ESG News South Africa

Selfie campaign for good

CHOMA, interactive mobile phone magazine engaging South African girl adolescents to aid them in staying negative and free from HIV, has increased its social media users from 30,000 to 140,000 in less than two months through a 'selfie' campaign.
Selfie campaign for good

NPO HIVSA approached [dot]GOOD, specialists in marketing solutions with a conscience, to run the multi-platform campaign during May and June 2014. The campaign was driven by a competition, whereby new and existing users could upload a 'selfie' to Mxit or Facebook to win one of 10 Samsung Galaxy S4s. The competition was supported by an interactive fun-filled roadshow at various schools, universities and FET colleges and Mxit splash screen advertising.

"The increase in interaction with CHOMA means that we are touching the lives of many more adolescent girls and young women, which gives us the opportunity to play an important role in helping them to make well-informed and healthy life choices," says Jean Armstrong, CEO of HIVSA.

"We are proud to announce that we have managed to increase fans' interaction by over 400% in just two months, which was double our target," says Michael Baretta, founder of [dot]GOOD. The campaign received 100,000 click-throughs on Mxit splash screen advertising (more than a 4% response rate) and has gained over 6000 new Facebook fans.

Take a 'selfie'

The roadshow stopped at 22 venues across Gauteng and engaged over 12,000 people. It consisted of interactive pop-up stations where [dot]GOOD promoters engaged with young women and encouraged visitors to take a 'selfie' with fun and amusing props to enter the competition and to win instant prizes.

"We liked the agency's concept because of the psychology behind the 'selfie'. Taking one may be viewed as narcissistic but if you dig a little deeper it enables individuals to capture versions of themselves that they want to remember and that they are proud to be viewed by others. Seen in this way, 'selfies' can serve as an empowering tool that grants our users a small amount of control over their identities and how they are perceived by other," continues Armstrong.

"Our vision is to engineer innovative marketing solutions, while benefiting the greater community. It makes us proud to work with organisations that are aligned with what we do. It is every organisation's responsibility towards society to do good, while doing well," Baretta concludes.

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