This is the fourth report from our upcoming People's Insights Annual Report titled “Now & Next: Future of Engagement”, also available as a Kindle eBook and soon as an interactive iPad app. The report will highlight the ten most important frontiers that will define the future of engagement for marketers, entrepreneurs and changemakers: Crowdfunding, Behavior Change Games, Collaborative Social Innovation, Grassroots Change Movements, Co-creation Communities, Social Curation, Transmedia Storytelling, Collective Intelligence, Social Live Experiences and Collaborative Consumption. In each of these reports, we start by describing why they are important, how they work, and how brands might benefit from them; we then examine web platforms and brand programs that point to the future (that is already here); then finish by identifying some of the most important features of that future, with our recommendations on how to benefit from them. Do subscribe to our email newsletter to receive an invite to download a free copy of the interactive iPad app. Find out more: http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/future-of-engagement/ Get the Kindle eBook: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D8ZZMDY

1. 4. GRASSROOTS
People's Insights Annual Report
Now & Next:
Future of Engagement
CHANGE MOVEMENTS

2. We are delighted to share that we will be
publishing the People’s Insights Annual
Report titled “Now & Next: Future of
Engagement” in January 2013 as an interactive
iPad app. The report will highlight the ten
most important frontiers that will define
the future of engagement for marketers,
entrepreneurs and changemakers:
Crowdfunding, Transmedia Storytelling,
Social Curation, Behavior Change Games,
Grassroots Change Movements, Collaborative
Social Innovation, Crowdsourced Product
Innovation, Collective Intelligence, Social
Recommendation and Hybrid Reality
Experiences.
Throughout 2012, 100+ planners on
MSLGROUP’s Insights Network have been
tracking inspiring web platforms and brand
programs at the intersection of social data,
citizenship, crowdsourcing and storytelling.
Every week, we pick up one project and
curate the conversations around it — on the
MSLGROUP Insights Network itself but also
on the broader social web — into a weekly
insights report. Every quarter, we compile
these insights, along with original research
and insights from the MSLGROUP global
network, into the People’s Insights Quarterly
Magazine. Now, we have synthesized the
insights from our year-long endeavor in future
scanning as foresights into the future of
engagement.
We believe, like William Gibson that, “the
future is already here; it’s just not very evenly
distributed.” So, innovative web platforms
in the areas of social data, citizenship,
crowdsourcing and storytelling point towards
interesting possibilities for brand programs
that leverage similar models to engage
people. In turn, the web platforms and brand
programs of today give us clues to the future
of engagement tomorrow.
In our reports on the ten frontiers that will
define the future of engagement, we start by
describing why they are important, how they
work, and how brands might benefit from
them; we then examine web platforms and
brand programs that point to the future
(that is already here); then finish by identifying
some of the most important features of that
future, with our recommendations on how to
benefit from them.
For the next ten weeks, we will publish
these reports one by one, then present them
together, in context, as an interactive iPad app.
Do subscribe to our email newsletter to receive
each report and also an invite to download a
free copy of the interactive iPad app.
People’s Insights Annual Report

3. 3
What are Grassroots Change
Movements?
Source: untitlism on Flickr
Brands and people
act together around a
shared purpose to create
meaningful change.
Grassroots change movements involve a large
numbers of people acting as change agents,
in their own lives or in their communities, in
a way that their actions can be aggregated
or coordinated, leading to significant impact
and meaningful change. Grassroots change
movements might be catalyzed and managed
by organizations, including corporations, or they
might be sparked by an event and spontaneously
spread through the initiative of volunteers. Many
grassroots change movements are political and
focus on issues like human rights, freedom of
expression and economic equality. Now, many
organizations are applying a similar approach
to catalyze behavior change and create shared
value in the areas of environment, energy and
sustainability; health, wellness and nutrition;
education, learning and capability building; and
happiness, kindness and human potential.
Grassroots change movements have moved
into the mainstream due to four important
dynamics. First, people have new types of power:
to access information, connect with each other,
express their opinions, and change the course
of public debate. Second, people don’t trust
organizations; in fact, trust in all organizations
is at an all-time low across the world, and
people believe that they themselves can drive
real change, not governments or corporations.
Third, people are searching for meaningful
connections with communities around a shared
purpose; they expect organizations to enable
such connections, and are willing to reward
organizations who do. Finally, the scale of social
networks (Facebook has one billion members
globally), the ease of one-click sharing via
Facebook Likes and Twitter Retweets, and the
virality of popularity-driven activity streams have
made it easy for people, especially Gen Y, to
participate in and help spread such movements.
Unilever CEO Paul Polman succinctly summed
up the power of social movements and their
importance for corporations:
“If [social media activists] can bring down the
Egyptian regime in a few weeks, they can bring
us down in nanoseconds.”
We have seen a number of grassroots
change movements, in which social media has
played an important role. Arab Spring,
Occupy Wall Street (video), India Against
Corruption, Spain’s 15-M (video) and Mexico’s
Yo Soy 132 (video) focused on economic
equality and political regime change. Kony2012
(video) and Free Pussy Riot (video) focused on
human rights in Uganda and Russia. WWF’s
Earth Hour (video) and 350 (video) focus on
climate change. It Gets Better (video) and All
Out (video) focus on LGBT issues. Bono’s ONE
(video) and RED (video) fight poverty and AIDS
in Africa. Movember (video) rallies people
around men’s health, Adbusters’ Buy Nothing
Day (video) promotes anti-consumerism, Free
Hugs Campaign (video) encourages human
kindness and Startup Weekend supports
entrepreneurship.

