Ice Bucket Challenge Burns Hot On Social Media

When someone throws cold water on an idea or activity, it’s usually with the intent to stop it dead in its tracks.

Not so with the Ice Bucket Challenge, which turns the cold-water idiom on its head—the folks at the ALS Association(Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease) created this digital marketing phenomenon to propel awareness for the disease and to fundraise for its cure.

The Nonprofit Fundraising World’s Breakout Summer Hit

If you haven’t seen or heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, it’s the nonprofit fundraising world’s breakout viral hit of this summer.

It entails making a video of yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head. You then invite three others to the challenge with a 24-hour deadline of either getting yourself cold and wet or making a donation to the ALS Society. (You can do both as well, as many have done.)

You post the video online and let your friends and social networks do the rest.

Celebrities Take The Plunge

Celebrities ranging from Lady Gaga to Martha Stewart to LeBron James and Bill Gates (the dude from Microsoft can play; be sure to check it out) have complied with the challenge. The celebrities here at Oliver Russell also participated—and had a ton of fun doing it.

After just several weeks of life, the Ice Box Challenge even has its own Wikipedia entry.

As of August 18th, this user-generated content marketing campaign has succeeded in raising $15.6 million vs. the $1.8 million raised by the ALS Society a year ago. Perhaps more stunning, the initiative has resulted in 308,000 new donors. We’re certain these totals will climb.

On the awareness side, the campaign has generated more than 4.2 million tweets since July 29th—1,887 tweets per minute just yesterday, August 18—and 2.4 million videos have been posted online. 

Lessons To Be Learned

Of course, you can’t script these things to go viral, and you may never obtain the success of the ice bucket challenge, but there are a few lessons to be learned here that will help your digital marketing or fundraising efforts in the future.

1. It’s simple.

All this takes is a willing spirit, some ice, water, and a smart phone. 

2. It employs a deadline.

This one gets forgotten too often—the sense of urgency created by a deadline, in this time response to the challenge within 24 hours. No time to wait with good intentions—act now! 

3. It’s a modern take on an old model.

It uses the old-school paradigm of a chain letter—pass this along to just three friends—combined with the peer pressure of a friendly challenge applied in a public (and very social) place, with the added flair of a school carnival device we all know and love, a dunk tank. Old-school precepts applied in a new digital world.

4. It’s authentic.

Someone you know captured on video with all sorts of creative and primal responses to the cold water. It levels the playing field whether you’re a working stiff or a billionaire. Brilliant.

5. It’s super visual and social.

Video makes it perfect for sharing online, plus the addition of hashtags (#icebucketchallenge, #alsicebucketchallenge, #strikeoutals) economically builds awareness of the disease at the same time it raises donations. And a little celebrity endorsement goes a long way on social.

"We have never seen anything like this in the history of the disease,” said Barbara Newhouse, President and CEO of The ALS Association. “We couldn’t be more thrilled with the level of compassion, generosity and sense of humor that people are exhibiting as they take part in this impactful viral initiative."

So go ahead and have some fun. It’s still August and hot in most places so seize some cool and make your own Ice Bucket Challenge video. And you can always donate to help fight the disease here.

About ALS

ALS is a summprogressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed.