Engaging the Public? Make it Fun!

The past few months have been really busy at Connected Threads Asia. The team were initially planning for a small and serious session for Fashion Revolution Day (24 April) but then we realised that to engage the public we would need to make it fun. If there was no element of fun,  there would be no one interested no matter how meaningful it would be.

Remember when the Ice Bucket Challenge of the ALS association went viral on social media? It was a huge success with the association receiving an overwhelming amount of donations and an increase in the number of donors in that period too.  Why was this the case? Well, it's because of the fun factor - it was extremely fun to pour ice-cold water over yourself (even though it had nothing to do with ALS at all!), nominate your friends to do the same, and watch them "suffer" on their videos! It was a really good way of getting audience engagement.

Hauternatives

Speaking of videos, Fashion Revolution has capitalised on the trend of fashion hauls. Many fashion vloggers and bloggers share their shopping hauls on a regular basis, enticing their viewers to shop even more.  So I thought it was very clever when Fashion Revolution decided to encourage conscious vloggers to steer their hauls towards sustainable fashion choices (note choices and not purchases) instead.  With the ability of vloggers and bloggers to influence fashion choices,  can you imagine the power of a sustainable fashion haul #haulternative?

The Clothes Swaps
When I look back at the sustainable fashion events that have been organised, I noticed that clothes swaps are one of the best ways to engage an audience on the topic - everyone loves to get clothes for free, and when it runs like a shopping mall (ironically), the interaction is just phenomenal. I do not know (or seen any studies on this) whether the audience understands the environmental significance of a clothes swap, but perhaps this will be realised through long term engagement of these events . 

The Power of the Hashtag

Another great vehicle is the hashtag. If you don't know what a hashtag is then now's the time to google it! Fashion Revolution has used the hashtag #whomademyclothes to its advantage and it has enabled more people to be engaged in the movement.  However, hashtags have to relate to the campaign, illicit the public's curiosity to find out more and be fun. I think the #whomademyclothes hashtag fits this perfectly - when the campaign first started out people around the world were taking photos of themselves with their clothes inside out and asking

What do you think are fun ways of engaging an audience for your campaign?