The World Wildlife Fund's Major Social Media Success
In 2014, the World Wildlife Fund launched the #LastSelfie campaign on Snapchat in order to raise awareness and money for endangered animals. The organization chose to specifically launch a social media campaign because of its lack of marketing resources, which can be just as effective as a major media campaign if done correctly. The target audience of this campaign was mainly “Millennials”, or broadly an age range of 15-35. They wanted their message to reach a younger audience and believed social media would be the perfect way to do so.
The campaign was centered around Snapchat, specifically drawing on the fact that selfies and pictures last only 10 seconds on Snapchat. The #LastSelfie campaign used pictures of endangered animals with captions such as “Don’t let this be my #LastSelfie” and “In 10 seconds I’ll be gone forever, but you can still save my kind”. This was followed by a call to action, asking the audience to share, donate, or adopt an animal. The element of “limited time” or “urgency” ties into both the platform they chose, and their cause. This cohesiveness resonated with the target audience, and the campaign quickly went viral.
This campaign was extremely successful, and it is easiest to measure this by looking at the fact that their donation goal for the entire month was met in just three days. Even though the campaign was meant for Snapchat, Twitter users took a liking to the WWF’s message and began sharing it on other platforms as well. In just one week, the campaign was seen by over 120 million Twitter users, which is 50% of all active ‘Tweeters’. The campaign’s success is also highlighted by its 2015 People’s Choice Webby Award in the Social Media Campaigns category. The campaign clearly reached the target audience and resonated even past just that group. It goes to show how much impact free social media marketing can have if utilized correctly.