2. The Propagation of Kony 2012
■ Kony 2012 was the most viral
video ever—meaning that it
traveled around the web
faster than any video before it.
■ The video is a call-to-action to
make African warlord Joseph
Kony a household name in the
U.S, and by doing so, urge
politicians to lead an effort to
locate and stop him.
■ In just 6 days, the video
earned 100 million viewers,
and $30 million for the non-
profit behind it, Invisible
Children.
■ This week’s Sunnyside Up
takes a look at exactly how
the video spread so quickly
throughout the web.
3. ■ Invisible Children is a San Diego non-profit
founded by filmmaker Jason Russell. It
employees 43 people—most of whom are in
the early 30s—and counts hundreds of young
people—including many college students—as
volunteers.
■ Since 2004, the organization has focused most
of its efforts on creating and distributing video
content about its humanitarian causes in
Africa.
■ Invisible Children builds its base of young
people through “transmedia storytelling,” by
creating multiple touch points—video, apparel
like T-shirts and wrist bands, live events, and
music tours—to invole its supporters.
4. Kony 2012 left many observers divided about
its intent and its impact
■ “I felt a little nauseous watching the film. Couldn’t help but feel the director’s
concern was less about addressing the needs of those affected today by the
LRA and the complexities of tackling the rebel group, than as serving as a
very slick promotional vehicle for his charity.” Guardian (UK) photojournalist /
journalist Simon Rawles.
■ “From our perspective at Human Rights Watch, we
definitely support the message of the film and we think it’s
great that they’re bringing so much attention to the film with
Kony’s crimes and the phenomena of the LRA,” Ida Sawyer,
research for Human Rights Watch.
■ “They call themselves “a movement” seeking to end the conflict in Uganda
and stop the abduction of children for use as child soldiers, but behind the
slick website and the touchy-feely talk about “changing the course of
human history”, there’s a hard-nosed money-making operation led by US
filmmakers and accountants, communication experts, lobbyists and
salespeople.” Guardian (UK) journalist John Vidal
■ “I think this is a profoundly disturbing serious issue that needs
to be brought to the attention of the world. And if it’s slightly off
in a fact or two that’s a very very minor criticism” Paul
Levinson, NYU Professor
5. The spread of Kony 2012 started with a single tweet on
March 5.
6. Invisible Children knew that in order to spread
the video, it had to first mobilize its base.
■ Invisible Children’s pre-existing networks initially helped to spread of the video. From analysis
conducted by Socialflow, during the early days of the video, dense clusters of activity centered
on networks of youth that Invisible Children had been cultivating across the US for years.
■ These supporters are composed both of secular youth—form high school to college—and
Christian youth..
■ A word cloud taken from the profiles of early Kony 2012 Twitter supporters gives insight into the main interests of this target group.
“It is heavily supported by Christian youth, many of whom post Biblical psalms as their profile bios.”
■ http://blog.socialflow.com/post/7120244932/data-viz-kony2012-see-how-invisible-networks-helped-a-campaign-capture-the-
worlds-attention
7. This initial effort lit small social media fires in 4-5
geographic areas where Invisible Children had many
supporters.
8. And as more Invisible Children
supporters saw the video and
heard about the campaign, they
moved to the Kony 2012 wall of
influencers (right) to urge
celebrities and other high-profile
individuals to take part in the
campaign.
■ Ellen Degeneres (@TheEllenShow), for example, saw
over 36,000 mentions from different users pleading her
to respond to the cause
9. By March 6, 9 out of 20 celebrities from Invisible
Children’s target list had posted the Kony 2012 video and
urged their supporters to join the cause.
10 million followers
New Feature:
Twitter video embed
6.2 million followers
18.7 million followers
13 million followers
10. By March 8, new groups of supporters like Nicholas
Kristof had responded to video, and celebrities like
Justin Bieber were doubling the video’s impressions
by re-tweeting the link.
March 8th: New influencers who effect entirely different
audiences (take Nicholas Kristof vs. Justin Bieber)
March 8th: Justin Bieber posts Kony 2012 to Twitter again
(ensuring that a larger segment of his audience reads the
Kony 2012 message).
11. By March 9—4 days into the campaign—references
to #StopKony had reached 9.45 million
12. Two competing Twitter trends—#StopKony and
#Kony2012— were trending much faster than the
biggest social media event of the year, South by
Southwest.
13. By March 11, Kony 2012 had outpaced all viral videos
to date with 100 million views in just 6 days.
14. Kony 2012 through Profero’s 1-9-90
model of influence
1 : 9 : 90
THE STORYTELLERS THE ENABLERS THE MASS
Jason Russell &
Invisible Children
+100
MM
confidential
14
15. Thank you.
Profero New York
206 Fifth Avenue,5th Floor
New York, New York 10010
T. +1 646 381 3500
F. +1 646 843 8424
