Oak Grove Associates
info@oakgroveassociates.co.uk | +44 (0)1865 456354
  • Home
  • What we do
    • Innovation
    • Skills & Partnerships for Sustainability
  • Who we are
    • The story
    • Director profiles
    • Associates
    • Sustainability statement
  • Why us
  • Our beliefs
  • Blog
  • Events
    • Innovation for Sustainability
    • Oxford Hive Mind
    • Your Green Future
  • Contact

#nomakeupselfie – what Brands can learn from Cancer Research's Response

21/3/2014

0 Comments

 
PicturePicture credit: Cancer Research UK
This week has seen social media go #nomakeupselfie mad. Cancer Research has raised over £2m and counting in 48 hours by seizing the opportunity and there are some great lessons for brands (be they charities or companies). 

If you have managed to avoid a single selfie of a female friend without make-up, let me recap. The #nomakeupselfie trend is said to have started with author Laura Lippman who posted a picture in solidarity with actress Kim Novak, who was recently criticised for her looks – nothing to do with cancer awareness or fundraising. 

People joined the trend and at some point started adding  #breastcancerawareness to their pictures.  What is crucial here, is that there was no link to any specific cancer charity initially.  Cancer Research was quick to seize the opportunity and posted a picture and message on social media, in essence taking ownership of the hashtag:  

“Thousands of you are posting #cancerawareness #nomakeupselfie pictures and many have asked if the campaign is ours. It’s not but we love that people want to get involved! If you’d like to help beat cancer sooner, please visit our website at http://bit.ly/1hAa1uD or text to donate using the code in the picture.” 

One wonders how Macmillan, Marie Curie, Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research and myriad other cancer charities feel as they watch the millions going to Cancer Research – I'm sure they won’t begrudge them (they are working for the same cause after all), but equally I'm sure they wouldn't have minded a share!

This is nimble decision making and marketing at its absolute best. It is also a bold decision that I think many brands can learn from – not just those looking to boost fundraising. Some of the lessons that I see are:

  • Empower your marketing and social media teams – a decision like this has to be taken in hours, not days and that requires staff to be empowered to take strategic decisions
  • Don’t fret too much about your brand – whilst Cancer Research can make interventions, campaigns like this have lives of their own and some people will put out the wrong messages or post things in bad taste; most consumers realise this has nothing to do with Cancer Research and more organisations would do well to remember this when issuing strict brand guidelines or cracking down on 'misuse'.  Cancer Research was brave enough to harness an unpredictable, yet powerful bandwagon
  • Leave your high horse behind – the internet is full of narcissism debates as a result of this campaign but this has not bothered Cancer Research one bit.  The reality is that it has captured the imagination of the public and that is ultimately what is crucial

The power of social media never ceases to amaze me and it will be interesting to see how brands adapt following the no make-up phenomenon.  One thing I am sure of though, you can't try to recreate or initiate this as a planned campaign - it will never be as powerful as when it is started by the crowd.

by Jesper Ekelund

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About our Blog

    We write about a wide range of innovation and sustainability topics. We hope you find them interesting and thought provoking. Please do leave comments on our blogs if you wish.

    Archives

    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Tags

    All
    Anthropocene
    BMW
    Book Review
    BP
    Brand
    Breakthrough Innovation
    Brundtland
    Business Model
    Charities
    Circular Economy
    Citizenship
    Collaboration
    Consumer
    Corporate Responsibility
    Csr
    Customer
    Customer Engagement
    Dennis-pannozzo
    Design
    Desso
    Disruptive Innovation
    Disruptive-innovation
    Education
    Einstein
    Ellen-mcarthur-foundation
    Empathy
    Engagement
    Euinnovate
    Foresight
    Forumforthefuture
    Fossil Fuels
    Fundraising
    Future
    Futureshapers
    Graduates
    Green Economy
    Green Skills
    Hashtag
    H&M
    Idea Generation
    IEMA
    Ikea
    Innovation
    Insight
    Intrapreneur
    Jenny Ekelund
    Jesper Ekelund
    Johan Rockström
    Led
    Marketing
    Nature Conservancy
    NPD
    Paris 2015
    Partnerships
    Patents
    Pavegen
    Perfect Storm
    Philips
    Planetary Boundaries
    Purpose
    R&D
    Recruitment
    Renewables
    Resillience
    Social Economy
    Social Good
    Social Media
    Stakeholders
    Strategy
    Supply Chain
    Sustainability
    Sustainable Development
    Sustainable Economy
    Systems Thinking
    Timberland
    Tipping Points
    Unilever
    Value Chain
    Vision
    Vodafone
    Volvo
    Walmart

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @OakGroveAssoc
Copyright © 2015 Oak Grove Associates Ltd. All rights reserved. Registered in England and Wales, Company No. 8644967. VAT Registration No. 168 0518 02. 
Registered office address: The Old Chapel, Union Way, Witney, Oxfordshire, OX28 6HD, UK