“Last Changemaker Standing”
A comedy show on youtube with focus on social issues projects and commitment.
Addressing most pressing challenges in an entertaining way.
1. PROBLEM
In the description for this challenge you talked about the challenges in this 21century. You
named the immense growth of all industries focused on fun and joy, like media or theatre.
However you remarked quite right that “these powerful forces […] not always mean
explosion in meaning and positive change around the world. “
The problem is: fun is often “separated from meaning, and entertainment has little to do with
learning, impact, and real development.”
The problem is that interesting and meaningful projects, commitment and social issues are not
“sexy” enough as they lack the right promotion to attract more new supporters as people
prefer to be entertained rather than to be told what is good.
Let me show it on an example:
Youth Venture, is a sub-organizations of the biggest international NGO for social
entrepreneurs: Ashoka. Youth Venture has got a channel on YouTube, featuring various
amazing, interesting, unique and utmost honorable projects.
Like the video on 20 years
old Salahdin, who is creator
and leader of “worldcitizen”
a program in Germany that
sends “changemakers” on
schools to motivate other
young people to do the same.
He is also member to think
tanks in organizations like
“leading changemaker” and
“civil academy”. Besides he
has another very effective
program to fight drugs and
he speaks at Ted-x about all
that.
Now let’s have a closer look to spot the problem. Have you noticed how many few he has?
Isn’t it a pity that people like him do not get attention? Imagine how many people he could
motivate and inspire or animate to do the same – if only he would be seen.
You might argue that he is unique. But I assure you there are much more of young people like
him. I am also a member to these organizations and know them all personally. This is waste of
inspiration for the society.
Here is the YouTube description for Youth Venture – containing all these videos.
Well the channel has at least a little bit more viewers that Saladhin on his own. But still it is
nearly nothing in comparison to the best Channels:
YouTube - Most Subscribers
Ranking of the most subscribed YouTube channels.
1
nigahiga
3,759,841
2
Ray William Johnson
3,714,968
3
Machinima
2,615,946
4
Smosh
2,597,946
5
Shane Dawson
2,532,197
6
Fred
2,241,559
7
College Humor
1,920,303
8
Mystery Guitar Man
1,898,341
9
Annoying Orange
1,894,722
10
Philip DeFranco
1,625,198
Let us have a closer look at the Ray William Johnson Chanel:
Obviously this kind of entertainment is working. It is even copied – with success. See the
Russian version:
And in Germany….
2. IDEA
So these successful channels brought me to the solution of the problem:
Why not doing the same but only with focus on the social issues on commitment. The idea is,
that once it is done funny or interesting people will be attracted to watch and even spread via
Facebook eg.
The concept is basically to review videos on YouTube or photos internet referring to social
issues and comment them – in a funny way, just the way Ray William Johnson does for
example.
That way I will help to promote interesting projects and inspiring people and arouse interest in
other people – the potential new supporters and followers. This might not change the world,
but do it a slightly better place.
3. IMPLEMENTATION
Financials
Now, as I already mentioned the channel should be some kind of a social enterprise, being
beneficial for social needs on the one side but economically independent on the other. To
assure that I need to generate money by commercials – on being a YouTube-partner.
The following excerpt from socialblade.com shows the approximate revenue of Ray William
Johnson – which is quite impressive. However I will not assume to generate as much viewers
as he does. In fact the average income is quite low and you need to have more than 100.000
regular viewers per video to generate a satisfactory income.
So to generate more income I will additionally create a sponsoring possibility. A succesfull
youtube chennel with focus on social issues / sustainability is unique. This channel will in fact
be a very good platform for companies to promote their sustainability projects. The idea is
basically that a company will sponsore an apisode - for that they might bring up in the end of
the episode a small ad on theyr campaign.
This kind of sponsoring will only be allowed for CSR Projects of a company, social
enterprises or for NGO’s.This ideas is under development. Currently I am working on a
business plan, some return on Invest calculations presentations which I will need to negotiate
with the clients.