4. We have also seen an ecosystem of dedicated
platforms and products to support such
movements. Change.org (video), Avaaz.org
(video), Care2 (video) and Causes (video) are
amongst the leading platforms for changemakers
to start and support petitions, raise and donate
funds, recruit and volunteer, and create and share
content, each with several million members.
Edward Norton’s Crowdrise (video) partners with
celebrities to raise funds for non-profits. eBay
co-founder Jeff Skoll’sParticipant Media and
Take Part use socially conscious movies like An
Inconvenient Truth, Contagion and Food Inc to
promote social actions. Agencies like Blue State
Digital, Purpose and GoodCorps exclusively
focus on creating social movements, while
organizations like New Organizing Institute
help build capabilities for grassroots organizers.
Finally, changemakers use platforms like Meetup,
UStream and Kickstarter (video) to organize
events, livestream video or raise funds.
Click to watch: 350
Click to watch: Participant Media/ Take Part
Click to watch: Movember – Fundraising Tips
Some grassroots change movements have
achieved significant impact. The Arab Spring
movement led to a series of regime changes
across the Middle East. The Occupy movement
and Take the Square movements have spread
to over 100 cities in the United States and over
1500 cities globally. 1.1 million people worldwide
registered for the Movember movement in 2012
and raised $135 million for men’s health.
The success of such grassroots change
movements shows that people have the desire
and the tools to participate and act to drive
change around a shared purpose they are
passionate about.
How Do Grassroots Change
Movements Work?
Grassroots change movements typically involve
four change drivers: a shared purpose to inspire
people, an ongoing platform to organize people,
a series of interconnected programs to energize
people, and stories to spark participation and
action.
Almost all grassroots change movements have
a strong shared purpose. Often, the purpose is
to oppose a harmful practice, prevent a negative
outcome, or fight to protect something, but
movements focused on positive outcomes also
work (Free Hugs Campaign (video)). Often,
movements are initiated by an individual, a
small group, or an organization, and then carried
forward by volunteers and supporters.
Many movement organizers provide ‘how-to’
guides to show supporters how to get involved
(Earth Hour (video), It Gets Better (video)). The
best movements create a ladder of engagement
for supporters, to first get them involved with
simple actions like signing petitions, voting for
causes, or sharing content; then get them more
engaged by asking them to share personal
stories, donate money, buy merchandise, or
volunteer time; and finally convert them into
partners by inspiring them to recruit supporters,
raise funds, or organize local events. Some
movement platforms also use gamification
features, like points and leaderboards, to move
supporters up the ladder of engagement.
(Movember (video)).

