Droga5 Sydney smashes social media records and one billion target with UN World Humanitarian Day campaign featuring Beyoncé’s latest single

Droga 5 Sydney’s campaign for the UN’s World Humanitarian Day smashed its social reach target of one billion people following the release of ‘I Was Here’ – Beyoncé’s latest single and WHD 2012 anthem.

The social reach for the message – encouraging people to do something good for someone else – hit the goal of 1 billion less than 20 minutes before 9 a.m. (US Eastern Standard time) Yesterday August 19, which was the deadline to sign up for a new technology platform called Thunderclap – owned and developed by Droga5 – that aggregated the social reach of each campaign supporter.

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To introduce World Humanitarian Day to the world, Droga5’s Sydney and New York offices partnered with the United Nations, Beyoncé, Kenzo Digital and RSA to create a campaign that would make August 19 a day to remember.

“There are seven billion people in the world and we reached hundreds of millions of them with our message. People really care,” said Valerie Amos, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

At 9 am (US Eastern Standard Time) on 19 August more than one billion messages were shared at the same time: “This World Humanitarian Day I‟m doing something good, somewhere, for someone else. Join Me!” Upon navigating to whd-iwashere.org, people can now mark their good deed on a global interactive map.

The campaign numbers soared following the release of the “I Was Here‟ music video by Beyoncé on 18 August, whose support for the cause, alongside other major brands and celebrities, put this campaign on the global stage.

The agency turned Beyoncé’s song into an iconic symbol and geographic marker that represents individual humanitarian actions wherever they happen, and allows individuals to make their own mark on the world and say ‘I Was Here’.

The campaign launched with a unique performance by Beyoncé in the UN General Assembly Hall. Accompanied by a giant projection, and filmed to create a music video, the song told the story of humanitarian work around the globe.

Yesterday (August 19), Droga5 released the video and the single message around the world to over a billion people. It encouraged people to do one act – simply something good, somewhere, for someone else.

The single includes a remix by Gasinc’s musical director Andy Evans (left). Working under the  moniker of his current recording project “Strictlove” Andy is one of 4 global producers working with Beyonce on the release, and the only Australian music producer featured on the release.

With the help of the social amplification platform ‘Thunderclap’, ‘I Was Here’ has become the largest single social media message in history, supported by brands, celebrities and events across the globe.

The World Humanitarian Day 2012 campaign was powered by a new technology platform called Thunderclap that aggregated the social reach of each campaign supporter.

Thunderclap tallied the number of friends supporters had on Facebook and/or the number of followers they had on Twitter to determine each individual’s social reach and add it to the total.

For celebrities and big brands, the number of likes each had on their Facebook fan pages were substituted for number of friends. The Twitter calculation did not change.

In China, social reach was calculated based on the number of each supporter’s Weibo followers.

Supporters included influential individuals and brands alike, from Michelle Obama, Jackie Chan, Lady Gaga, Ben Affleck and Kaka to Coca-Cola, Sony Music, PUMA, Oreos, MTV, Toshiba, Gucci, Hershey’s Kisses, Johnson & Johnson and Pepsi.

The screen used for the event in the UN General Assembly (created by SuperUber) was the biggest indoor screen ever created, weighing more than 7 thousand pounds and measuring 10,304 square feet.

On August 19, World Humanitarian Day events were hosted in countries around the world, including Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia, Colombia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Creating ideas with a genuine sense of humanity has always been central to our approach, so forging such an exciting relationship with the UN is a brilliant outcome,” says David Nobay (left), creative chairman, Droga5 Sydney. “The fact that our first campaign comes out of Sydney and is being produced in New York is strangely fitting given the UN’s commitment to working within the global village. I couldn’t be happier.”

Says David Droga, founder and creative chairman, Droga5: “There are few forces for good as extensive and important as the United Nations. Being able to work with them and other global aid organizations for World Humanitarian Day is a humbling and extraordinary opportunity.”

Supporters included:

Musicians;

Lady Gaga

Rihanna

Shakira

Chris Brown

Justin Bieber

JayZ

Hilary Duff

Keith Urban

Screen stars;

Jackie Chan

Ben Affleck

Charlize Theron

Oprah Winfrey

Katie Couric

Jamie Oliver

Brand support;

PUMA

Gucci

Coca-Cola

Pepsi

Oreo

World Humanitarian Day 2012_I Was Here Campaign_Credits(v2).pdf