The idea for the campaign was triggered by the emotion of gratitude the group felt when they wrote the single. GoodLuck felt the need to spread this feeling practically. “Music is this intrinsic, emotive activator that pulls things out of you that you don’t necessarily even realise are there and, that to me, is one of the most awesome things that the song does,” says Ben. He added that, “The most beautiful thing about music is that it can break things out of you that you didn’t even know needed to come out and we’re now trying to pass that on to everyone and say ‘Here’s an amazing opportunity’. It’s about everyone doing good and creating a culture. We live in this crazy, fast-paced world where everything is disposable, even down to our friends and family members. People move on with their lives and there’s very little time left to stop and thank you to the people who, without them, you probably wouldn’t be where they are.”
The campaign revolves around anyone that has played a positive role in your life regardless of how big or small their task has been. Ben uses the example of a man that sells you your daily newspaper and Jules has uploaded an emotional video of herself thanking the woman that cared for her when she was growing up to GoodLuck’s Facebook page.
GoodLuck have received some great responses to the campaign. “We had an amazing uptake specifically from people in the industry. It’s just been surprising. But from our side, we don’t intend for this to be one day it’s here and the next day it’s gone. It’s something that we’re building over a few months. So the initial reaction has been incredible, but it’s just kicked off so we’re looking forward to seeing what other people contribute still,” says Jules.
“It’s absolutely humbling and incredible to watch someone else pour their heart out about someone who maybe doesn’t even know how grateful they feel,” says Ben. One of the most touching reactions for Jules was witnessing a volunteer at a soup kitchen watch the video thanking her and telling her why her partner in the soup kitchen felt lucky to have her on his crew. “She just started crying, it was so sweet,” says Jules.
Using social media seems like a great tool to spread the message. “It’s about it being an effortless thing because it’s something that we all do rather than it being this chore. We all embraced Neknominations like this (clicks) and it just became this funny social phenomenon that took off. Why can’t it be something good and amazing that takes off?” explains Ben.
With the hope of building a culture of gratitude in South Africa, the campaign hopes to run long past the single’s lifetime. “I don’t want the campaign to stop. I don’t want people to stop saying thank you. We live in a country that is so crazy and so diverse. I don’t think any of us really realise how that has shaped us and moulded us into the awesome people South Africans are. You go around the world and we stand out because of where come from and what we’ve gone through. And that’s something to treasure and remember and be honoured by,” says Ben.
