As the largest Christian Humanitarian organization in the world, World Vision U.S. (WVUS) is dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities to reach their full potential by tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice. WVUS serves all people, regardless of religion, race, ethnicity, or gender in nearly 100 countries. For the past three years, WVUS has launched the "Share Big Dreams" Christmas campaign, inviting donors to share in the dreams of a child, and in turn, make charitable giving a part of their Christmas. The WVUS Gift Catalog provides generous donors with more than 100 gift options that help bring hope, joy, and transformation to children and families around the world. Consistently, the gift of a goat is a top-selling item. For $75, a donor can give a family this gift, providing ~16 cups of nutritious milk a day. The milk has protein to help children grow and can be sold to earn money, and a goat's manure can be used to fertilize crops. Tapping into this insight, WVUS developed the "Follow the Goats" hook to leverage this popular gift in a fresh, unique way and to utilize storytelling to demonstrate the impact of WVUS gifts. The goals of the campaign were to:
We created two fictional characters: Billy the Goat and Grampa Goat. This duo set off on a virtual trip to three countries (Mongolia, Burundi, Zambia) where World Vision works to explore how goats empower people and communities to lift themselves out of poverty. It was a new way of introducing the families and communities we serve while telling the story from the perspective of one of World Vision's best-known interventions.
The go-to-market strategy for this campaign focused on two pillars: content that addressed each level of the customer journey and strategic paid advertising. Our main platforms were Facebook, YouTube, the WVUS blog, Instagram, and Twitter.
Content: Follow the Goats applied Google's "Hero/Hub/Help" method of building and planning content to: increase a broad level of awareness, deepen the core segment's understanding and affinity for the World Vision Brand, and maintain donor loyalty. We hosted a weekly "Goat Travelogue" written in Grampa Goat's voice on the WVUS Blog, and as a series of videos on both YouTube and Facebook. The travelogues ("Meet the Goats" video, "Follow the Goats 1: Departure" blog) served as anchor content to introduce the campaign to the mass audience and enter them into the funnel. Deeper-level content included: "Follow the Goats to Mongolia" (Mongolia video, blog 1, blog 2), "Follow the Goats to Burundi" (Burundi video, blog 1, blog 2), and "Follow the Goats to Zambia" (Zambia video, blog 1, blog 2), which educated the audience about WVUS' work and impact. Additional deeper-level content videos included: "Goat make the best gift... right?" and "Journey of a Goat".
A branded micro-site provided access to all of the content and to the full story of the goats' journey. Whether someone was introduced to Follow the Goats through a YouTube video, a blog, a Tweet, or Instagram post, the audience was invited to experience World Vision's work as a comprehensive story.
Paid Social: Social media advertising for Follow the Goats was leveraged on Facebook to reach new audiences and deepen the experience with existing fans. We focused on retargeting video viewers and custom audiences with newly released pieces of content in the "Follow the Goats" story. Custom audience pixels were leveraged on our website in order to customize content that would create the most enjoyable and seamless experience based on where a donor was on their path to purchase.
Overall, the "Follow the Goats" campaign combined innovative storytelling with the latest in social media industry best practices to entertain the audience while demonstrating the impact of the work. The key features were: goat travelogue on the WVUS Blog, "#FollowtheGoats" video series on YouTube/Facebook, and a paid advertising strategy. A unique story that invited audiences to experience WVUS' work, Follow the Goats captured the imagination and compassion of new and existing fans alike!
The Follow the Goats hook exceeded all of our team's objectives of reach, engagement, and donations year-over-year while generating very positive feedback from readers who loved the creative and unique approach to our brand. To summarize:
In December, 2015…
