If you’re interested in charity: water’s digital and marketing strategy — this video is for you!

The good folk at Hubspot recently hosted my team and I at their Boston HQ and invited me to deliver a Biz Talk for their staff. I lead with info on the water issue and the story of charity: water, before diving into our marketing strategy and some learnings.

Enjoy!

While my time to blog has dipped considerably compared to the pre-Twitter days of 2007 and 3 posts a week, I still view my blog as my real ‘home’ on the web.

As such, sharing two pieces of personal news for posterity.

Australian Global 50

I was surprised and honored this past Australia Day to be recognized by the Australian Trade Commission as one of the ‘Global 50′ Aussie expatriates making an impact on the world.

See the full list here, it’s an impressive group and I’m honored to join them due to the great work of my team at charity: water.

Global Citizen Festival

Here’s a quick video of the most nerve-wracking moment of my life to date – sharing charity: water’s commitment to raise $100 million for clean water by 2015 alongside Katie Couric at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park.

The Global Citizen Festival was an amazing event led by the incredibly impressive Aussie Hugh Evans, and featured some of the world’s top bands alongside the most impactful causes, in front of an audience of 70,000 passionate world changers and the world’s largest ever live stream audience!

Speaking to a crowd of 50,000 in the middle of the world’s greatest city, on a stage shared with the Foo Fighters & Neil Young, isn’t something I’ll forget quickly — even if it was only a sentence!

Really exciting day at work today as Google announced us as a recipient of a Global Impact Award. I’m currently flying across the US to speak alongside the Google team at the Social Innovation Summit in Silicon Valley tomorrow, but thought I’d share this quick update.

From the charity: water blog:

Today, we’re excited to announce that we’re launching a $5 million pilot project with Google to develop remote sensor technology that will tell us whether water is flowing at any of our projects, at any given time, anywhere in the world. Google has funded this entire initiative through the new Global Impact Awards. This award will help charity: water further advance transparency and sustainability in the water sector.

Although our staff and local partners visit our programs frequently, it’s simply not possible to visit every project often enough to ensure that water is flowing all the time. Thanks to this Global Impact Award from Google, we’ll be able to go from hoping that projects function over time, to knowing that they are.

This week I represented charity: water on a panel at the Mashable Social Good Summit alongside Meetup founder Scott Heiferman, Indiegogo co-founder Danae Ringelmann and Mashable’s Matt Silverman.

Here is the full 15 minute panel:

In particular awesome to sit next to Scott Heiferman, one of the smartest internet entrepreneurs out there and one of the only people in the world who has built a web platform to unite people in the real world.

September 2, 2008, 5.30pm I read a tweet that changed my life — here it is:

have ab=day in Sept? Forgot gifts. help fund wells in Ethiopia http://tinyurl.com/6n7fbw

— Beth Kanter (@kanter) September 2, 2008

Beth Kanter tweeted about ‘giving up’ September birthdays for clean water. I remember clicking through to the borninseptember.org website, watching a great video, and setting up a fundraising page to help build a well for a village in Ethiopia.

@kanter thanks for the Sep Birthday charity tip, I’ve just signed up http://www.charitywater.org/birthdays/fundraiser/sept/view/1472

— Paull Young (@paullyoung) September 2, 2008

To my surprise, lots of people gave! A popular new blogger by the name of Pete Cashmore started fundraising for his September 18th birthday too, and we raised enough to fund ‘the well that Twitter built‘.

charity: water became my favorite charity. Two years later I started working there. Two and a half years further on, and I’m giving up yet another September birthday for clean water — and I’d love your donation.

Thank you Stephen Colbert.

The September Campaign was how I first heard of charity: water. Back in 2008 Beth Kanter sent a tweet about ‘giving up’ your September birthday for clean water. Being a September baby, I clicked through to the charity: water site, started a campaign… and the rest is history.

Every September Campaign is special, and this year I’m excited to share an epic story of redemption from Rwanda. Rwanda’s a country I’ve always thought deeply about as I’ve tried to make any sort of understanding of the 1994 genocide that saw 1 million people killed with machetes.

It’s been amazing to me to learn how much Rwanda’s moved forward, and it’s an honor to be able to try to help the people there get the most important leg up: access to clean and safe drinking water.

Check out our video trailer to learn about the campaign, and if you’d like to help I’d love you to donate for my birthday!

And here’s the second video we posted on the history of Rwanda: “The Spirit of Rwanda”

I hope you’ll check out the September Campaign, and I’d be honored if you’d donate to my birthday campaign — just $65 can bring one person clean water in Rwanda!

I had a striking experience this week seeing old and new marketing clash head on in a battle between two of the world’s largest companies: Visa and American Express.

Sunday

I’m at Heathrow Airport waiting for my flight back to the States after watching my mate Ben St Lawrence run for Australia in the 10,000 meters final at the Olympics. With some time to kill before my flight, I decide to buy a Tshirt from the Olympic store to mark the occasion. I line up for 15 minutes, get to the counter… and can’t pay. The Olympics only accept Visa.

I only have a few coins left in my wallet, so have to trudge around the airport, pull out 20 quid from an ATM (with a foreign penalty) and go back to the Olympic store to buy my shirt. I curse Visa under my breath the entire flight home.

Monday

Every Monday a few of my mates get together for a steak night. I check in on Foursquare, as is my habit. Immediately I’m notified that American Express has a $5 off deal in the restaurant, because I’ve signed up for Amex Sync.

I tell all my friends about the deal, they check in and get a discount too. We all pull out our American Express cards instead of cash to pay the bill. American Express save us $20, and we have a positive conversation about their brand as we walk home.

I tweet about the #steakscore, and when I wake up I see a tweet @ me from Amex:

@paullyoung @foursquare #steakscore – we love it! Hope you enjoyed the steak & the savings. AT

— American Express (@AmericanExpress) August 7, 2012

American Express bought me a steak and made me smile. Visa made me walk around an airport and frown.

This post says it best:

If you want people to like you, give them something. If you want people to hate you, take something away from them. 

The good folk at Philanthropy News recently grabbed me for a quick flip-cam video interview for some insight on how we approach online community and fundraising at charity: water.

Short 8 minute video here:

I had a great time today speaking on a panel at the PR News Social Media Summit in NYC on the topic of measurement.

Here’s my presentation and a clip of me discussing it:

Video: