subject: The Caines Arcade Story And What It Means To You [print this page] There are not a lot of things one can be sure of in this world, including the notion that theres always going to be help out there when you need it. Problems or challengesincluding the kind that your organization is dedicated to addressingcan at times seem insurmountable. But if you accept the notion that there is kindness in people, you can also be sure that that a combination of creativity and communication (and the magic of the Internet) can exponentially multiply a single act of kindness to achieve otherwise impossible goals. Consider the case of Caine Monroy.
I stumbled upon Caines story last Tuesday on a quiet little blog on Tumblr. The video was launched on Monday. By Thursday morning, Caine was on all of the morning TV shows. As of today, Caines Arcade has been viewed more than 2 million times on YouTube and 2.6 million times on Vimeo. Over $165,000 has been donated to his college fund in just one week. The Goldhirsh Foundation has offered a $250,000 matching grant to the video's creators to create the Caine's Arcade Foundation (you read that right - a Foundation doesn't even exist yet!). There is even a Wiki page now that is tracking all of Caines media coverage. Heres an interesting contribution from the Christian Science Monitor.
For the increasingly few number of you who arent familiar with the story, heres a quick summary: Caine Monroy is a wonderfully clever, endearing and entrepreneurial 9-year-old. During his summer vacation, while hanging round his fathers East Los Angeles auto parts shop, he got the idea to turn empty cardboard boxes into elaborate, home-made arcade games. Before long he had taken over the store with a small universe that resembled a theme park. He developed an individual and Fun Pass ticket system ($1 for 5 turns, $2 for 500 - always get the Fun Pass!), and was soon ready to receive customers.
Alas, no one cameexcept for Nirvan Mullick, a filmmaker and partner at an L.A. media strategy firm. Mullick had by chance stopped in to buy a part for his car and couldnt help but notice Caines Arcade. With permission from the boys father, he made an 11-minute short documentary. As part of the effort (which included a PayPal button to allow viewers to donate to a college fund for Caine), Mullick set up a Facebook page with the idea of surprising the boy with a flash mob of customers. The effort was picked up by hidden los angeles and soon soared on redditt. Caines story was suddenly heard (literally) round the world.
While Caines tale is heartwarming in its own right (okay, lets go ahead and call it a tearjerker), its practical implications are enormous not only from a marketing perspective, but from a social impact perspective, in particular. Remember that your mission has immense power because people care. Not everyone and not always, but enough and given the opportunity people will come together to help you fulfill your mission. In the end, if you build it (and then make sure everyone knows about it) they will come.
What does this mean? Well, first people need to know youre out there. Then they have to not only know what you need, but also how they can help. And finally, they need to know that they can make a difference that together with like-minded people they can move the needle and change the lives of people whose lives need changing. (Note the word know in every sentence above.)
How do you accomplish these things? Well if Caines story tells us anything, it shows how an entrepreneurial spirit, combined with imagination and creativity, provides the core spark that can ignite a crowd. Once the word got out, Caines mob was motivated to help. They wanted to play (Who wouldnt want to play? The event was simply cool unique games, individual ingenuity, the thrill of being a part of something big.), but more important, the story of Caine and his quest for success touched something in people that made them all come out and play.
The message here is about the power of storytelling combined with the power of Internet. In Caines case it looks like this: ingenious boy + talented media strategist + kindness of strangers x Internet = (to date) $164,000-plus for a well-deserved college fund. For this young man, it was about succeeding with a good idea. Whats your story? And how and where are you telling it?
