Project 3 Content Strategy

The Dodo

Who is The Dodo?

The Dodo is a digital brand that serves up highly emotional content for animal lovers. The Dodo specializes in creating emotional and highly shareable videos targeted towards those who love animals, or those who are passionate about advocating for animal rights. You might be familiar with the Dodo from a video that your friend has shared or tagged you in on Facebook; that was the Dodo’s focus when they realized that animal-centric content was the most highly shareable type of content on the internet. Since animals are A) incredibly cute and B) such a big part of our lives, their content can relate to thousands of people…acutally, much more than that.

From there, the founders of the Dodo knew that they could combine their passion for animals and the internet to a highly successful business that could impact thousands of lives.

Where is the Dodo active?

The Dodo is active on all major social media channels as well as a website. The dodo has a different strategy for each platform; the founders have noted that part of their initial strategy was to create videos that would be compatible across all different channels. Seeing that The Dodo is the #1 most popular animal brand on social media, and arguably the most successful digital brands, this strategy has worked extremely well. In addition to their own channels success, the Dodo has served as an industry pioneer in this belief that content should differ from platform to platform.

The Dodo’s go-to Platform: Facebook

This is the most important channel for the Dodo. With over 22.6 million followers on Facebook, the Dodo has become one of the largest accounts on the massive platform. Their videos range anywhere from a couple thousand views to over 390 million for one post! The Dodo posts up to 8 times a day on their main account featuring various videos about animal advocacy and humans interacting with their pets. Posting consistently is crucial to maintaining a loyal audience. You cannot go a day without seeing content from the Dodo, much less a few hours. This ensures that the Dodo will find its way onto your news feed one way or another. Over 300 pieces of content are generated each month and over 60 million people are affected by their posts per day. With an average of over 3 million views per video, the Dodo has found a way to master the Facebook platform.

This video received over 47 million views on Facebook. However, only 252,000 on Youtube. This is a great example of how audiences differ on Facebook and Youtube, two of the Dodo’s most popular channels. In an interview with Erica Perry, YuJung Kim, the President of the Dodo, says that they have noticed their audience on Youtube highly favors content that is more human-centric: this could be a reason for the video’s poor performance on Youtube. The same goes for other platforms. For instance, the Dodo would not be successful on Snapchat if they tried posting long videos advocating for animal rights. That is not the audience on Snapchat. Instead, the Dodo posts short articles and fun tidbits about rare animal species or funny clips of animals.

The Dodo also features several different playlists on Facebook. They have been able to utilize Facebook watch and Facebook Live for different content and have also seen great success with their series. “Little But Fierce” and “Soulmates” have over 2 million followers each, more than most companies main pages.

The Dodo consistently receives a lot of views, but more importantly a lot of shares. Due to Facebook’s recent changes in their algorithms, more and more focus has been placed on the aspect of creating a “community”. This plays extremely well in favor of the Dodo because their contents original purpose is to be highly shareable. The more often the Dodo’s videos are shared or tagged, the more likely it is to pop up on one’s news feed. Facebook’s change in algorithm has hurt many large accounts, but since the Dodo has focused on building a community through their videos, they remain strong.

Overall, The Dodo’s content fits perfectly in the Facebook platform. Their videos appeal to Facebook’s massive audience and they have found a way to leverage Facebook’s algorithm and technological advances to their benefit. Additionally, Facebook’s tagging and sharing feature allow the Dodo’s account to be seen by millions each day. Lastly, the Dodo has capitalized on Facebook’s newest additions to their platforms with Facebook Watch and Facebook Live and has found ways to be successful early on.

Project 2 Findings

After my analysis of the Dodo, I had trouble finding an are where they could drastically improve their content. I went into this project thinking that maybe I could help the Dodo improve their reach or engagement: let's just say you don’t become the #1 brand on Facebook without knowing how to use hashtags.

This made my project 2 a lot more difficult than I thought. I expected to go into project 2 with a clear idea of what to ask my interviewees based on what I had gathered in my analysis; however, it was the exact opposite. I think this ambiguity helped my report a lot and led me to my final conclusion.

I asked my two interviewees, one a Dodo fan and the other a dog fan who didn’t know of Dodo broad questions about their experiences with the brand. They both had great things to say and said that they’d continue/start to follow the accounts and interact with posts. Likes, shares, and comments only go so far.

I found that neither the long-term Dodo fan or the newbie had donated a single dollar to the Dodo.

Why was this? It couldn’t have been because of the stories or those involved — the Dodo knew what stories could pull on the heartstrings of those watching. But, there was something about the Dodo’s content that wasn’t pushing their followers to follow through to the last step of donating to their causes.

Solution

The Dodo has many purposes on social media. They can generate money through in video ads and they do a great job of supporting the love of animals through their content. If you weren’t an animal lover before the Dodo, I would be hard pressed to say you weren’t after watching.

When looking at the Dodo, they simply weren’t placing enough importance on their donation pages. They would be a brief screen at the end of the video with a link you would have to manually type out. Additionally, there was no background as to where your money would be going or any stories of those who have donated previously.

After looking at other non-profit organization’s content as well as content creators who live and die by donations, I found a couple of major strategies that were used to help the donation process.

First, the organizations would make stories of those who donated and the journey along the way. They would document somebody donating their hair to a girl and then follow up and show the reaction of the girl getting her new wig. This strategy is not only emotional but shows perspective donors that their donations truly have an impact. It can show the users just how far their dollar can stretch. Every dollar makes a difference.

This first campaign highlights just that. This simple post not only recognizes Sarah for donating but shows her and the rest of the Dodo’s followers exactly what $10 can do. It also maintains the connection to what drew them in in the first place — an extremely cute puppy!

The other popular strategy that was used was personal shoutouts. This method is commonly played out by YouTube and Twitch game streamers. These gamers create content simply by live streaming them playing their game of choice and subscribers can donate to “support” their channels. Often times, those who donate are eligible for a personalized shoutout on the page. For example, “Thanks, Mike01234 for your $5 donation, we really appreciate your support and your donations help keep this account running!” This simple shoutout and want to be featured keeps the donations pouring in, and rewards those who end up donating.

IG Live Fridays: A time when people can take over the Dodo’s Instagram account and go Live with their stories. They will pitch their campaign and then be able to shout out those who comment that they’ve donated. This will help gain recognition to those who donate as well as give a more personal connection to the people running the campaigns.

The following are sample pieces of content that outline the previously stated strategies. Hopefully, by mixing in these types of content, the Dodo will not only attract more users to their page but will also increase their amount of donations. With these donations, the Dodo will facilitate more and more life-changing events for dogs and other animals. These rescues will support the Dodo’s original mission of making the world more in tune to animals and their care.

Conclusion

When working with a brand like the Dodo, I found it very challenging to pinpoint any weaknesses in their content. After my analysis, I really had no ideas of how to improve their content or content strategy.

This is when I used research to find out exactly what other people’s experiences and perceptions of the brands were. This helped enormously and led me to the creation of the new campaigns.

When thinking of how to run successful campaigns, I looked to leaders in the industry — just like I’m sure most brands do with the Dodo for creating emotional content.

Thank you for reading,

Matt Wheatley

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