Results and Effectiveness

For the first campaign of its kind this was a great success. Without any paid media Amnesty eclipsed their Twignature target by over 20%. One tweet alone captured over 800 Twignatures, which indicates just how effective this tool can be. In only a short space of time Twignature generated 20 million impressions (Source: TweetReach). Hashtags #Twignature and #MakeObamaSign trended on 12th March and best of all President Obama endorsed a landmark Arms Trade Treaty. It’s nice to think we played a part in a historic moment for Amnesty International.

Creative Execution

This was ultimately a campaign that lived online. The messages posted on Twitter evolved in response to what was happening at the UN conference. With no budget the challenge was to increase exposure by promoting Twignature via owned media. We worked closely with Amnesty and focused on two key channels: 1. Followers of @Amnesty: throughout the campaign we monitored news concerning the Arms Treaty as well as Twitter activity on our #MakeObamaSign hashtag. We then tweeted several tailor-made campaign messages, adapted to public sentiment at the time. As retweets were instantly converted into Twignatures, this gave us real time information with which we could optimize our campaign. 2. Website & eDM: the campaign utilized existing channels with a web banner on amnestyusa.org and promotion in the Amnesty e-newsletter. Attentive.ly crosschecked Amnesty’s database with influential Twitter users to maximize email activity. These turned into retweets and ultimately more Twignatures.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

Over the years there's been little change in the way Amnesty International gathers signatures. People sign by hand or fill out forms online. Now it can be done with social media. Research identified a ‘silent majority’ who support Amnesty causes but don’t act, particularly among their Twitter followers. We not only gave them a voice, we created a new way to sign a petition. Just by using Twitter. Twitter + Signature = Twignature. By retweeting a message from @Amnesty your Twitter handle is instantly converted into a digital signature on an online petition. With one click users could sign the petition AND spread the word. In 2013 Amnesty campaigned for the US Govt to sign the UN Arms Trade Treaty. Twignature was specifically created to lobby President Obama for his support. With Twitter as a direct response media channel Amnesty could maximize reach and impact with absolutely no media spend.