Previously, on World AIDS Day I wrote Alicia Keys is Dead! Social Entrepreneurship is Alive!. Within this post, I made the prediction the campaign would be over in about a day or so. I did the math; the campaign wanted $1 million, at $10 per person, the campaign needed 100,000 individual donations. Alicia Keys has more than 2 million Twitter followers and not to forget Kim Kardashian, Jonelle Monae, Lenny Kravitz, Elijah Wood, and many other celebrities also joined the Digital Death Campaign. Therefore, only a small portion of their followers needed to donate. The campaign ended yesterday, almost a full week since it started. I have read some people consider the campaign a disaster because it took longer than expected and half of the donation was given by billionaire Steve Rahr. While my prediction was wrong, the campaign still received $500,000 from fan donations. But I will choose to give both the half glass full and empty observation.
Glass Half Empty:
Despite not giving personal tweets, Alicia Keys still tweeted about her death and where to make donations. When I hear of Digital Death, I assume a real Digital Death as in no tweets, whatsoever. So maybe, the tweets seemed as if the celebrities were bluffing and couldn't stand being "dead" for long. Stick to your guns during a campaign which is dependent on your actions.
Fan did not donate the full $1 million. For some people, it seemed arrogant that celebrities would believe Digital Death could be a good motivation. Maybe some fans didn't care so much if celebrities died.
Glass Half Full:
Fans did donate money, half of the requested amount. Some fans did care or maybe some people felt $10 was not too much to ask for charity regardless if they cared about their celebrities being dead (which is my category as I donated $10 and couldn't care less about celebrity tweets).
The campaign created major exposure for Keep Child a Alive and was a very creative. It encouraged other non-celebrity people to sacrifice their lives for the charity, which can be seen if you go to buylife.org, the campaign's website Any social entrepreneur can appreciate positive media buzz surrounding their cause.
In The End..
...it was worth the try considering the exposure and the participation of some fans. I do not consider the campaign a fail. This was the first major public campaign for Keys and Keep a Child Alive. Not every first attempt is going to be a complete success, especially when its for charity. While I agree the celebrities should have seriously digitally died, I'll choose to look at this campaign with a "glass half full" perspective and hope that social entrepreneurs do not become discouraged but inspired. I believe those who consider the campaign a failure are basing it on the celebrity factor and Keys not reaching her $1 million goal from her fans. From a strictly business point of view, Keys failed at her goal but through Keys and others only sacrificing personal tweets and Facebook time, her charity received at least $500,000 before Steve Rahr donated the rest. Even if Rahr did not donate his share, Keep a Child Alive gained $500,000. That's $500,000 the charity didn't have last week. I don't consider the campaign a complete success but partial fail for the celebrities and success for the charity.
What are your thoughts? Was it a disaster? A success? Both? and Why?
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