Top 10 of 2010, Part 1

Today and tomorrow, I'm going to do a year-end roundup of the ten most read Work That Matters posts — according to Google Analytics.

Here are numbers 10-6:

10. Okay, so this is awkward... (Dec. 14)

A very recent post, this one got a big boost in viewership when I tweeted it at Ice T, with the smirking "@FINALLEVEL, call me... O_-" …and he RTed it.

It's just me goofing around with the "How Hetero?" application by Stockholm Pride, which analyzes your heterosexuality based on keywords in your Twitter feed. Ice T and I ended up being equally "just gay enough".

9.  Wow. Just Wow.   (Jan 29)



This was my reaction when I first viewed the "Embrace Life" PSA by Sussex Safer Roads Partnership.  It has since been viewed over 12 million times on YouTube and won multiple awards — including a Bronze Lion. But when I first read about it on Osocio, it was only viewable on the client's web site and not embeddable — very social media unfriendly.

Looking back, it's fun to read the comments as Marc van Gurp (of Osocio) and I  work to convince Neil Hopkins of Sussex Safer Roads Partnership to put it on YouTube ASAP. The final straw comes when I let hiom know that someone in Brazil managed to bootleg it on their own channel. Just over an hour later, Embrace Life was officially going viral.

I like to think that Marc and I played some tiny part in getting this spot online sooner than would have happened otherwise. It also cemented our online friendship, and Marc invited me to join the Osocio authors that March.

8. An immersive creative experience (April 16)

Usually, my most read posts are on burning social issues. But this one was quite the opposite.

It was for the launch of our campaign for the opening of Calyspo — Canada's largest theme waterpark, and went through our creative process in developing the characters that give the park its thematic faces. These illustrated characters have since been replaced by live action ones, which we also designed. The cute backstory is that Wildman Jack, the nature-loving blond guy, is named after my environmentalist young son.

7. Ottawa Admen go *POP* (July 30)

Another fun post, this one was about twin Art Directors (and friends) Daryn Wantuck and Tim Wantuck, and their participation in the exhibit Pop Life: Living in a Material World at the National Gallery of Canada. The twins work together at The Bytown Group, and I used to work there with them. So did illustrator Michael Zavacky who is now at McMillan. What was cool about this one is that Daryn, Tim, Zeke and I collaborated online to add an Ottawa ad industry touch to the exhibit — matching retro Doublemint Gum shirts!

6. iheartmom.ca (April 26)



One of the most heartfelt jobs we did this year was for the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. It was an appeal for donations by Canadian Olympic Bronze medallist figure skater Joannie Rochette — who lost her own mother to heart disease during the games.

This online video, shot by Acart Videographer Christopher while Joannie was making an appearance in Ottawa, was our launch of the "iheartmom" fundraising brand on social media. We ended up seeding to blogs all over the world. Joannie took "iheartmom" with her to her new role as spokeperson for Birk's, opening up a whole new fundraising stream for the Heart Institute.

Tune in tomorrow for the Top 5.

Make your Mother proud!

Mother's Day is just two days away, and our iheartmom.ca campaign has been a viral success.



So far, the video has had 4200+ views in less than two weeks, and the French and English Cause groups have almost a thousand do-gooders each. One fan, Paula, has even set up a birthday wish page where she asks that her friends donate to the cause in lieu of birthday gifts.



The launch of the campaign, with Joannie Rochette telling the sad story of how she lost her mother during the Olympics, made international headlines. As a result of our international Blogger Relations, Joannie's campaign has been spotted in blogs in places as far away as Switzerland, Moldova and Korea, as well as in figure skating forums.

The campaign will keep going after Mother's Day, but in the final push of phase one I urge you to donate through the iheartmom.ca site. You can do it through the Cause page, or direct to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is Canada’s largest and foremost cardiovascular health centre dedicated to understanding, treating and preventing heart disease. We deliver high-tech care with a personal touch, shape the way cardiovascular medicine is practiced, and revolutionize cardiac treatment and understanding. We build knowledge through research and translate discoveries into advanced care. We serve the local, national and international community, and are pioneering a new era in heart health.

