PR Video Case Study

For my video case study I chose to look at the Naked Heart Foundation's video campaign. Naked Heart is an organization based out of Russia that promotes that every child should have a loving family, and a safe and stable place to stay. They strive to meet this goal by promoting awareness and information about childhood disabilities in order to de-stigmatize mental illness, as well as building vibrant safe play structures for children. Video is necessary when promoting a charitable cause, because it gives the organization a chance to personally invite their potential donors into viewing something intimate about their company. Videos give an organization a chance to showcase their cause in an interesting and appealing way, while it provides the audience front row seats to what is most important about the organization, and ultimately helps them decide if they want to donate to the cause or not.

The target demographics for Naked Heart include those native to Russia, as well as any English speakers who are willing to donate to their cause. They have many videos in Russian and English, which helps them to reach a much wider audience, and to potentially receive more donations. They are targeting those who have a soft spot for children, or who may be the parent of a disabled child - evident through the content contained in their promotional video that I chose to look at, "Every Child Deserves a Childhood."

In this video there a many still shots of children with smiling, and sometimes painted faces, as well as those who appear to be mentally handicapped. They show adults interacting with those handicapped and have the copy overlay, "we support those... who have it hardest of all." This entire segment sets them apart from other charities that simply just build playgrounds making them more desirable to donate to, especially if a person already has an emotional tie to spreading mental illness awareness. This video does an effective job of displaying the qualities of the organization that make it desirable to donate to.

In comparison, the KaBoom organization builds playgrounds here in American with the mission to solve the "play deficit." They are a widely successful non profit that has been around since 1995 and have built over 2,000 playgrounds in order to get and keep kids active and outside. Unlike Naked Heart, they do not have a focus on mental disabilities, although do have what I believe to be a better video campaign. They have much more content to view on their channel, and the video that I chose to look at "I believe in play" is exciting and attention holding. It is a story, as told from the child's perspective, of all the things they believe in that come together to form the climax - a playground revealed. Listening to the voices of the children, and going through their day along with them, is relatable and causes a feeling of nostalgia that resonates with the viewers and convinces them that this is a good cause.

KaBoom is generally targeting a similar audience to that of Naked Heart; people with a soft spot for children and/or mental disabilities, who are willing to donate, although I believe take a more effective approach in their video. I find KaBoom's video more appealing for these reasons: the child narrating which provides a more personal and intimate experience, the building of the story and music in sequence, and finally the ending in which the now adult narrator states "help us give all kids the childhood they deserve," which brings attention back to the act of donating, as well as makes their motives known, clear, and direct.

I think Naked Heart would benefit from something done in the way the KaBoom video was created. If there was more of a story or something personal to connect with, I believe that Naked Heart's videos would be more popular and obtain higher view counts, which would then hopefully translate into more donations.