A bigger problem than illiteracy?

Getting a non-altruistic society to lend a hand

The most important asset for an education-based not-for-profit organization is its teachers. ‘Akanksha’, an education-based NGO was limited by the poor quantity and quality of teachers. Not surprising, considering India ranks rather low in the World Giving Index.

Akanksha knew fighting this apathy would require mass appeal to shake people out of their inertia. However this was easier said than done, given they faced the common NGO problem of zero budgets.

With television out, celebrities were the obvious choice to grab eye-balls but they presented other challenges – Prohibitive fees and Medium of choice (Activation? Social Media?).

To get some answers, we decided to conduct an innovative ‘product-test’. Entering Akanksha’s classrooms enabled us to engage with the kids and discover a simple insight that formed the crux of the campaign. Further, delving into celebrity behaviour helped us to identify Twitter as the perfect medium to reach the huge celebrity fan following. Resulting in an endearing campaign that celebrities loved to tweet about and people loved to re-tweet.

The campaign reached approximately 18.15 million followers at ZERO media and ZERO celebrity cost. This resulted in a 587.5% increase in teacher applications and 94% increase in volunteer applications.