CREATING A MOVEMENT
Fair Watch Tally is a non-profit social media campaign focused on educating college students in Tallahassee, FL on ethical media consumption and the downsides of digital piracy.
This campaign was created by four colleagues and I in an attempt to promote an interactive community among our age-related peers. Our efforts incorporated local resources, a lively tone of voice and recognizable brand imagery in order to produce a positive effect.
CONTRIBUTIONS:
Scheduling, Surveying, Management, Community Building, Engagement
FOCUSING ON ALTERNATIVES
After researching similar campaigns from Federation Against Copyright (the infamous ‘Piracy, It’s a Crime’ ads), Industry for Trust IP Awareness and Creative Content Australia, we determined the most effective way of tackling media piracy was with a positive tone. Instead of treating the practice as something shameful and scaring away followers, we offered accessible alternatives both online and in-person.
We shouted out local theaters with posts focused on what made each location special, such as memberships, free events and unique film selections. This was paired with a staff member or visitor to personalize the location. Three locations recognized us by commenting and sharing, which boosted our reach and helped it become our most liked post series.
Stream It Thursday was our way of targeting those who preferred to stay home. Our posts were usually themed, such as highlighting Shudder on Halloween and Disney+ the same week the app launched. This post series performed the lowest, which we believe was due to it having a more corporate feel and not as humanistic as other posts.
Alt Tuesdays provided insight into programming outside of the mainstream, further creating a spotlight on indie and genre filmmakers that are majorly affected by piracy. We focused on the most exciting features to open in the area, resulting in this post series receiving the most comments.
“Working with Colin is a pleasure, as he’s an invaluable asset to any team. He truly knows his stuff and his dedication, positivity and knowledge makes for a more creative and productive environment.”
Adrian Cadavid, Co-Founder
IDENTIFYING WITH THE CAMPAIGN
We knew educational content would not be enough to stand out on our young audience’s feed. With this in mind, we created an identity that followers could attach themselves to: being a Watcher. A Watcher was someone who actively combatted media piracy. This was reinforced through captions, responses and a ‘W’ one could make with their hand.
This Watcher signifier spearheaded the campaign, becoming a popular trend with college students in town (especially within communication and arts). Our platforms received multiple message requests per week with followers asking to be featured in posts with the hand sign. My team and I on a daily basis would find students showing the hand sign to us as a sign of support. We successfully made anti-piracy cool to our target audience.
UNDERSTANDING THE MOVEMENT
At the start of the campaign, a survey was posted concerning the demographics and viewing habits of our audience. This same survey was then posted once the campaign came to an end. We were unable to determine concrete results from our findings due to the vagueness of the practice. We agreed that the correct way of going about it would be to collect a pool of followers at the start of the campaign and survey those exact individuals at the end. We would also rewrite our questions to be focused on our marketing materials and how it affected their watching patterns.
The following organically occurred over one month:
197 followers across all platforms.
An average like rate of 20-25 clicks on Instagram.
1,131 post interactions across all platforms.
A distinct online and in-person community.
