Livestrong Stays Strong - Ellyn Fisher-AdLibbing

Livestrong's Doug Ulman concluded his talk at SXSW Interactiveon Monday by asking everyone in the audience who has survived cancer to stand up. Then he asked everyone who had a family member affected by cancer to stand up, and finally, everyone who had lost a family member. I stood up and remembered my mom. When I looked around the room there were so many of us standing.

It wasn't a stunt. Doug did it to get us past focusing on the brand crisis Livestrong is facing, and help us remember the real crisis they're fighting every day—that the reason they do what they do is to help people facing cancer. Also, to illustrate that Livestrong's survival plan for getting through the crisis is to remind audiences of just that.

Doug, himself a 15-year cancer survivor, had spoken at SXSW last year about social media's potential to help cure cancer, and how the "Lance Armstrong" bracelet was truly the original social network. I was inspired…by the man and the mission of Livestrong and wrote about it on Adlibbing. This year he spoke about resiliency.

Doug and the staff at Livestrong were given only six days to prep for the Oprah interview after learning the truth about Lance. They decided the best approach was to focus on their cause and not the brand, reminding people about the mission of Livestrong by using some of the same tools of survivorship that they know all too well. Here's what they did.

Be Transparent

They were transparent and direct, over-communicating to the media, sponsors, constituents and consumers. They didn't hide or run or deny. Livestrong put out a statement on the day Oprah's interview aired, expressing both disappointment and gratitude. A Facebook post the next day talked about how "Livestrong isn't about one person. It's about the millions of people facing cancer who need support as they fight the toughest battles of their lives."

Make it Personal

They started to change the dialogue and shift it to what was most important. Everything they did from a marketing and communications standpoint talked about the people they served and Livestrong's positive impact on their lives. You can't get more powerful than real-life third party stories. Survivors talked poignantly in video and written testimonials. In one video a woman named Sarah spoke about how she survived breast cancer twice and had to remove her ovaries, but still desperately wanted children. Livestrong helped her through her journey and she eventually had a child through IVF. She said, "Livestrong made what I thought impossible possible," to which Doug added, "Nothing in the cycling world had anything to do with Sarah."

The Livestrong staff also wanted an opportunity to speak out. A video camera was set up the day after Oprah's interview to capture the staff passionately talking about why they work there. One woman stated, "We're not about the disease, we're about the people."

In the coming weeks, Livestrong is launching a new campaign with Nike that, for the first time, will feature the faces of cancer survivors instead of celebrities, alongside the tagline: "Fight With Us."

Increase Program Support

The organization doubled down on investments in their products and services so they could help more people. One example undertaken this week through their community action project allows people to vote on how Livestrong will award $1.2 million in grants to local programs.

Think about Branding

Without a doubt, the Livestrong brand has become bigger than the organization itself. They created a new logo, keeping the ubiquitous yellow that has become so readily associated with cancer, but adding the word "foundation" in black to highlight the entity.

Only in the Q&A did Doug address his personal relationship with Lance. He said Lance is a good friend who apologized and that he's forgiven him. Doug is also grateful to him for being given the opportunity to lead Livestrong. Lance is still the founder and single biggest donor.

Doug's biggest frustration surrounding the Armstrong fallout is how Livestrong's credibility has been called into question by the media for something the staff had nothing to do with, and the attention it's taken away from the real mission and motives behind the organization.

He acknowledged that Livestrong still has a long way to go to regain the trust of the public and the foundation's supporters. It may take months, or even years. But while this has been an incredibly challenging time for Doug, both personally and professionally, it pales in comparison to the experience of being diagnosed with cancer. He reminded the audience that 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will face cancer in their lifetime. And, Doug made sure to add, if you know someone who's been diagnosed, you can go to livestrong.com/wecanhelp.

Ellyn Fisher
Ellyn covers the intersection of PR, new media and social good, chronicling emerging tactics & best practices. She has over 10 years of experience in PR and currently volunteers for both the American Cancer Society and the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. Ellyn can be reached at efisher@adcouncil.org.

10 Tidbits from This Year's SXSW Interactive

Written by Anastasia Goodstein

Just got back from SXSW on Tuesday afternoon, welcomed by two pigeons perched on top of the baggage claim and pouring down rain at the Newark airport. My first SXSW Interactive was in 2005 and well, it's grown exponentially since then. Despite the throngs of people and long lines to get a cab, listen to a keynote, attend a party or eat a meal, I still was able to connect with old friends, eat some tasty BBQ and learn a little bit about a lot of different stuff. Here are some of my personal highlights:

1. Jetpack

Jetpack is the future of WordPress. We're currently trying to decide whether to tumblrize AdLibbing (feel free to leave your two cents in the comments), so I decided to check out Kara Swisher's live interview with WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg about the state of blogging. Evidently, a plug-in called Jetpack promises to make your self-hosted WordPress blog more networked (social).

2. Maps can be emotional

Attended a session from the Google Maps guys where they showed the Toronto Kiss Mapas an example.

3. Teens tweet tolerance

In our session on bullying, I learned about @westhighbros a Twitter account dedicated to spreading kindness and tolerance at one high school.

4. TMZ's Harvey Levin has standards

He refused to publish Michael Phelps pot smoking pic, court documents with details about Britney's kids and the David Hasselhoff hamburger story. He also regrets the headline about Jennifer Love Hewitt that read, "I know what you ate last summer."

5. Rachel Maddow likes a Sierra Nevada only available during the holidays

And she believes there is a huge gap between those who serve in the military and those who don't).

6. Building content integration relationships takes time

It took Matt Damon's charity Water.org three years to form relationships with the YouTube creators featured in its most recent Strike With Me campaign.

7. Women are definitely talking (a lot) about having it all, not having it all and telecommuting

Missed this session with Anne-Marie Slaughter. But attended another led by a PBS Digital exec managing a team of 25 people in Virginia from Hawaii!

8. Singing karaoke in a moving RV can be a cathartic experience

9. Best souvenir for a 3 ½ year old is a cowboy hat with a pink bandana

10. I can't tell you what start-ups were really hot this year, but Ad Age Digital can.

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