Weekend Musings 19
Smile Train's Partner Cause of the Year and why audience targeting is still important
“In the end, everyone must come to Arunachala.” - Sri Ramana Maharshi.
Two months ago I had no clue who he was and what is in store for me. And here I am a month old in Tiruvannamalai, writing this post from my new house which opens up to the beautiful Arunachala. (The caves of Arunachala)
I had asked for the view and I got it :)
Earlier in the evening, I was at Anand Ramana to have something light and I ended up having a delicious Masala Dosa with three types of chutney and filter coffee.
I also happen to meet another seeker who is in the midst of moving to the spiritual town while running his startup.
“So how do you find the change. Is it a big one?”
“No. I do the same things that I was doing in Bangalore. The only addition is my newfound love to walk on the path of self-enquiry and building the behaviour to be at peace.”
“We all are trying to break patterns. Patterns that take us downhill,” he said while finishing up his idlis. “Also this place has power and a force that helps you.”
I further added: “Only to those who have love and complete surrender.”
Last week while I was setting up my broadband at my new flat, I came across news that brought back an old thought - Content can drive commerce if it can add value to the reader’s time.
Earlier this year Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, was named as Dallas-based positive media outlet InspireMore’s first-ever “Partner Cause of the Year.” This honour includes an integrated year-long partnership focused on aligning the entire InspireMore platform with Smile Train’s work.
In simple words, it is the age-old sponsored content deal but with the tweak of fundraising.
Smile Train says: “This first-of-its-kind fundraising activation allows readers to raise money with a click of a button. With the new Share to Give campaign, every time a reader shares an article, InspireMore donates to Smile Train to help us provide life-changing opportunities to children in need.”
InspireMore has created a dedicated page that has inspiring stories on how Smile Train is giving a reason to smile for people with a cleft. The stories also have a call to action of the sharing option that will quadruple the donations.
People love stories and how an NGO is making a change on the ground inspires them to donate. In this case, Smile Train is integrating storytelling plus fundraising.
With digital platforms having their own set of problems, organisations will have to find other avenues to reach out to people. And this is an interesting way.
This will also allow Smile Train to collect first-party data that will be useful for the organisation.
With Facebook fundraising having its own challenges of detailed targeting; donor data has become crucial for building up audiences. Creating Lookalike audiences out of the existing donor data is a must. Don’t run a Facebook Click to Donate or Lead Gen campaign without it. Or be ready to be doomed.
Today Audience Targetting has become very critical. With the changes that iOS has brought in and Google also walking the same path. Digital targeting has evolved and it still very much influences campaign performance.
In its Global Annual Marketing report Nielsen says: “Data confidence aside, there is widespread agreement that data is essential. Given the many—and growing—sources of data across the media industry, it’s easy to see why marketers may agree on its importance, yet have difficulty feeling confident in how to harness its full power.”
“A majority of marketers (69%) believe first-party data is important for their strategies and campaigns, and even more (72%) believe they have access to quality data to maximize the impact of their media budgets (61% in EMEA and 78% in North America).”
Despite widespread agreement about the importance of quality data, the majority of marketers surveyed struggle with varying aspects of their data strategies.
This is why content still plays a bigger role in a world where marketers will have to survive on first-party data.
However, the content to commerce model looks good on paper. But the model requires patience and investments for a longer period. Also, the mix of branding and fundraising is yet to be picked up by even larger nonprofit organisations.
Nonetheless, a commitment for a year for such an initiative shows faith in Smile Train.