Don't hesitate if you're outside of Ottawa, or even Canada. Your donations fund care, education and research that are working to reduce heart disease worldwide. Some of UOHI’s work includes

• Caring for more than 80,000 patients each year
• Providing cardiovascular training to more than 100 physicians annually
• Setting new cholesterol standards
• Causing the medical community worldwide to rethink how disease develops
• Launching a protocol that has cut deaths from heart attacks by 50 per cent
• Discovering a gene that increases the risk for cardiovascular disease by 40%!

Since the beginning of the campaign, we have added an option to send your mom an e-card letting her know you've donated on her behalf. And just for fun (because I love working every angle in social media for a good cause) I set up a Facebook Group called "I made a Mother's Day donation to support the heart health of all women" just to wring the very last drops of goodwill out of my online friends :)

Happy Mother's Day. And please donate! For Mom!

What "iheartmom" is really all about

This week, I've introduced you to our iheartmom.ca viral campaign starring Joannie Rochette. I've talked about the evolution of women's heart health as a social marketing issue. I've shared the ups and downs of trying to take a campaign viral. And I talked a bit about the new technologies we're adopting to raise funds.

Today, I'd like to put the spotlight on our cause marketing client, The University of Ottawa Heart Institute. As Canada's top cardiovascular health centre, The Heart Institute is a prime destination for surgeons who teach and conduct research, cardiologists who undertake basic science, investigators who operate clinics, among over 1,000 other health professionals.

Their work is global in scale, including identifying the first major heart health risk factor since cholesterol — the 9p21 gene, unlocking the mechanism controlling a gene that regulates weight loss, and developing a biomaterial that grows new blood vessels.

First Donation / Premier don
Originally uploaded by University of Ottawa Heart Institute

This campaign is gaining great awareness worldwide, but after an initial big cheque, donations are slow coming in. Please join our Facebook cause page or click the "iheartmom" button at the bottom of this post to support research, education, and treatment of women's hearts.

And please send your mom (or grandma, sister, daughter, wife, cousin, friend, etc.) this series of potentially life-saving videos produced by The Heart Institute. Each one has an important health tip for women about protecting and maintaining heart health, and especially for recognizing women's unique cardiac danger signals:











(More to come next week!)

Ready to support this cause now? For Mom? join our Facebook page or hit the button.

I heart you, Mom.

What the **** is that "Mobio" thing?

If you've been watching Joannie Rochette's iheartmom video on YouTube, or if you visited iheartmom.ca, you probably noticed a funny little piece of abstract art with a "Mobio" logo on it.





You may also be wondering "what IS that thing?"

Mobio Identity Systems is a Vancouver company that has developed a new way to make electronic payments, get information, or connect with specific content via smartphones.

Don't worry, before we started this campaign, I hadn't heard of them either. But our client, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute had. They premiered the technology on their annual telethon on CTV a few weeks ago, on March 28.

From MobioID's CEO, Clovis Najm (via press release):

"The Ottawa Heart Institute has always been on the cutting edge of technology and we believe Mobio will increase their donation base and encourage a new generation of young mobile smartphone users to donate to this worthy organization."

So how does it work? They included this handy video:



The telethon raised over $5 million, actually exceeding its goal. How many donations came via Mobio? According to the Ottawa Citizen, the high-tech gimmick helped "a bit".

But such is the case for early adopters. MobioID sees great potential for fundraisers in this technology, especially with the 45-and-under crowd, including:

• Ability to inject innovation into the widely traditional telethon space.
• Ability to target younger audiences and appeal to Gen X and Y.
• Increased geographical reach (Mobio barcodes can go viral on Twitter, Facebook, email and phone to phone)
• Ongoing donations possible post-event (once a custom barcode is created it can be used indefinitely in print, advertising, TV, T-shirts etc.)

Of course, the application also holds great promise for e-commerce, allowing on-the-spot impulse purchases from anywhere.

Now that you know what Mobio is, you'll probably start to notice it popping up in geekier circles. Just last weekend, I put down my copy of SuperFreakonomics (which is hard to do) and noticed a Mobio 2-D barcode on the back cover, with an invitation to get more info.

Curious? Give it a shot!

The Road to Viralville

...is full of bumps and detours.

As you know, I'm promoting the hell out of iheartmom.ca, our online Mother's Day campaign for women's heart health starring Olympic figure skated Joannie Rochette.

Everything is in place. Now all we have to do is "go viral". One... two.. three...



Okay, where is everybody? (Just kidding!)