So far the financial support is not necessary as expenses are nearly zero. It is only the step to
professionnality (regular broadcast) and high quality (technically and by content) that will
require to engage creative writers and buy equipment / software.
Episodes
My “zero” episode has always been submitted to the semi-finals. It is not professional enough
and way just a draft to chow how the show might look like.
Attached to this submission you will also find the remake of this episode “zero.2”.
The first episode will be broadcasted as at the beginning of February 2012. From this time on
I will broadcast a show weekly. To start in February has three reasons:
1. To become YouTube-partner – and thus gain money you need to provide new material on a
regular basis and an adequate quality. So in the coming months I basically will prepare about
8 episodes to assure a regular broadcast for at least two months.
2. The budget for CSR / Sustainability activities at companies is planned at the beginning of
the year. It will be useless to contact the departments at the end of the year.
3. The company I am working for has “Busy season” at the beginning of the year – till March.
Which means that I will hardly have the time to create high quality videos. So I need to do the
job in advance – till end of March.
The Episodes I am currently working on:
Focus on:
Episode 1: Young people and their commitment (Challenge Future, SIFE, Global Social
Venture Competition, TEDx-Youth)
Episode 2: Social Entrepreneurs – The real changemakers
Episode 3: Voyage around Europe:
Genf: Euphoria
Berlin: Leading Changemaker Think & Do Tank
Luxemburg: LEO
The Entertainer
Ok, the concept might be ok, but you probably would argue about the person in front of the
camera. As you might know from the existing comedy shows, or stand-up comedy in general
the most important is that the show master. He has to meet the requirements to present selfconfident, professionally and entertaining. Why should I be as entertaining as Ray William
Johnson for example – or at least enough to attract a critical amount of viewers? And why
should I have an interest to continuously provide new video-material / doing new shows?
Well, these are the skills I can offer:
1. Stand-up-Comedy Skills to guide a show: As a comedian I performed in my school,
university on workshops and on events on my job
2. Social Entrepreneur-Skills to master the content: I founded my own newspaper
when I was 19. In this newspaper I promoted social projects and spread it all around
the world. Since then I entered a lot of organizations and created various social
projects. My concepts for an innovative school concept were even honoured by an
interview with the financial times Germany.
3. Soft-Skills to broadcast internationally: I am International as could be. Born in
Uzbekistan, raised-up in Germany, studied in France and now working in Luxemburg
In bref:
-
Born in a country that doesn’t not exist anymore.
-
Went to 8 different schools, while parents moved to search for jobs.
-
Lived for 15 years in a “ghetto” areas of big cities.
-
Creator and founder of social enterprises and projects
-
Leader on student associations and projects
-
CCC - Creating, caring and communicating is my passion! I love to be on a
broadcast and love to share this passion with others.
 I consider these features to be crucial for the success of the show
4. ADVANTAGES
Does something like this already exist?
-> TED: Very interesting and entertaining. The videos however are too long and not always
“that” entertaining to be watched by a broad audience.
-> YouTube: Has a lot of funny and meaningful videos. But rarely both in the same video.
-> Comedy News (The Daily show, e.g.) provide a good combination of fun and meaning.
Their topic however is mostly politics and they are focused on one country. Social projects or
inspiring information are rarely part of the show.
The Advantages of my solution go along with the requirements of funny & meaning:
- Fun@learning
- Fun@working
- Fun@volunteering
- Fun@creating
- Fun@discovering
- Fun@preserving
-> Learn about social projects & competitions
-> Funny videos rise your moral and let you work better
-> Be inspired and encouraged to participate and do the same
-> Promotion of social projects will create followers helping to create
-> Discover how social projects shape the world
-> Promoting environmental projects will surely support them
5. NEXT STEPS
As for all innovations the most important thing is the prototype. Even the greatest Ideas would
remain on a sheet of paper if they are not made visible. So let`s be concrete:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Finalise the writing on the new shows (January)
Contact CSR Departments (January / February)
Post videos (February / March)
Win 20.000 € (March)
Hire staff and become professional (April)