Lessons from the ice bucket challenge: how you can create the next marketing magic

Companies have capitalized on the ice bucket phenomenon that has swept the globe. Samsung already has. The firm’s Galaxy S5 “took” the ice bucket challenge and then nominated competitors iPhone 5S, HTC One M8, and the Nokia Lumia 930 to daringly do the same, their non-waterproof hardware be damned.

As my writing on Samsung’s spinoff is itself proof of, the stunt got journalists, bloggers, and netizens talking. The cost of producing that video was surely forgotten in the steady buzz it brought to the company and its Galaxy S5.

Still, the virality of the ice bucket challenge was due in part to its ALS connection: since it was for charity, people felt an obligation to perform the stunt, donate money, or both. A skeptic could argue that campaigns initiated by businesses will experience diminishing returns past the initial novelty – people being less willing to record themselves doing something on camera for commercial entities, and the media being less willing to perpetuate and celebrate what is essentially free advertising.

To this idea, I would argue that philanthropy and business need not be mutually exclusive, and the clever entrepreneur will find a way to combine both in a way that is tasteful and marketable.

Don’t just copy the ice bucket challenge

An even better approach would be to localize the ice bucket challenge. As a person in Asia, my mind immediately went to “rice bucket challenge.” The play on words would be cute, and rice is readily available to the people who would have a smartphone or camera to record the stunt. However, the ice bucket challenge has already invited criticism from some who feel like it’s a waste of water, so using actual foodstuffs would only be more controversial.

Entrepreneurs should instead take the campaign’s core idea – that of having one person completing a task and then nominating three others to do the same – and run with it. You’ll not be hopping on a bandwagon – you’ll be patterning a marketing scheme onto an archetype.

The concept has all the elements of a great story. There’s a small world of characters: the person on camera, the people he nominates, and the people off camera egging the person on. There’s conflict: the person in frame must slay a dragon and stand on its dead body triumphantly. And, most of all, there’s spectacle: the dragon must be defeated within a very short time frame, because your friend’s iPhone 4s only has so much battery left.

See: China’s top tech CEOs join in on ‘ice bucket challenge’ craze for ALS

The underlying principles of the ice bucket challenge

An entrepreneur can easily use this archetype to serve the goals of his startup. Recasting the challenge concept to your Asian country would be potentially a low risk, high reward scenario, one in which your own creativity would seem to directly correlate with the campaign’s virality. The silver bullet is a campaign that appeals to our sense of charity, while also serving the double purpose of promoting your firm’s services or products. You will need your marketing team to come up with some Don Draper-level magic.

As a media person who always loves a fun, human interest story, I’d like to point out the particular elements that naturally turn these challenges into strong narratives, beginning by deconstructing the ice bucket challenge. Hopefully these might inspire you to think of suitable spin-offs and twists.

Anyone can be the main character

Almost everyone in the world who has access to a camera or smartphone can also get their hands on some combination of water and ice, in addition to a bucket or a passable alternative. The challenge does not have a very high barrier to entry. Anyone from Joe Schmo to LeBron James can participate and post their efforts online for the world to see.

While the minimal commitment may be a point of contention – it’s easy to throw a word like slacktivism around – it’s what makes the ice bucket challenge so universally appealing. The challenge is all inclusive, yet it makes you feel like you’re a part of the cool kid’s club.

How will you design your challenge so that it has a low barrier to entry?

The spoils of victory