New Readers/Raising Awareness in Mexico

The Wikimedia Foundation is working with Wikimedians in Mexico to increase awareness of Wikipedia. Our goals are to improve recognition of Wikipedia and understanding of its uses among Mexican internet users.

Defining the problems

Since the completion of New Readers research in October 2016, the Wikimedia Foundation Communications team has been focusing on two of the findings from Mexico:

• Medium Wikipedia awareness (~55% of Mexicans surveyed say they have never heard of Wikipedia)
• Low brand trust

We believe that working to clarify understanding of Wikipedia will increase usage and eventually, participation in Wikimedia projects.

The 2018 project in brief

Objectives

1. Increase awareness and understanding of Wikipedia
2. Drive new usage of Wikipedia

Audiences

• Students across Mexico
• Internet users in Mexico

Deliverables

• Strategic Marketing approach
• Web videos (0:30 to 1:00 in length) that explains Wikipedia for unfamiliar user
• A campaign landing page

Measurements

• Video views (more than 5 million impressions)
• Social Media buzz

Key Performance Indicators

• Positive change in “Have heard of Wikipedia” annual phone surveying of Mexico (from benchmark 45% “have heard of Wikipedia” in 2016)
• Increased unique devices accessing Wikipedia content in Mexico

Timing

• Planning: April - May
• Development: June
• Production: July - August
• Launch: September
• Evaluation & reporting: October

2018 Project team

Wikimedia Foundation

• Zachary McCune - Global Audiences Manager, Communications
• Blanca Flores - Designer, Communications
• Anne Gomez - Product Manager, Reading
• Jorge Vargas - Global Reach (LATAM), Partnerships
• Heather Walls - Chief Creative Officer

External partner

To support our awareness work in Mexico, we are working with an organization called ISLA. ISLA specializes in video production, digital design, and marketing, with an office in Mexico City. They have worked with Wikimedia Mexico extensively, producing a video for Wikimania 2015. They will guide creative development for this project, offering experienced perspectives on how to appeal to our target audience and how to produce appealing video content. They’ll also collaborate on channel approaches, developing a strategic overview of digital media platforms where we can share videos to reach people who are unfamiliar with Wikipedia.

We chose to work with ISLA based on their expertise in cultural production and marketing for Mexico, and their familiarity of working with the Wikimedia movement. They are committed to working with our Community team to ensure the creative materials reflect the work and needs of our volunteers in Mexico.

Research on Impacts

Measuring impact to page views

A description of proposed research and limitations can be found here: New_Readers/Raising_Awareness_in_Mexico/Research.

An analysis of the short-term impact of the videos on page views can be found here: New_Readers/Raising_Awareness_in_Mexico/Short-term_Impacts

Baseline metrics

In a phone survey completed during Q1, we asked "have you heard of Wikipedia?" in randomized phone calls across Mexico. These are the results for awareness of Wikipedia among internet users of that group:

• Age
  • Less than 18 yrs - 53% heard (105/199)
  • 18-25 yrs:  57% heard (376/663)
  • 26-35 yrs:  55% heard (269/486)
  • Over 35 yrs: 47% heard (195/413)
  • prefer not to say: 39% heard (41/105)
• Gender
  • Women: 53% heard (366/697)
  • Men: 54% heard (537/1003)
  • Men + Women: 53% heard (903/1700)

We will also complete an end line survey that will support measurement of change in awareness across demographics.

Progress

April 2018

• Set Community team and project objectives with Wikimedia Mexico

May 2018

• Developed project brief with direction and insights from Wikimedia Mexico
• Selected ISLA as preferred marketing partner
• Developed contract and scope of work with ISLA

June 2018

• Kicked off creative concept phase
• Selected "Reggaeton" concept with Wikimedia Mexico

July 2018

• Reviewed first lyrics for music
• Reviewed first script drafts

August 2018

• Finalized and approved music lyrics
• Recorded first drafts of music
• Reviewed and directed 2 major refinements of music
• Reviewed shotlist for video suggestions

September 2018

• Approved shotlist for music video
• Campaign landing page designs finalized

October 2018

• Selected influencer for video production ("NatalyPop")
• Reviewed and approved final music
• Shot video over weekend of October 13 - 14
• Reviewed first draft of edit of music video
• Campaign landing page complete

November 2018

• Reviewed final draft of video
• Video launched!

Get involved

Please add a comment on the Talk page here to share your thoughts.

Final video

• Wikipedia promotional video - Superdotada

Landing page

Desktop view of landing page design

The landing page is hosted at: http://bienvenida.wikimedia.org

All links in social media have directed to this page.

Impact report

The campaign in Mexico differed from our other campaigns, in that it did not show a statistically significant impact on either awareness or traffic to Wikipedia in Mexico.

Campaign report

Our interpretation is that, as Mexico is a more mature media market, we will need to promote more widely to achieve a change in awareness.