Still Care About KONY?

If you take search volume for "kony", "kony 2012", "joseph kony" and "invisible children" as a measure of the general interest in Kony, then the answer is NO. Worldwide interest in Kony has pretty much dropped back to the levels it was prior to the launch of the KONY 2012 video on March 5th.

It's not to say the KONY 2012 campaign wasn't effective. The 30-minute KONY 2012 video has generated over 86 million views on YouTube and 17.8 million on Vimeo to-date. The question for any digital campaign is how do you sustain that interest beyond a week after you launch? A reason for the quick decline and abandonment of the Kony cause is what critics call 'slacktivism', asking people to do very little to do good. As easy as it is to share the video on your Facebook newsfeed is as easy it is to forget about the video.

Kony 2012 successfully created mass awareness of the issue, which was the primary objective of the video but whether it is effective at activating the 100+ million video viewers to do more such as put up posters, tweet celebrities and write to congress maybe a different story. The lesson and challenge for brands is to create 'sustainable' campaigns whether through apps that provide repeat utility or an evergreen social editorial calendar--being able to maintain and keep interest and engagement with fans should always be a priority for any campaign. If it isn't then why spend millions of dollars on a campaign to begin with?

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.