Channel NewsAsia Interviews Digimind on the #icebucketchallenge

In the wake of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, General Manager of Digimind Singapore, Stephen Dale, was invited to speak with Channel NewsAsia about viral campaign strategies of charitable organizations and businesses. This was his third appearance on Channel NewsAsia providing insights about trends in social media.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfG7Jk8-N8&feature=youtu.be

Although much of the buzz surrounding the Ice Bucket Challenge took place on Facebook and Twitter, Stephen stresses the important role traditional media has on digital campaigns. News websites have a far larger readership than most Twitter or Facebook accounts, so once an event gets picked up by the news, the awareness increases significantly.

 Businesses and organizations frequently strive above all to “go viral” with their digital campaigns, however Stephen warns not to lose sight of long term customer loyalty. It is important to evaluate short term financial goals as well as brand image over a longer period. Sentiment tracking is one way to help monitor online reputation over time. Critics of the Ice Bucket Challenge call out the ALS Association’s move to trademark the term and also suggest that participation in the challenge is in some cases ignorant self-promotion, so the proportion of these negative online mentions is something the organization will want to continue to address in the future.