Movember

December 12, 2011 | Posted by: Aris Lazdins

This past November I donated my face—and dignity—to one of my favorite charitable organizations, the Movember Foundation.

Every year the Foundation hosts a month-long charity event called Movember, for which men commit to growing moustaches to raise awareness and donations for men’s health. Movember, the namesake which comes from “Mo” (slang for moustache in Australia), specifically focuses on prostate cancer. This year alone, Movember  raised more than $98 million to fund prostate cancer research, as well as outreach and support programs for men battling various forms of cancer.

I’m proud to say that I had a (very) small part in this success, thanks to friends on Facebook and the Merritt Group.

What impresses me most about Movember is the campaign’s tremendous growth since its inception in 2003. The campaign has nearly doubled its participants and funds raised, year after year.

From the communications perspective, I believe that this success highlights several powerful characteristics of today’s most influential campaigns.

• Making it fun
• Making it visual
• Making it easy to share

Surprisingly, in many campaigns, particularly B2B, the “fun factor” is often missing. Though we may forget, we are all human and have similar needs. We want to have fun—and it can be a strong motivator.

Using compelling imagery and symbols is another characteristic of today’s most influential campaigns. These successful campaigns tend to rally around an identifiable image. For Movember, it’s moustaches. For LIVESTRONG, it’s the yellow bracelet. For Susan G. Komen, it’s the pink ribbon. Think about visual ways to make your issue stand out from the crowd.

Finally, especially with the advent of social media, making your campaign easy to share is critical. From my experience, getting set up with Movember was easy. After a brief (1-2 minute) registration, the Movember Foundation issued me my own personal blog/donation page on its website, where I could drive people to view my updates and make donations online. The campaign also integrated seamlessly with my Facebook page and provided suggested templates for donation requests. As a participant, it was a fun, easy and rewarding experience—and for a great cause. All reasons why I’ll be growing again next year!