When the ‘Harlem Shake’ started to become a global hype on the Internet in early 2013, we took advantage of this for the Dutch Parkinson’s Foundation. We did this with the ‘Worst Harlem Shake Ever’, on a budget of zero euros. The message: 'Shaking. Fun for some… Daily struggle for others.' The lead character was Eric Roos, chairman of the Dutch Parkinson’s Foundation and a Parkinson’s sufferer himself. Within a week, our video had been viewed more than 100,000 times. However, a musical rights issue caused the video to be banned a few days later. People expressed their disbelief about this on Twitter and in blogs. This gave the campaign an enormous boost. The number of visitors to the foundation’s Facebook page increased by 1,406.28%, and visitors to the website by 141.56%. Meanwhile, our film was shared by hundreds of news sites and by bloggers in over 70 countries. All in all, this resulted in more than one million views, a great deal of free PR and put Parkinson’s disease on people’s agendas.

We uploaded the ‘Worst Harlem Shake Ever’ on YouTube on 26 February 2013. Within a week, our video had been viewed more than 100,000 times. A musical rights issue caused the video to be banned a few days later. People expressed their disbelieve about this on Twitter and in blogs. What seemed to mean the end of our campaign actually gave it an enormous boost. Within no time, several ‘mirrors’ of the ‘Worst Harlem Shake Ever’ appeared on YouTube, Vimeo and internal video players, and this kept the conversation about Parkinson’s and the Parkinson’s Foundation going.

> 1,000,000 Combined number of views

80.23% Positive reviews on the original YouTube video

87.7% Average playing time (average up to the 25th second)

47% Absolute viewer loyalty

169 Countries where the film was viewed

> 10,000 Initial Tweets from featured articles

> 5,000 Initial Likes from featured articles

+ 1,406.28% Facebook visits

+ 141.56% Website visits.

News sites and bloggers in > 70 countries shared the video and wrote about it.

A lot of free PR which brought Parkinson’s disease on peoples agenda.

All this with a budget of € 0,-