The phenomenal success of the Ice Bucket Challenge has proven a gold mine for \u00a0ALS research, however it\u2019s equally valuable as a case study for effective marketing and branding practices.<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The obvious marketing lesson of the ALS campaign, like\u00a0that other one featuring\u00a0plastic yellow bracelets from a few years back, is that actively engaging consumers \u2013 allowing them to brand themselves socially-conscious, in this case \u2013 is at the core of effective messaging, and if you can inspire them to participate in the process, all the better.<\/p>\n<p>The less intuitive lesson that the\u00a0ALS Ice Bucket Challenge may have taught us, or at least reinforced, is that consumer participation can prove as powerful as consumer identification.<\/p>\n<p>In branding, the goal is to\u00a0tap into consumer emotions, to motivate them not with product or service virtues, but rather with a set of values they want to identify with. Since products or services can be outdone at any moment by a competitors\u2019, an emotional connection to a\u00a0brand is crucial to maintaining brand loyalty.<\/p>\n<p>The ALS campaign doesn\u2019t do this, however. The\u00a0videos going viral aren\u2019t those of suffering victims or their courageous families; they\u2019re of smiling people dumping water on their heads. In short, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge doesn\u2019t attempt to move people emotionally, but rather physically.<\/p>\n<p>The longevity of the ALS Campaign, however, is limited in the same way that the enthusiasm, say, for a new version of the iPhone is. The novelty will wear off, and unless\u00a0ALS organizations manage to ride the wave of the Ice Bucket Challenge with other\u00a0initiatives, the disease will probably fade back into obscurity for those not directly effected by it. This isn\u2019t pointed to be a downer, but rather to pay credence to the emotional backbone of good branding: without a strong connection, you won\u2019t go far.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, the success of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge may change branding practices a little.\u00a0In addition to going after the heart, we might begin aiming more for the feet as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The phenomenal success of the Ice Bucket Challenge has proven a gold mine for \u00a0ALS research, however it\u2019s equally valuable as a case study for effective marketing and branding practices….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-branding","category-marketing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge.jpg",2500,1672,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge-768x514.jpg",768,514,true],"large":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge-1024x685.jpg",1024,685,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge.jpg",1536,1027,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ALS-Ice-Bucket-Challenge.jpg",2048,1370,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":294,"uagb_excerpt":"The phenomenal success of the Ice Bucket Challenge has proven a gold mine for \u00a0ALS research, however it\u2019s equally valuable as a case study for effective marketing and branding practices....","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":850,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844\/revisions\/850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imagemme.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}