Budesen of Morrisown, Arizona claimed that her cat made 100 million dollars from an array of products, including bestselling books and a film in 2 years.

According to Bundesen, she's angling to make more money off of her furry friend. She already have interview options so she can set the record straight on Grumpy's finances, and will likely do so on Lifetime since she and the cat have a development deal with the cable network. Grumpy Cat has more than 500K followers on Instagram. 

All of this begs one important question: What planet do we live on?

Hashtags: #grumpycat  

Diocese of Brooklyn's New Campaign has selfies and hashtags. Yes, I said selfies and hashtags

Catholics are putting all the conservatism aside and now hope modern technology will appeal to millennial Catholics.

In its new Christmas ad campaign, the diocese is reaching out to the young through print ads featuring trendy images like a woman taking a selfie with Jesus in the background.

The Catholic group is also using #BrooklynCatholic to appeal to young adults.

According to The New York Times, the effort to increase church attendance comes at a difficult time for New York City's Catholics, with more than 50 parishes having closed.

Stefanie Gutierrez, press secretary of the Diocese of Brooklyn says that Christmas season is the best time to appeal to those who had gone away from church.

"Christmas is when people go home for holidays", says Gutierrez.
And you, what do you think about this catholic endeavor. Very interesting, huh?

Hashtag: #BrooklynCatholic

Global Cause: Social Media for Social Change. Are we ready?

Social Media has become the driver for social good, leading to more traditional methods of generating support and involvement for different types os causes. 

This time, the World Food Program (WFP) has launched a 72-hours campaign to raise 64 million U.S. dollar to Un agency in order to reinstate Syrian refugee's food voucher.

This campaign urges donor and member of the public to follow the WFP's link WFP.ORG/FORSYRIANREFUGEES to donate online and also spread the world via twitter,  and instagram with hashtag #forsyrianrefugees.

A Syrian refugee family in an informal tented settlement in Jdita town, three years after fleeing the war . 

To those who consider themselves as the digitally active folks, simply "like" and spread the word of a cause is not enough! We need tnot only engage with the causes but donate money, personal items, food, attend or participate any events related to the cause. 

I just hope that the 72-hours campaign is just the beginning of this great campaign. Let's click, shout, donate, and be consistent with our involvement with social causes. 

And you. Are you consistent with a cause or you just get involved while is on social media? 

Hashtags:  #forsyrianrefugees.

Behind a pretty face, an entrepreneurial mind

Who said pretty girls can’t become entrepreneurs? Here she comes to prove it wrong. The beauty tutorial maven Michelle Phan has become an international businesswoman and has been working with brands like Dr Peper and L’Oreal. Now, Michelle features numerous websites to talk about not only make up but content creation. Here are some tips I found interesting to share with you. According to Michelle Phan, people should use the social media platforms that you are already use on a personal level to market your professional brand. Once you have placed a stake in those particular platforms, you can then shift your focus to the social media platforms used most by your target market.

As it seems, Michelle has become a brand expert as well as make up artist for been able to create interesting content that entertains, informs, and engages her audience. Nonetheless, Michelle Phan has been inspiring many young adults to transform their passion into business… Who is going to be the next Phan, you? Michelle Phan’s youtube channel has over 1 billion views, Facebook page over 2 million followers, Twitter has over 600K followers, and Instagram has over 1,7K followers.

#MichellePhan#MakeupArtist #MakeupAndEntrepreneurship