PR Video Case Study: Naked Heart and KaBOOM

Both Naked Heart Foundation and KaBOOM are non-profit organizations dedicated to providing children with safe places to play by building playgrounds in their region. Naked Heart is based in Russia and has other areas of focus, including providing safe living conditions for orphans and helping families with children who have disabilities. Therefore, their demographics are more specific to individual families as well as impoverished communities. On the other hand, KaBOOM is more widespread throughout the United States, perhaps because of it’s political support, and has built thousands of playgrounds through partnerships with other companies. Although they similarly target economically needy communities, KaBOOM focuses more on the neighborhood than on individual children. Both organizations use videos on their websites to appeal to their audience. While photos and news releases are effective in promoting their message, videos are necessary because they provide visual examples and draw people in emotionally through artistic quality and a story structure. This can be seen in Naked Hearts videos, specifically one called “Every Child Deserves a Childhood.” It begins with only music, photos and copy, however, it is extremely powerful in embodying the ways in which the organizations helps both healthy children and disabled children as well as families as a whole. As the video progresses, images turn into videos of happy children and families and it finally concludes with a photo of the founder and supermodel, Natalia Vodianova, holding hands with a disabled child while the words “every child deserves a childhood” fade onto the screen. It appeals to the audience’s emotions through bright colors, slow music, and appealing photography. In contrast, KaBOOM has dozens of videos that are set up in documentary format. They are usually twice as long as Naked Heart’s videos and include interviews and personal testaments along with music and copy. In one particular video called “All About KaBOOM” the CEO Darell Hammond specifies the companies vision to give all children a safe place to play within walking distance. Immediately he is reaching out to children nationwide regardless of status or health, whereas Naked Hearts helps the impoverished and disabled specifically. KaBOOM’s videos have less of an artistic quality, with song changes every few seconds and quick cuts from footage to photos to copy.   However, they provide more information and have a series of videos showing the construction of playgrounds in major cities. In this way, they show their constant improvement and work towards their goal. KaBOOM’s videos are more performed and rehearsed than Naked Heart’s, however, they are much more successful in their endeavors. This can be seen by their “1000 playgrounds in 1000 days” campaign whereas Naked Heart has built a little over 67 playgrounds since their founding. This may be due to the large celebrity and corporate endorsements to KaBOOM, including support by First Lady Michelle Obama, however, it may also have to do with their public relations tactics and communication with the media. Many of Naked Heart’s videos are similar in style and consist of testimonies from primarily its founder while KaBOOM’s videos follow their every move and give credit to supporting organizations and celebrities. While the artistic quality of Naked Heart’s videos are initially more appealing, they don’t deliver as clear of a message or show as many specific examples to the public as KaBOOM does.