Fast Company says that the three keys to a successful viral idea are "emotion", "public service", and "triggers".

In the case of this video, the emotion (Joannie talking about the loss of her mom), public service (help fight heart disease in women) and trigger (Mother's day) are obvious. Plus, we have the star power of one of Time Magazine's Top 100 people of 2010.

Joannie with Girls / Joannie avec les filles
Originally uploaded by University of Ottawa Heart Institute

With everything going for it, the campaign is going pretty well on Day 3. The video is on-track to hit the next milestone of 1500 views any minute now, the press is all over the campaign launch, and the campaign just got some surprise coverage from a Swiss blog:

"A beautiful example of an extremely simple social marketing campaign."

There have been setbacks, though, and these are lessons worth sharing too.

For one thing, our English homepage on Causes.com conked out mid-day yesterday. This meant that people trying to join our cause from iheartmom.ca couldn't get in. By this morning, we learned that people were still getting in via facebook invitations, so we redirected visitors to the "about" page. (If you haven't already, please join up now!) The home page is back online as of this writing.

Another glitch was the temporary loss of the French video on YouTube, which broke links and set the counter back to zero. It's back now.



As well, because we had to film Joannie on the day of the press conference, the video could not be ready in time for the first wave media blitz.

As a result, we've probably lost some opportunities. But now that we've fixed all our links, we're back on track and I'm busily working on our BR ('blogger relations") strategy — pushing the story out through my own social media outreach, and communicating with other influencers in sport, health and media who might be willing to help. Stay tuned for more results.

At the end of the day, the biggest challenge to this campaign will be to translate the rising awareness into actual donations. If you'd like to help, please join now at http://www.iheartmom.ca/ or use this handy campaign badge:

The heart of the issue

This week, in support of our iheartmom.ca campaign for women's heart health, I'm going to look at the development of female-specific heart disease awareness as a social marketing initiative.

Heart disease is the #1 killer of women, but has far less mindshare than breast and cervical cancer in the public discussion of women's health.

Why is this? Part of the problem, according to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, is that women's heart attack symptoms are different (and often less dramatic) than men's. They can be mistaken for an anxiety attack, flu, or general lightheadedness.

You can see the low awareness of women's heart health in this American PSA from two years ago:



And here is a good explanation of women-specific symptoms and issues:



The situation is changing, though, through the World Heart Federation's "Go Red for Women" campaign.



The campaign also gets corporate and celebrity support.



The international outreach is funded by the American Heart Association's "Go Red" movement, around Valentine's Day and Heart Month.



Here in Canada, the Red Dress campaign recently took the form of The Heart Truth Fashion Show, by the Heart & Stroke Foundation.


(Photo from Contact Music)

Hey, that model looks familiar.



Oh, yeah. It's Joannie Rochette.

Please support, and spread the word about, women's heart health. Visit iheartmom.ca

iheartmom.ca

Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette won a bronze medal at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, but her time on the podium was shadowed by tragedy. Just two days before she competed, her mother Therese died of a heart attack.

Joannie not only went on, but achieved a career best. Now, she has committed herself to raising awareness and funds to fight heart disease in women:



We at Acart are also committed to this cause. Just two weeks ago, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute came to us with their idea for creating a Mother's Day campaign around Joannie's involvement in their cause. And so, in a flurry of strategy, creative development, and on-the-fly production, we managed to put together the "iheartmom" campaign — filming the PSA on-site at the Heart Institute while Joannie was in Ottawa for a brief visit.



The online PSA leads to the campaign site, iheartmom.ca, where people are encouraged to donate directly or raise funds via Facebook (there's also a contest element where you can win a Caribbean cruise!)

Some facts on heart disease in women

• Heart disease is the #1 killer of women aged 55 or older
• Women of all ages represent 50% of heart disease deaths in Canada
• In 2005, more than 25,000 Canadian women died from heart disease
• More than one-third of women aged 45 and over have high blood pressure
• Heart disease risk in women increases with age and the onset of menopause
• Heart attack is not uncommon in women in their 30s
• Women’s heart attack symptoms can include unusual fatigue, trouble sleeping, indigestion and anxiety up to one month before a heart attack

The French campaign, "mamandemoncoeur", is running in parallel.



There's also a video of the press conference here.

Please help us help Joannie help moms everywhere have healthier hearts. Share this blog.