FLIP Video Contest Evaluation

In 2010, the betterplace lab invited organizations on betterplace.org to pitch their ideas for a video competition that would show their projectsʻ achievements, failures and learnings. The top 10 pitches each received 2 FLIP cameras with which to realize their film ideas. "

The FLIP Video Competition"

Our goals in holding the competition were:"

1.  To test whether film is a useful feedback and learning tool for NGOs"

2.  Whether the video competition would influence support and fundraising for participating organizations on betterplace.org"

3.  Whether the public would vote for the best quality film"

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These inputs led to the following outputs"

3

-  Staff time and expertise: idea development, call for pitches, several marketing campaigns, email management (a lot), evaluation of pitches, research for technical solutions, trouble shooting, process monitoring, project management, blog entries http://www.betterplace-lab.org/de/blog "

-  Cisco provided 20 FLIP cameras and facilitated international delivery"

-  Research and development of tools for online video usage: http://www.betterplace-lab.org/forschung/stakeholder-feedback/de/flip and for effective voting platforms and software"

-  Bid opens April 14, 2010: Send us your film ideas in script format. Question to be addressed: What have you achieved and what can be improved?"

-  By May 25, we received 240 inquiries, 68 pitches (48 eligible), shortlisted 20 through peer review and chose 11"

-  11 organizations received FLIP cameras, of whom 8 put their films on YouTube by the deadline (3 failed to submit anything)"

-  The competition was open for public voting"

-  By October 17, 2010, the winner had received 617 votes: http://www.betterplace-lab.org/de/blog/der-flip-video-wettbewerb-hat-einen-gewinner "

Finding: The FLIP competition had almost no effect on increased funding through betterplace.org"

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0%   20%   40%   60%   80%   100%  

Nursery  School  for  Togo  

Sol  y  Vida  

BeBook  the  mobile  library  

Kick  HIV!  

HCFA  Provide  Hope  to  kids  in  Africa  

KIDS  Glasses  for  Everyone  

Kinderhospiz  Regenbogenland  

SAEP  

APer:  

Before:  29.Sep

18.Oct

Finding: The „supporters“ on betterplace.org only increased substantially for one organization"

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0   20   40   60   80   100  

Kinderhospiz  Regenbogenland  

Sol  y  Vida  

Kick  HIV!  

Nursery  School  for  Togo  

BeBook  the  mobile  library  

HCFA  Provide  Hope  to  kids  in  Africa  

KIDS  Glasses  for  Everyone  

SAEP  

APer:  

Before:  

The videos on YouTube attracted the following number of hits per film (total 6.807 views):"

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1141  

1029  

876  

874  

859  

761  

728  

539  

0   200   400   600   800   1000  1200  

Kick  HIV  

BeBook  Mobile  Library  

Sol  y  Vida  

Togo  Nursery  School  

KIDS  –  Brillen  für  Alle  

HCFA  Ziegeprojekt  

David  im  Regenbogenland  

SAEP  South  Africa  

Total views: 6.807

The data shows that there is no correlation between the number of views and the ratingsgiven"

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0  

200  

400  

600  

800  

1000  

1200  

Views  

Oct  17  ra^ngs  

And it shows the time period over which NGOs were able to attract votes"

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0" 200" 400" 600" 800" 1000" 1200" 1400"

David im Regenbogenland"

KIDS – Brillen für Alle"

Sol y Vida"

BeBook Mobile Library"

Togo Nursery School"

SAEP South Africa"

HCFA Ziegenprojekt"

Kick HIV"

Oct-04" Oct-11" Oct-15" Oct-17"

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So what does this data tell us?"

  Video feedback is a great tool for raising awareness for an organization among their own networks, mobilizing their own constituency and promoting what has been achieved (we know that from email feedback), however this campaign did not affect organizationsʼ funding on betterplace.org.!

  Winning such a competition has not necessarily to do with the quality of oneʼs work but with his/her ability to mobilize social networks (we know that from the time period over which NGOs were able to attract votes). Hence an open video competition is not a valid evaluation, but rather a mobilization tool if well played with their own constituency."

