We Choose The Moon – A Social Marketing Mission

Nicole Hurdle - 7.21.2009 3:00 PM

“We Choose The Moon” is an interactive Website built by the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum to celebrate the 40-year anniversary of NASA landing on the moon. This site displays a real-time reenactment of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. It went live on July 16th, 2009 at 8:02am and followed the launch at 9:32am. The site is divided into 11 different stages which the Apollo 11 spacecraft went through. It provides a to-the-minute representation of the historic Apollo 11 mission 40 years ago. After July 20th when the Apollo 11 lands, you can re-visit the site and travel through the mission at your own pace.

The JFK Library & Museum created a massive following for this Website as the countdown to the 40-year anniversary neared. It has allowed followers to experience the mission as if it were 1969 all over again. Behind this amazing Website lies an advertisement for JFK Library & Museum. As people continuously follow this reenacted mission, JFK Library and Museum will receive free advertising for its entire organization.

You may ask yourself "What does this have to do with Social Marketing?"

Well, as the site loads, it encourages you to follow the mission on Twitter and share their progress on blogs, MySpace and social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Del.ic.ous, Newsvine, Yahoo Buzz, Reddit, Bebo and Slashdot. In addition, the Website also has a 'mission widget' you can put on your computer and embed onto all of your social Websites. By encouraging the following of the mission in this manner, it is no wonder that it has expanded virally.

They have created 3 different Twitter accounts that users can follow. One is the feed from the Capsule Communicator (CapCom)which communicates with the space crew from Mission Control, (http://twitter.com/ap11_capcom). The second is the spacecraft which is the astronauts' means of communication with Mission Control, (http://twitter.com/ap11_spacecraft). Then, the third is the Eagle feed which is the lunar module. (http://twitter.com/ap11_eagle).

With 72 hours left the CapCom Twitter feed had 10,937 followers. This number grew to over 11,500 with about 48 hours left. Then, just 5 hours before landing on the moon, it had increased to 12,538 followers. The exact minute the spacecraft had landed on the Moon, the CapCom Twitter feed had 13,010 followers.

The spacecraft Twitter feed practically mirrored this exact pattern as well, having a little more following at the landing time with 13,465 followers.

Throughout the mission, the follower numbers grew by about 1,000 per day. To consider what a milestone this event was for our country in 1969, and now to see the reenactment of it 40 years later, is remarkable. With the push of Social mMarketing through the Website, it proves just how influential it has become in today’s world. If your company has not jumped on this Social Marketing bandwagon, do not wait any longer! It will be a major benefit to the marketing and advertising for your company.

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