5. 5
Click to watch: All Out
Click to watch: Earth Hour I Will If You Will
Click to watch: Free Hugs Campaign
Even writer Evgeny Morozov, who rails against
“slacktivism” in his book Net Delusion recognizes
the value of this approach:
“Create diverse, distinctive, and non-trivial
tasks; your supporters can do more than just
click “send to all” button” all day. Facebook
could actually be a boon for those organizing
a campaign; they just need to figure out a way
in which to capitalize on identity aspiration of
“slacktivists” by giving them interesting and
meaningful tasks that could then be evaluated.”
If a movement becomes successful, the original
leaders find ways to spread the movement
across the world, while maintaining its original
spirit (Adbusters/ Occupy). Many movement
organizers also create guides to help volunteers
organize local chapters or events
(How to Occupy, Earth Hour, 350, Startup
Weekend). Some organizers create interactive
maps, so that supporters can easily find local
chapters (Earth Hour, 350, Take the Square).
Movement platforms can be designed to have
ongoing engagement, like an online community
or a physical space, or periodical engagement,
like an annual event or an annual contest
(Movember, Earth Hour). The most successful
movements keep supporters engaged through
a series of interconnected programs (350 2010
summary, 350 2011 summary, Kony MOVE:DC,
Kony Cover the Night) and a stream of stories,
often shared by the community members
themselves (We Are the 99%, It Gets Better).
Sometimes, these programs result in offshoot
projects that spread the movement to new
constituents or in new directions
(Occupy Network). Often, other organizations
join in a movement and create their own offshoot
projects, helping the movement grow
(Amnesty International Free Pussy Riot Map).
Many movement organizers proactively seek
the support of celebrities to gain more visibility.
Invisible Children asked supporters to email or
tweet to specific celebrities whose support could
spread their message. Earth Hour partnered
with celebrities to create the I Will If You Will
campaign.
Grassroots Change Movements
for Brands
Brands are realizing the power of grassroots
change movements and creating movement
marketing initiatives to benefit from them.
Scott Goodson, author of the movement
marketing book Uprisingsummarizes how
movement marketing works:
Finally, stories and content play a big role in
sparking a wave of sharing and participation,
which help movements go viral and achieve
results. For instance, the Kony2012 video has
received 95 millions views on YouTube and
attracted global attention to the Kony 2012
campaign. The Free Hugs Campaign video
has received 74 million views. The original
It Gets Better video has received more than 2
million views and the response videos have more
than 50 million views collectively.

6. “You start by identifying a powerful idea on
the rise in culture. You then join, fuel and add
real tangible value to the idea through innovative
marketing and social media. People who share
the passion for the idea join the cause. And rally
others to get involved too. And so, a movement is
born, which smart brands can profit from.”
Brands can engage in grassroots change
movements at many levels, starting with
participating in existing movements, then
creating their own campaigns around purpose
and participation, and finally catalyzing and
committing to long-term movements.
Many brands start by participating in or partnering
with movements that resonate with their values,
and encouraging their employees to participate.
For instance, Gap (video) and Google (video)
encouraged their LGTB employees to create
videos to participate in the It Gets Better
movement. Several brands have supported the
Earth Hour and (RED) movements, and some
have played significant roles in promoting these.
For instance, Starbucks with its annual {RED)
programs (2008 video, 2009 video, 2010 video)
has raised more than $10 million for the (RED)
Global Fund.
Click to watch: Starbucks RED
Some brands create short-term campaigns
around purpose and participation, but stop short
of committing to them long enough to turn them
into movements (GE Celebrate What Works).
Sometimes, these short-term campaigns are a
part of long-term purpose-led programs
(GE Ecomagination Tag Your Green (video).
Brands that have committed to long-term
movement marketing initiatives can take three
distinct routes. They can rally people to support a
cause or raise funds for it; they can inspire people
to change their own behavior in a way that adds
up to meaningful change; and, they can create
ecosystems to support changemakers who are
creating change in their own communities.
Some brands see movement marketing as
an extension of cause marketing, and create
campaigns that rally support for a cause. Here,
brands typically partner with a non-profit and
make a donation to it, often based on sales or
community participation, but also create content
that inspires community members to pledge
support, share their own stories and spread the
word. For instance, Google Take Action (video)
rallied people to pledge their support for a free
and open web. Aircel Save Our Tigers (video)
catalyzed a public debate in India to protect
tigers. Brand crowdfunding programs, like Chase
Community Giving (video), American Express
Members Project (video), and Starbucks Vote.
Give.Grow, that ask community members to
support non-profits by volunteering or donating
money can also be included in this category.
Increasingly, brands are creating movements
marketing campaigns that focus on inspiring
people to change their own behavior, and
aggregating these actions so that they add up to
meaningful change. For instance, P&G’s Secret
Mean Stinks (video) aims to end girl-to-girl
bullying and inspire girls to gang up for good and
be nice to each other. Sometimes, these behavior
changes movements can be fun and whimsical.
For instance, Doritos in Argentina created a
movement to bring slow dancing back (video).
Some brands create an annual event to focus
their effort to bring about behavior change. For
instance, American Express’ Small Business
Saturday encourages Americans to shop at
independent stores, each year on the Saturday
following Thanksgiving (2010 video, 2011 video,
2012 video). Other brands create a series of
interconnected behavior change campaigns
around their shared purpose, or Social Heartbeat.
For instance, over the years, Starbucks has
created a series of movement marketing
campaigns in the US, which link back to its shared
purpose of being the “third place” and nurturing
community values (vote in the 2008 elections,
pledge 5 hours of volunteer time, change
local communities, bring your own tumblr,
help create jobs). Tata Tea Jaago Re in India
has created campaigns to inspired people to
register to vote, volunteer for causes and spread
positivity. MSLGROUP has helped Alpenliebe
inspire millions of young people in China to
share, appreciate and engage in everyday acts
of kindness, through a movement marketing
campaign that is now entering its third year.
Some of these behavior change movements
can also be seen as behavior change games. For