Compared to our original goals:"

1.  We learned that a film is useful as a marketing tool and to show achievements, but not failures or feedback for NGOs. "

2.  The video competition did not influence support and fundraising for organizations significantly on betterplace.org"

3.  The public apparently did vote for the films of organizations that were well connected through social media campaigning. This leads to the assumption that it was not “the best quality” they voted for but they supported the cause of the NGO. "

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Other lessons learned"

  Transparency and communication are absolutely key: Never change deadlines or rules of the game without solid reasons and never do it without first explaining the change to participants (we made that mistake by changing the final voting deadline for purely internal reasons. This upset KickHIV, who had planned their big campaigning push for the last days of our original deadline. They claimed that this kept them from winning.)!

  Precise marketing campaigns planning is vital at the beginning of your project (we did it rather spontaneously…). Keep in mind that your inbox will be flooded at times and it is important to respond to participants and answer their questions!"

  Participants did not address failures and learnings in their films but rather used the medium as a marketing tool. This means that such a competition is not useful as a learning tool from failure. !

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Other lessons learned"

  The organizations who participated had almost all great fun with the whole campaign and used it in their own contexts (not necessarily with the betterplace.org platform)"

  The usefulness of the tools we provided (How to make a good video etc. ) cannot be properly assessed. One should plan a proper survey from the beginning when providing such tools."

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13  

We did not anticipate the following technical challenges for participants:"

  how to upload to YouTube"

  naming their YouTube videos (and renaming them when we asked them to give better, more accessible titles)"

  attaching and syncing sound to their videos"

  creating hi-resolution videos"

  loading the large files online with very slow internet connection"

  creating captions (for translations)"

  finding editing software that worked on their computers"

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And these technical challenges remain when itcomes to public voting using open Internet platforms"

  What information should be required (besides an email address) from voters which discourages duplicate voting of single individuals? Their names? How can we keep them accountable?"

  What if one village or a school, for example, has very few computers? Should it matter if multiple votes come from a single IP address?"

  How to deal with the fact that some of these places (like Nicaragua or Africa) have a much lower instance of computer/Internet users than in Germany for instance? Should we consider this discrepancy?"

  How do we evaluate the validity of votes?"

The winner was offered a free consulting session with an NGO expert, but they never asked for it."

What is the lesson to be learned from that??? "

"

And last but not least..."

Extra charts showing before and after numbers during the competition."

Appendix"

During the voting phase, the organizations were barely active through blogposts on betterplace.org"

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0   5   10   15   20   25   30   35   40  

Sol  y  Vida  

BeBook  the  mobile  library  

Kick  HIV!  

Nursery  School  for  Togo  

HCFA  Provide  Hope  to  kids  in  Africa  

SAEP  

KIDS  Glasses  for  Everyone  

Kinderhospiz  Regenbogenland  

APer:  

Before:  

The number of „advocates“ on their betterplace profiles was only marginally increased "

18

0   10   20   30   40   50  

Kinderhospiz  Regenbogenland  

Kick  HIV!  

HCFA  Provide  Hope  to  kids  in  Africa  

BeBook  the  mobile  library  

Sol  y  Vida  

Nursery  School  for  Togo  

KIDS  Glasses  for  Everyone  

SAEP  

APer:  

Before:  

And the „visitors“ to their betterplace profilesdid not increase at all"

19

0   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8  

Kinderhospiz  Regenbogenland  

SAEP  

Sol  y  Vida  

HCFA  Provide  Hope  to  kids  in  Africa  

Nursery  School  for  Togo  

BeBook  the  mobile  library  

Kick  HIV!  

KIDS  Glasses  for  Everyone  

APer:  

Before:  

betterplace lab"

Schlesische Strasse 26"10997 Berlin"Tel +49 30 76 76 44 88-0"Fax +49 30 76 76 44 88-40"lab@betterplace.org"

Vielen Dank." Thank you."

Susanna Krueger and the betterplace lab team (especially Becky Crook) and also thanks to Martin Sprott for excellent advise."