Client Profile
L’Arche is an international non-governmental organization that works to provide support for people with intellectual disabilities so that they take their rightful place in our societies as active citizens. As an international organization, it seeks to promote diversity and solidarity across geographical and psychological borders. L’Arche is present in 147 communities in 35 countries around the world.
See all Development Advisory Team projects with L'Arche
Definition of Problem
Since the rise of ISIS, it has become terribly clear that web videos, as a form of mass communication, can be used as weapons of mass destruction. Yet web videos can also be used as tools of mass development. Notwithstanding important progress in some parts of the world, people with intellectual disabilities live in the shadows of a persistent view—present in all cultures—that they are the undesirables. L’Arche has designed a project to leverage the power of film and the connectivity of social media to move the needle on the invisibility and humiliation of the intellectually disabled across the globe. From September 6, 2015 to September 2016, L’Arche is launching a web series of 24 short documentaries running 3 - 5 minutes and shot in 12 different countries on 6 continents. The series seeks to reduce disability-related stigma and discrimination by correcting misperceptions about disability and positively changing the public discourse among viewers.
Initial Steps and Options
- From a strategic point of view, how do you make this go viral, and how do you transform viewership into action? Create a plan for the distribution of L’Arche’s content (which platforms should be used and how) and advise L’Arche on how to make their content actionable. Included in this plan should be an SEO strategy (Search Engine Optimization), which would require conducting keyword research on the subject of disability and L’Arche. Using Google trends and Google adwords, analyze what people are typing into search engines in the given countries and advise L’Arche on how to create content and build links so their content will be seen.
- Read extensively about the work of L’Arche and organizations interested in changing perceptions on people with intellectual disabilities. Look at social marketing campaigns to change perceptions and behaviors regarding issues such as smoking, obesity, etc. (Karen Gutierrez is teaching a fall 2015 one-credit course through the Eck Institute on social marketing and would be a good resource person.)
- If you’re not familiar with SEO, these two online tutorials are free through OIT: “Fundamentals of SEO” http://www.lynda.com/Analytics-tutorials/SEO-Fundamentals/187858-2.html “International SEO Fundamentals” http://www.lynda.com/Analytics-tutorials/International-SEO-Fundamentals/377449-2.html
Definition of Success
A strategic plan, with specific recommendations, that helps the series of L’Arche videos go viral and links them to a growing movement to change perceptions and reduce disability-related stigma and discrimination.
Recommendation
Presentation
Slide Show
Report on Online Strategy
Report on Offline Strategy
Potential Key Words