Video Case Study - Grassroots Training

They came to us in early 2011 having had most all of their funding cut and with a bleak outlook on the future of the organisation.

They needed to raise funding and awareness of this very important issue.

We proposed making a video that would spearhead a viral marketing campaign. The ‘I am Alive’ video concept inspired Grassroots training to build a marketing campaign around the video including a website and a PR campaign.

The video that we made has now received nearly 5000 hits on YouTube, 700 ‘shares’ and 25 comments. This created a fringe benefit whereby Grassroots were able to utilise the YouTube comments platform to reach out to vulnerable people. One lady left a comment “I am alive because of this video”. This comment eventually led to this lady being asked to be an adviser on the National Suicide Prevention strategy for the US government.

The video has been watched in five continents all over the world including the Nevada desert military base and the Manotoba festival in Canada. It has been endorsed by The Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention and is on their website under: “If you are thinking of suicide, watch this”.

It was seen by an ASSIST trainer and Cannes Award winning film director in Nunavut who was inspired to remake the video in Inuit as the Inuit suicide rate is one of the highest in the world. The Nunavut anti-suicide action plan was unveiled on Sept 11th 2011 and the ‘I am Alive’ video will form part of this campaign.

Grassroots have said “As a team the video confirmed that our message is meaningful and the feedback has let us know that we are doing the right thing and we are very much needed”. The future of Grassroots training is now more secure and they are looking to become a registered charity.

We at Tanglewood are very proud and humbled by the massive response to the video. This shows the power of video even to save lives…

See the Grassroots YouTube channel and read the comments or leave your own here.