Creative shop Skadaddle Media just launched a social marketing campaign for Wherever the Need (WTN) called Twitter for Sh-tters.
The campaign draws on raw language, rather than euphemisms, in a drastic departure from traditional fundraising. WTN aims to use this social media campaign to stimulate discussions on eco-sanitation, global health and poverty issues in social networks in order to raise money and promote awareness for eco-sanitation toilets in the poorest regions of the world.
The Twitter campaign asks people to tweet about the cause -- "talk sh-t" -- or ask people to donate to the fund through the WTN Web site. It costs $500 to build one eco-sand toilet and donations are already growing; @tw_tter4sh_tter just announced the campaign raised enough to buy its second eco-toilet.
Viral videos uploaded to YouTube and Facebook come next. The crew has already begun to tape hundreds of flushing toilets to create music symphonies and montages, and the video will begin shooting on in mid-August.
This carefully planned marketing schedule leads up to World Toilet Day on Nov. 19 when we expect there will be some sort of sanitary showdown.
WTN took a marketing challenge -- how to talk inoffensively about third world sanitation -- and fipped it into a viral advantage. We can't wait to see what comes out of this campaign next.
-Adrianne (@msfener)