7. 7
Source: sinuousmag.com
instance, Nike has created a series of campaigns,
increasingly around Nike Plus and Nike Fuel
(video), which use gamification features like
challenges and levels to inspire people to
become more active (Nike Global Game on
World, Nike Hong Kong Make It Count, Nike
Mexico Bid Your Sweat, Nike Global Missions).
Finally, some brands are creating long-term
platforms, with the intention of creating an
ecosystem to connect changemakers and build
capabilities. These platforms provide the tools
and the enabling ecosystem for people to act as
change agents in their own communities. Often,
these platforms ask community members to
create their own grassroots change projects and
activate their networks to get funding and scale
their projects. For instance, both Mahindra Spark
the Rise (video) and Pepsi Refresh Project (video)
created platforms to support changemakers that
created significant impact. We have covered both
these initiatives in our Future of Engagement
reports on crowdfunding and collaborative social
innovation.
In summary, brands can create a campaign
around purpose and participation, but it becomes
a movement only if people make it their own. For
movement marketing to work, the brand needs
to think of itself as a custodian of the movement,
not its owner; it needs to nurture the movement
over multiple years, but also create the space
for it to become bigger than the brand itself. If a
brand tries to control the movement, and keep
it on message, the movement is likely to be
stillborn, or die a slow death.
Grassroots Change Movements
Case Studies
Throughout the year, we have tracked the
conversations around a number of grassroots
change movements and branded programs in our
weekly insights reports and quarterly magazines;
here are a few highlights.
In March 2012, non-profit Invisible Children
released a 30 minute documentary that sparked
a grassroots change movement to make
indicted war criminal Joseph Kony famous and
pressurize policy makers to call for his arrest.
The documentary broke records by topping 100
million views in just six days.
Social Media strategist Calum Brannan shared his
views on why the video went viral:
“Viewers are shown ‘Share’ buttons in the first
few seconds almost subliminally, now I’m not a
psychologist, but one could hazard a guess this
helps plant that seed. This video is emotive, its
a roller-coaster of happy to sad to shock. Film
maker Russell invites the viewer to participate in
an experiment, and the use of the word ‘We’ and
‘Us’ instantly builds a sense of community and is
very personal. The end of the video provides clear
instructions on how you can help, leading with
financial ones first, then powerfully suggests
that the least you can do is ‘Share’ the video.”
People were directed to the Kony 2012 website
and given specific calls to action to spread the
word, sign a pledge, buy Kony 2012 actions kits,
donate money and send messages to lawmakers
and celebrities, including Bill Clinton, Justin
Grassroots change movement: Kony2012
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare

8. Click to watch: KONY 2012: What’s Next
Bieber and Oprah, asking them to tweet on
#StopKony and retweet other #StopKony tweets.
Many celebrities responded to these messages,
including Oprah who tweeted:
“Thanks tweeps for sending me info about
ending #LRAviolence. I am aware. Have
supported with $’s and voice and will not stop.
#KONY2012.”
The Kony2012 campaign inspired many to
think deeply and share their opinions, thereby
flooding their social network streams with KONY
2012 content and building momentum of the
movement. Science and technology writer Peter
Murray wrote:
“Not only is the video being viewed like crazy,
but people are posting their own clips and
commentary. In this new age of interactive media,
viewers are investing their own time to record
and upload their own thoughts. As I write, 278
video clips have been uploaded to the KONY 2012
YouTube video campaign. As of the 200th video,
their average length was six minutes.”
Ashraf Engineer, member of the MSLGROUP
Insights Network commented:
“For me, the root of the campaign’s success lay
in its calls-to-action. People want to be involved,
to feel that they are making a difference. It was
by giving viewers a sense of participation that the
campaign went viral. This is an important lesson
for marketers too. Involvement spells success.”
Inivisible Children, organizer of the Kony 2012
movement, continues to engage its network of
supporters with follow up programs and specific
calls to action to attend conferences and rallies,
share photos on Instagram with #move:dc,
message politicians who have not yet confirmed
their support and buy merchandise on their web
platform.
Grassroots change movement: Free Pussy
Riot
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
Supporters wearing the balaclava, the symbol of
the movement, at the Russian Consulate in New
York City, via FreePussyRiot.org
In March 2012, supporters of Russian feminist
punk-rock band and anti-Putin activist group
Pussy Riot initiated the Free Pussy Riot
movement to protest the detention of three
band members and to attract international
intervention. The remaining band members
created FreePussyRiot.org as the central
platform of the movement, where they shared
news updates and progress, including live tweets
from the court house, in multiple languages;
and directed people to fundraising campaigns
(FundRazr), online petitions (Avaaz.org,
Change.org, Causes.com) and events such as the
Global Day of Solidarity which took place in
74 cities across the world.
The organizers also recruited support from
organizations such as Amnesty International
and The Voice Project, and musicians and artists,
each of whom created programs at the grassroots
level. For instance, The Voice Project encouraged
people to buy merchandise on CafePress,
musicians and poets organized fundraising
events such as readings and benefit concerts,
rapper Peaches created a music video, Paul
McCartney tweeted his support to his 1 million
followers, Madonna wore a balaclava (the symbol
of the movement) and addressed the issue at her
concert in Moscow, and Amnesty International
urged people to write to Russian officials and
share photos of themselves wearing balaclavas.
Tom Watson, a journalist at Forbes, pointed out
that the movement went viral because it involved
niche communities who shared the same
passions:

9. 9
Click to watch: Free Pussy Riot – The Guardian’s video
montage
Source: itgetsbetter.org
“Like the Occupy movement, it involved
a small group that magnified its attention
through other nodes: Amnesty International,
feminist bloggers, the foreign policy press, and a
vast mob of supporters on Twitter and Facebook.”
Suzanne Nossel, Executive director, Amnesty
International USA, pointed out that the balaclava
and the image of the Pussy Riot activists has also
helped the cause attract attention not only from
musicians and activists, but also the media:
“Observers have chalked up Pussy Riot’s
prominence to the group’s provocative name and
the band members’ adroit use of historical images
with a ’90s era Riot Grrl style.”
Content too played a large role in attracting
attention and keeping people motivated. For
instance, A few hours after the three women
were sentenced to three years imprisonment,
the remaining group members released a new
single, Putin Lights a Fire. This song was picked
up by The Guardian who used it to create a video
montage with multimedia from the trial and
fan protests. This in turn was published in sites
including the Huffington Post, thereby reaching a
larger audience.
Blogger Courtney Fowler noted:
“So what does Pussy Riot teach us? It indeed
has shown us what is possible in an
interconnected world. It shows us how
successfully a protest movement can employ the
internet to spread their message globally.”
Grassroots change movement:
It Gets Better Project
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
In response to a rise of gay youth bullying and
suicides in the U.S., Dan Savage and Terry Miller
created the It Gets Better Project, a purpose-
inspired movement that solicits personal stories
from LGBT adults and allies to let LGBT teens
know that life gets better.
Social media and YouTube gave the co-founders
the opportunity to reach out to supporters and
LGBT teens across the globe with their message
in real-time and without the need of seeking
approvals or spending money. In an interview with
ABC News, Dan Savage co-founder of the It Gets
Better Project said:
“It occurred to me that we can talk to these kids
now. We don’t have to wait for an invitation or
permission to reach out to them using social
media and YouTube.”
They posted their video a week after a
controversial suicide, at a time when the LGBT
community and legislators were paying attention
to the cause. As Heidi Massey, a non-profit new
media consultant said:
“The timing was perfect. It was so relevant to
what was going on.”
Since its launch in September 2010, more than
50,000 stories and messages of support have
been shared on YouTube from LGBT adults and
allies including celebrities Barack Obama, and
companies including Gap and Google. The videos
have collectively been viewed more than 50
million times.
Journalist Ivor Tossel pointed out why so many
adults connected to the concept of sharing their
story:

10. “It’s a testament to the project’s universality.
Put aside the question of homophobia for a
moment. Who hasn’t, at some point, wanted to
deliver a message-in-a-bottle to their younger
selves? Who hasn’t wanted the reassurance that
the trial of adolescence will eventually end?”
The movement also makes use of transmedia
storytelling tactics to increase its impact. Two
one-hour specials on MTV have helped the
movement reach more people, a book of essays
was launched and supporters encouraged to
donate them to school libraries, and a musical
tour involves local audiences around the cause.
The It Gets Better platform acts as the ‘action
center’ of the movement, keeping people
up to date on the latest developments and
videos shared, and directing people to share
their story, pledge their support, donate to the
cause, buy merchandise and connect on social
media.
Branded program: Alpenliebe Kindness
Movement
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
Alpenliebe, the flagship brand of Perfetti Van
Melle, the third largest confectionery company in
the world, is positioned around the proposition of
“sweetness in the mouth, kindness in the heart”
in China.
In 2011, Alpenliebe decided to convert kindness
into a shared purpose, a social heartbeat and
catalyze a movement to inspire, organize and
energize millions of Chinese youth to share,
appreciate and engage in everyday acts of
kindness.
Alpenliebe created a series of kindness videos on
Tudou and a TV series with its celebrity kindness
ambassador, crowdsourced kindness stories on
a Renren minisite, partnered with key opinion
Click to watch: It Gets Better
Click to watch: Case study: Alpenliebe Kindness Movement
by MSLGROUP
leaders, created conversations across the social
web, organized kindness trips with non-profit
partners, compiled the most inspiring stories into
a kindness bible, and honored them on the world
kindness day.
In response, an engaged community of 150,000+
members shared 151,000+ kindness stories and
3,270,000+ shares and comments across social
networks, and the success of the campaign led to
330+ print articles and TV reports.
In 2012, Alpenliebe continued to engage the
community with the 365 Days of Positive Power
campaign, in which it created an infographic
everyday to inspire the community to engage in
a specific act of kindness. The community grew
to more than 600,000 members and engaged
in 3.1 million shares and comments across social
networks, making Alpenliebe the third most
influential brand on Sina Weibo.
The Alpenliebe Kindness Movement is one of the
best examples of purpose-inspired movement
marketing from China because of how it inspired
behavioral change in Chinese youth through a
sustained integrated marketing program across
two years.
As Henry Mason, head of research and analytics
at independent firm Trendwatchingcommented:
“For brands, it’s never been easier to surprise
and delight audiences; whether sending gifts,
responding to publicly-expressed moods or just
showing that they care. Via social networks,
brands can now access consumers’ moods,
intentions, desires or frustrations as they happen,
and can therefore address them in a much more
personalised and timely fashion."

11. 11
Click to watch: Nike Find Your Greatness
Source: facebook.com/SmallBusinessSaturday
Click to watch: Nike Game On World
Source: gameonworld.nike.com
Branded program: Nike Find Your
Greatness
Read the full case study on our blog or on
Slideshare
In time for the London 2012 Olympics, Nike
launched the purpose-inspired Find Your
Greatness movement, sharing stories of everyday
athletes from various locations around the world,
challenging the notion that greatness is reserved
for elite athletes, and inspiring everyday people
to become active. The campaign is an extension
of Nike tagline and co-founder Bill Bowerman’s
philosophy: “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”
Nike featured a new story every day, covering 19
different sports, including gymnastics, basketball,
BMX and Wushu. The minimalist ads featured
normal people and delivered hard hitting
messages.
People sent in their #FindGreatness stories
via Twitter and images via Instagram, and Nike
featured the best stories on its digital hub Game
On World
A sub-campaign, #FuelCheck, promoted Nike
products more directly, while also engaging
the Nike+ online community. People were
encouraged to set and measure goals using
their Nike+ FuelBand, earn Nike Fuel points
by working out, and share their achievements
through social networks Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube and its own Nike+ Community.
Already inspired to work out after watching
athletes on the Olympics, and the Find Your
Greatness spots, people took up Nike’s challenge
to earn NikeFuel and share photos of their
FuelBands and activity graphs on Facebook and
Twitter.
Nike catalyzed this movement with a goal to
make August 12 the ‘most active day in the history
of Nike+’. Nike+ products owners participated
and succeeded in setting a new record – 596
million NikeFuel points.
In the words of CMSWire blogger Deb Lavoy,
Nike Find Your Greatness is an “example of how
corporate purpose can be both very, very profitable,
while also creating value and prosperity for its
customers.” By merging corporate purpose
(inspiring athletes) and narrative (find your
greatness), Nike was successful in exciting
people about the brand and motivating people to
use the products.
Branded program: American Express
Small Business Saturday

