In order to raise funds and awareness for Water.org, Matt Damon partnered with Omaze to offer fans the chance to win the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hang with him at the premiere and after-party of Jason Bourne in Las Vegas. To maximize awareness and excitement around this opportunity and the work of Water.org, Omaze produced a comedic prank video where Matt roped unsuspecting passersby into a pretend spy mission.
Offering Fans a Dream Experience with Matt Damon & a Beloved Franchise
Matt Damon and Omaze offered one lucky fan and their guest the chance to attend the red carpet premiere of Jason Bourne in Las Vegas and hang with Matt at the exclusive after-party, with airfare and four-star hotel accommodation included. For as little as a $10 donation through Omaze.com, fans received entries towards scoring this once-in-a-lifetime experience, with the winners selected randomly.
Supporting a Worthy Cause
The campaign engaged a global audience of fans to raise crucial funds and awareness for Water.org, an organization co-founded by Matt Damon that pioneers innovative, community-driven, and market-based solutions to ensure all people have access to safe water and sanitation.
Delivering a Video-Driven Integrated Marketing Plan
Omaze's integrated marketing plan, which leveraged social media outreach by the official Bourne pages, on-air and online pick-up by top Media outlets (such as The Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, Yahoo News, MSN.com, etc.), paid media, and activation of the Omaze community via email and social, was driven by a fun viral prank video with Matt Damon entitled "Matt Damon Pranks People with Surprise Bourne Spy Mission."
The prank, conceived of and produced by Omaze's video team, features shoppers at The Grove thrust into a Bourne-style spy scheme as unsuspecting civilians who are handed burner phones and instructed to complete bewildering tasks like purchasing a hot dog, complementing a passerby, or entering a parking garage to deliver a mysterious manilla envelope. At the end of the video, these "agents" discover that the voice on the other end of their burner phone was none-other-than Matt Damon, who reveals himself to the astonished fans, offers them tickets to the premiere of Jason Bourne, and clues them into his Omaze campaign. Viewers were encouraged to click through the link in the YouTube video or Facebook post to donate and enter on Omaze.com/Matt. The video launched on The Today Show and was shared widely across social channels and on YouTube, its release leveraging the timely buzz around the movie premiere. Not only did it raise awareness for the campaign, but it also proved as a fun reminder to fans that hanging out with Matt Damon would be pretty awesome.
The prank video garnered over 2 million views across YouTube and Facebook, leading to donations from 101 countries that are going toward developing innovative solutions to the global water crisis. Funds raised from this campaign are equivalent to providing clean drinking water to 12,800 people.
Not only did this innovative content create tremendous lasting impact for Water.org, but it also excited and mobilized fans around the release of the next Bourne film, providing positive fan engagement for the charity partner and film studio alike. In an interview for The Daily News, Matt Damon discussed how much fun he had participating in the campaign and praised the power of the Omaze model for the incredible effect it has had on his organization.
The lucky winner of the experience, Peter from Ottowa, Canada, also had the night of his life, and was even interviewed with Matt on the red carpet. Check out his report here on Omaze's blog.
Overall, the massive positive response to the video content created by Omaze defined the results of an extremely successful campaign with Matt Damon, raising significant funds and awareness for Water.org, and providing a true once-in-a-lifetime experience for a very lucky fan.
