What is Movember you ask? Movember is a movement that started in 2002 in Australia, and has since gone viral in 21 different countries. Movember= Mustache + November. Essentially, participants grow out their mustache throughout the month of November to promote Testicular Cancer awareness, Prostate Cancer awareness and (new this year) men’s mental health. Not only is it a great cause, but it also teaches us a thing or two about marketing success.
There are a few simple rules that men participating in the challenge must abide by:
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Start with a clean-shaven face on November 1st and let it grow for the rest of the month without shaving it off.
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Donate all money that you would have spent on grooming for the month, to men’s health awareness.
Like many other viral campaigns, Movember is often criticized for not actually marketing the cause it supports. In other words, critics argue that the participants are unaware of the cause behind the action, therefore rendering the campaign ineffective. On social media, Movember posts often forego information about men’s health or where to donate. Movember’s U.S. director, Mark Hedstrom has a great response to this:
“What we’re asking them to do is participate by changing their appearance. What that fosters is a conversation.”
How effective are viral campaigns like Movember when the call to action gets lost in the mix of things? I argue that they are extremely effective.
Hedstrom illustrates an important factor: awareness. Participating in Movember drastically changes the appearance of participants, resulting in many questions being posed about their newly grown ‘stache. Sure, the central message may sometimes get lost in the virality of the campaign… but the central message is present in conversation.
Isn’t this what inbound marketing is all about? Generating interesting content that gets people talking is the company’s focus, not just posting about a product. Take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge for example. This came under heavy criticism this summer. People argued that the challenge was ineffective in reaching it’s goal because participants were just dumping ice water on their heads without donating to the cause. The ALS Association released the data at the end of August. For this year’s month of August they received $94.3 million in donations, compared to $2.7 million for the same period last year. Numbers don’t lie, and the Ice bucket challenge was beyond effective!
There isn’t an exact formula for creating a viral campaign, sometimes it just happens. Movember started as a small movement in Australia, and has since grown exponentially. Although the cause for the marketing campaign can be lost in translation, the conversation is still there surrounding engaging content. This awareness is absolutely driving donations and contributing to the success of the campaign. So before you write off a cause-marketing campaign as “silly,” remember those are often the most successful ones.
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