12. In November 2010, American Express launched
Small Business Saturday, a purpose-inspired
movement to encourage Americans to support
local independently owned businesses and shop
small on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
In its third year, American Express promoted
the movement with a nationwide radio and TV
campaign, and encouraged small business
to promote themselves with free advertising
credits on Facebook and Twitter, free marketing
materials (in association with partners like
FedEx), tips on getting customers and tips on
setting up Facebook pages, YouTube ads and
Foursquare deals. 500,000 small business
owners leveraged these materials and tools
via Facebook and the Small Business Saturday
website, adding to the momentum of the
movement.
Click to watch: AmEx Small Business Saturday
Source: GOODCorps
As PRWeek reporter Lindsay Stein wrote:
“Business owners are ticking up their grassroots
communications for American Express’ “Small
Business Saturday” initiative.”
American Express mobilized supporters to do
four things: shop small, rally friends to do the
same, spread the word on social media and
share photos of themselves at small shops on
Instagram with #SmallBusinessSaturday. People
could find participating stores using a tool on
the Small Business Saturday website. American
Express also incentivized participation for
cardholders, rewarding them with a $25 credit for
spending $25 at a participating merchant.
The cause resonated with leaders and policy
makers as well, who voiced their support for the
movement across the nation. President Obama
tweeted his support and participated by shopping
at a local bookstore on Small Business Saturday.
$5.5 billion was spent at independent merchants
on Small Business Saturday in 2012, 3.2 million
people have liked the movement on Facebook
and 213,000 tweets mentioned the movement
in the month of November 2012. As psychology
professor Ross Steinman pointed out, customers
“are willing to pay extra and see the money go to
their communities.”
Branded program: Google Take Action
In November 2012, Google launched the
Take Action platform to spread awareness about
freedom of the internet and recruit support from
global audiences to keep the web “free and
open.” The platform launched a few weeks before
a closed-door United Nations meeting, hosted
by the International Telecommunications Union,
in which 193 countries met to revise the twenty
four year old International Telecommunications
Regulations treaty.
The platform shares information about the
perceived threat and directs web users to sign the
Free and Open petition online. To increase the
credibility of its cause, Google directed people
to similar web effort, Protect Internet Freedom,
where “more than 1,000 organizations from more
than 160 countries have spoken up too,” showed
a video mash up of people sharing their support
and plotted messages from supporters on an
interactive global map.
Michael Ender, a contributor to Information Week,
noted:
“The site essentially establishes a timeline to
explain the company’s fears. One bullet point
focuses on the past, reminding visitors that many
governments are actively censoring web results
and enacting laws that threaten online expression.
Another looks to the near future, warning that
"some of these governments are trying to use a
closed-door meeting in December to regulate the
Internet.”
Google’s chief internet evangelist Vincent Cert
spread the word through an email to
web publishers and influencers and guest articles
on NYTimes and CNN, and urged people to
spread the word and take action.

