Official Blog
Turning the PSA on Its Head With YouTube
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Today’s guest post is from Water.org about an exciting campaign they’re working on to raise awareness about the water crisis. For more information on the YouTube Nonprofit Program visit
YouTube.com/nonprofits
.
While Water.org is known for our innovative approach to solving the world water crisis, we're less well known as YouTube stars. But every week we use YouTube to share the stories of the people we meet who don't have safe water to drink and to educate people about the water crisis.
With Matt Damon as our co-founder, Water.org can’t claim a lack of star power, but our experiences on YouTube have taught us that having a Hollywood celebrity in frame is not always a guarantee for viral online success.
Over the past few years we've included Matt in a variety of our videos, visiting our project sites, doing interviews, and in other cases "dressed up" for a specific role (like in
Damon Claus for a Cause
). From looking at our views, it is clear that "one-on-one" interviews with Matt and humorous videos are more popular than what people call traditional "public service announcement" (PSA) videos. It's not all that surprising since both humor and connectedness are key to the YouTube experience.
However, as interesting as this might be, our most successful YouTube moments happened when we invited established YouTube stars to visit our project sites and report back to their own audiences what they experienced. Cummulatively, these videos have nearly 3 million views - more than the lifetime views on our entire channel. Check them out:
So when we sat down and were brainstorming about new ways we could bring the water crisis to new audiences it made sense to integrate what we've learned and try something completely new: Matt Damon + YouTube Creators + humor + information = turning video views into awareness and action.
Today we are launching an online campaign of videos that feature Matt Damon and a collection of YouTube stars like
Wheezywaiter
,
Lisbug
,
Shaycarl
, and
LivePrudeGirls
. Check out these videos and watch out for more in the coming weeks.
Finally, support the campaign by signing up
here
and we'll keep you up to date. Collectively, we will be raising awareness for the water crisis that, in the end, will make the lives better for the millions of people who struggle each day to find a safe drink of water.
Mike McCamon, chief community officer at Water.org, recently watched “
When is Thanksgiving? Colonizing America: Crash Course US History #2
.”
Labels
3D
4k
accessibility
account info
activism
ads
africa
annotations
arts
awards
benefit
betas
bizblog
blogs
bulletins
buzz
captions
celebrity playlists
channels
chrome
citizen journalism
citizen reporting
citizentube
comedy
comments
community
community guidelines
contests
creator's corner
creators
curators
customization
dance
design
discovery
doodle
editor
education
embeds
entertainment
events
facebook
film
flagging
gaming
gmail
google
google tv
government
grants
groups
guidelines
hd
help center
holidays
homepage
howto
inspiration
investment
jobs
journalism
life in a day
live stream
marketing
meetups
mobile
moderator
movies
music
musicians wanted
news
nonprofits
open-source
partners
playlists
policy
politics
privacy
product update
quicklist
ratings
rentals
research
safety
science and technology
screening room
search
sharing
shows
social networks
sports
staff
stats and data
store
subscriptions
tags
test tube
travel
trends
tv
twitter
upload
vevo
video editing
video production
video volunteers
viral video
youtube api
youtube direct
Archive
2020
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2019
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2018
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2017
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2016
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sept
Aug
Jul
Feed
Follow @youtube
Follow
Learn more in the
YouTube Help Center
.
Follow