Summary / objectives

In January 2017, American online fundraising platform Omaze teamed up with Idris Elba and W.E. Can Lead (a girls education organisation) to offer fans a chance to win an opportunity to be Idris’s Valentine to raise funds and awareness for the charity. Omaze set a goal of providing 1,000 young girls with year-long empowerment workshops in Sierra Leone and, in addition to offering a chance at a dream date with Idris, they gave fans access to exclusive merchandise and fun, engaging content to maximise excitement and donations.

Background

First, Omaze collaborated with Idris and W.E. Can Lead to develop a dream experience that would excite fans to participate. The winning concept was the chance to be Idris’s Valentine, in which the winner would be flown out to London to have dinner with Idris and participate in an activity such as wine tasting and art class. For as little as a US$10 donation to W.E. Can Lead, fans could enter for their chance to win.

Omaze’s goal was to leverage social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), email, and PR to maximise campaign awareness and funds raised over the five-week campaign. They produced two pieces of video content with Idris, and supplemented these with numerous photo assets. 

For the creation of all campaign creative, they aimed to craft materials that would appeal to his female-skewing audience. And, for the videos, they gathered insights from Omaze’s hundreds of past campaign videos produced in-house (which have garnered over 500 million total views). Among these are a number of viral, comedic videos that were hugely successful at driving interest and donations for past campaigns.

Special characteristics

In Idris’s launch video, conceived and produced by the Omaze team, Idris describes some of the activities supporters might partake in with him if they win the Valentine’s date. This includes dinner, drinks, dessert, and ‘pounding his yams’ – Idris pitches all of the above from an upscale hotel room surrounded by red roses, champagne, and chocolate truffles.

You can watch the slighty saucy launch video here: 

In the second Omaze-produced video, released three weeks into the campaign, Idris seeks dating advice from an unexpected source – kids! Questions ranged from what happens on a date, to what kind of food one should order, to what kind of dance moves will be most impressive. The kids advise Idris on whether a bad boy or good guy persona will be more successful, and offer up personal opinions on whether or not they’d like to be his Valentine.

These videos were pitched out and received broadcast coverage on Good Morning America and The Today Show, and the campaign was covered by outlets such as CNN, BBC, Huffington Post, Time, and Yahoo! News, amongst others. The video and photo assets (which included Idris holding a rose with his teeth, and pointing at signs asking viewers to dine with him and be his Valentine) were also posted to the Facebook and Instagram pages of both Idris and Omaze to increase reach and viral impact.

Results

The campaign was an incredible success and won a Shorty Award honouring the best of social media.

Length of campaign:

• Five weeks

Donors:

• 30,000 donors
• 140 countries represented

Views:

• The launch video reached 22 million on Facebook and garnered 7.5 million views
• The kids video reached 20 million on Facebook and got 6.2 million views

Campaign total Facebook reach:

• 52,000 shares
• 351,000 post reactions.

Idris Elba’s Facebook:

• Grew by over 100,000
• Top six posts of all time on his Facebook page each pertain to this campaign

Total raised:

• Over US$750,000 (doubling the initial goal!)

Impact:

• The funds raised from the campaign will send 2,250 young girls in Sierra Leone to an empowerment workshop for an entire year.
• Sandra and Diana were the two lucky ladies who each won their own Valentine’s date with Idris Elba!

Note from the author: This case study was created using information and images on the Shorty Awards Website. https://shortyawards.com/2nd-socialgood/omaze-idris-elba