13. 13
Click to watch: The JobRoast: Public Affairs, Dragon’s Den style
Many web writers, including David Gewirtz at
ZDNet, echoed the message:
“This is a time for action. Visit Google’s Take
Action site and take action. Pick up the phone,
Tweet, post, Facebook, yell, protest, email your
Congresscritter, donate, and otherwise make a
fuss. Remember, We The Internet can make one
heck of a fuss when we’re angry.”
Earlier in the year, Google played a key role in
energizing netizens to voice their opposition to
U.S. anti-piracy and copyright bills SOPA and
PIPA. To date, 3.1 million people have signed the
Free and Open petition.
The Future of Grassroots Change
Movements
In the near future, we expect grassroots change
movements to become the norm for civic
participation as Gen Ys and Gen Zs learn more
powerful ways to connect online and offline to
support causes they believe in. As smartphones
become ubiquitous, and location awareness
becomes an integral part of how we connect with
each other on social networks, we expect the
boundaries between online and offline action to
blur. With people exercising their power in a more
organized fashion, all types of organizations,
including governments, public institutions
and corporations, will need to understand how
movements and create crisis response plans in
anticipation of public uprisings.
With non-profit organizations and activists
adopting grassroots change movements as the
primary mode to rally support for their causes, we
expect that people will begin to feel movement
fatigue, especially for movements that involve
fighting against something. Instead, we expect
people to channel their energies towards
movements that aim to create positive change in
the areas of environment, health, education and
human potential and participate in collaborative
social innovation initiatives to co-create
sustainable solutions for complex problems.
Specifically, we expect that people will grow tired
of the many movements that ask them to engage
in simple tasks like signing a petition, voting for
causes, or sharing content. Instead, they will
participate in a smaller number of movements
and engage in more meaningful acts like
donating money, volunteering time, or organizing
local events. In a related trend, we expect
grassroots change movements to look more
like behavior change games, with platforms that
enable people to set personal goals, undertake
quests, track their progress and receive support.
We also expect that transmedia storytelling will
play an increasingly important role in cutting
through the cacophony of a million movements,
building an emotion connection with people, and
inspiring them to participate and act.
We expect that movement marketing will
become the norm for brands, and most brands
will experiment with it to engage Gen Ys and Gen
Zs. In response, we will see a rise in cynicism
for such programs, with people accusing brands
of “movement-washing”. To create successful
movements, brands will not only need to
create campaigns to catalyze the movement,
but also commit to the movement for the
long term. Brands will be expected to show
their commitment to the movement by going
beyond engaging celebrity endorsers and asking
community members to share their stories, and
creating long term platforms to enable behavior
change, support changemakers, or co-create
solutions. Brands will also need to take action
themselves to show that they have skin in the
game and create compelling content to inspire
community members to take action.
In essence, brands will have to learn the
four skills writers Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith
outline in their book The Dragonfly Effect:
“1) focus: identify a single concrete and
measurable goal; 2) grab attention: cut through
the noise of social media with something
authentic and memorable; 3) engage: create a
personal connection, accessing higher emotions,
compassion, empathy, and happiness; and 4)
take action: enable and empower others to take
action.”
Finally, corporations will need to learn
how to participate in, and even catalyze,
multistakeholder movements to shape public
opinion. For instance, MSLGROUP in Sweden
created the Job Roast initiative to spark a
public debate on youth employment before the
elections.

14. Learn more about us at:
peopleslab.mslgroup.com | twitter.com/peopleslab
People’s Lab is MSLGROUP’s proprietary
crowdsourcing platform and approach that
helps organizations tap into people’s insights for
innovation, storytelling and change.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
helps organizations build and nurture public
or private, web or mobile, hosted or white
label communities around four pre-configured
application areas: Expertise Request Network,
Innovation Challenge Network, Research &
Insights Network and Contest & Activation
Network. Our community and gaming features
encourage people to share rich content, vote/
comment on other people’s content and
collaborate to find innovative solutions.
The People’s Lab crowdsourcing platform
and approach forms the core of our distinctive
insights and foresight approach, which consists
of four elements: organic conversation analysis,
MSLGROUP’s own insight communities, client-
specific insights communities, and ethnographic
deep dives into these communities. The People’s
Insights Quarterly Magazines showcase our
capability in crowdsourcing and analyzing
insights from conversations and communities.
People’s Lab:
Crowdsourcing
Innovation & Insights

15. Write to us to start a conversation on the future of engagement.:
Pascal Beucler,
SVP & Chief Strategy Officer
(pascal.beucler@mslgroup.com)
Janelle Dixon,
North America Head of Insights
(janelle.dixon@mslgroup.com)
Dominic Payling,
Europe Head of Insights
(dominic.payling@mslgroup.com)
Gaurav Mishra,
Asia Head of Insights
(gaurav.mishra@mslgroup.com)
mslgroup.com | twitter.com/msl_group
MSLGROUP is Publicis Groupe's strategic
communications and engagement group,
advisors in all aspects of communication
strategy: from consumer PR to financial
communications, from public affairs to
reputation management and from crisis
communications to event management.
With more than 3,700 people, its offices span
22 countries. Adding affiliates and partners
into the equation, MSLGROUP's reach
increases to 4,000 employees in 83 countries.
Today the largest 'PR and Engagement'
network in Europe, Greater China and India, the
group offers strategic planning and counsel,
insight-guided thinking and big, compelling
ideas – followed by thorough execution.