What do you get when you combine social media with the British Heart Foundation (TheBHF) with, Vinnie Joes and the Bee Gees? A whole lot of YouTube views, that’s what.
Considered as the UK’s most well-known heart charity, TheBHF has been spreading the word and helping those with “broken” hearts for over 50 years. The foundation has made significant contributions when it comes to research, patient care, and education, and as previously mentioned, they’ve been doing this for half a century.
But don’t the foundation’s age fool you, because as you are about to read, TheBHF is very much adept in launching online campaigns and doing social media right.
Last week, the guys at Twitter wrote a blog post about “Hard and Fast”, the wildly successful online campaign of TheBHF.
The Message
As a most people know, CPR comes in handy in cardiovascular emergencies, and can really help save lives. Still though, the thought of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation makes a lot of individuals uncomfortable, because it involves “kissing” a dying stranger.
To counter this, TheBHF aimed to spread the word about the effectiveness of “hands-only” CPR, an effective and life-saving method that doesn’t involve any sort of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation whatsoever.
The Execution
TheBHF produced a video starring famous actor Vinnie Jones. In it, Jones demonstrates the step by step process of hands only CPR. “Look lively,” Jones says. “First call 999, then you do hands only CPR” he also emphasizes that you don’t have to kiss anyone. “No kissing,” he adds. “You only kiss your missus on the lips.”
He then proceeds to demonstrate how it’s done. “Lock your fingers together, knuckles up, then push down right on sovereign.” As he does this, the music to Stayin’ Alive by the Bee Gees swells, and Jones advises that you should “push hard and fast, about two times a second like to the beat of Stayin’ Alive!” The video ends with a short and simple line: “Hands only CPR. It ain’t as hard as it looks.”
The video was hilarious and the move of associating CPR to the song Stayin’ Alive was definitely brilliant and made the ad even more memorable.
Equally as brilliant though is how TheBHF executed the campaign. While they initially wanted to air the video on TV, the foundation decided against it, and first launched the video online instead. They used Twitter’s Promoted Tweets to drive users to watch it, and even incorporated the hastag #hardandfast into the video to help track conversations about the campaign.
The Result
According to its case study, “conversations around “Hard and Fast” were so great that in addition to the Promoted Trend, the campaign also organically trended five times with the terms: “Vinnie Jones,” “#hardandfast,” “British Heart Foundation,” “CPR” and “Stayin’ Alive.” Numerous media outlets and blogs also reported on the advertisement after seeing it trend organically on Twitter — all leading to over 1.7 million video views.”
What You Can Do
While not all of us can hire celebrities or purchase the rights to classic songs like Stayin Alive, we can still learn a lot from TheBHF. The Hard and Fast campaign was successful mainly because it was easy to remember and was associated with a song that everyone knows.
In your next advertising campaign, try to link your message to some “classic” items. It doesn’t have to be a song. There are tons of slogans and events that are close to people’s hearts.
Additionally, the fact that TheBHF decided to use online channels first instead of traditional media such as TV greatly added to the campaign’s success. Nowadays, online properties and social networks generate buzz more effectively than other forms of media, so if you’re thinking of doubling down on Internet advertising, now is definitely the time.
Also remember that this principle doesn’t just apply to videos and social media campaigns. Great ads come in all shape and sizes. Overlay, mobile, and Thank You Email Offers, are just some examples of tried and tested ads that work. Combine engaging and entertaining content with these tools, and your bound to generate buzz and conversions!