Everyone has seen the ‘original’ series of old spice ads – now chocking up over 16 million views. Not bad for a guy who smells like Grandma’s Christmas biscuits.

World Vision pounced and last week released their own version. A little cringe worthy. Put on a shirt is the first thought that came to mind. But impressive all the same to see a religiously founded NGO reproduce a viral man-spray video, and get their CEO to take his shirt off. The jury is still out on whether they received an increase in donations, but with now over 26,000 views and no media investment it is a online success in the non-profit arena. Hats off to Tim and World Vision for ignoring the red tape that often prevents immediate campaigns such as this.

Does this make you want to donate? (or just give Tim a gym membership?)

Every year all the NGO’s and the lovely people over at the UN sit down to discuss how we can make the world a better place… by doing things like eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. This year, it will be in Melbourne. Hip hip hooray.

And I will be there.

Using what we all love to define as ‘social media’ to get the word from the small conference circle out to the masses.

Exciting.

This year is the 63^rd UN  NGO Conference, it goes for 3 days and the discussions will be focussed on advancing global health and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). Back in 2000 development goals were set to be achieved by 2015. This year we will check in to see how ye ‘old world is travelling to meet these MDG’s.

I will also be looking at how we can use the online space to engage a community that would otherwise not be involved in the conference. It is not until August – so the ideas are still brewing…