Thunderclap was the first product from DE-DE and was spun out as a separate company that became profitable with over 1 million users per month.
What it is:
Thunderclap helps people with an important message be heard better by synchronizing social media across a group of supporters to amplify their voices and cut through the clutter. Thunderclap was founded by David Cascino within the product studio DE-DE, which was led by Hashem Bajwa (CEO) and Andrew Essex (Chairman).
How it Works:
Anyone with a tweet-sized message about something they care about can create a Thunderclap campaign with that message. They can then invite their network to lend their voices and support the message on Thunderclap. If enough people support the message, Thunderclap will blast out the original message on Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr from all of the supporters’ social media accounts at the same time, automatically creating a wave of activity that can’t be ignored.
Users:
Thunderclap is empowering a diverse audience from passionate individuals on a local level, to politicians on a national stage, to artists sharing work, to brands who engaging their consumers, to causes creating change around the world.
Many organizations and individuals are creating Thunderclap campaigns or supporting them.
The White House, United Nations, Kathryn Bigelow, Matt Taibbi, ONE.org, Stand Up To Cancer, Charity:Water, NAACP, Candie’s Foundation, Oxfam, Habitat for Humanity, World Wildlife Fund, UNICEF, Amnesty International, Save the Children, Glenn Beck, Al Jazeera, HuffPo, Human Rights Watch
Barack Obama, Alicia Keys, Russell Simmons, Richard Branson, Piers Morgan, Gisele Bündchen, Carly Rae Jepsen, Stephen Fry, William Shatner, Mark Ruffalo, Tim O’Reilly, David Cameron
Revenue:
Thunderclap is free for anyone to use. There is a paid Pro version offering more content customization, supporter analytics, promotional tools and white label ability to embed their Thunderclap experience anywhere.
Origins:
The idea was inspired by the "Human Megaphone" from Occupy Wall Street, where an individual speaker would say a sentence and it would be repeated by concentric circles of people around him/her until everyone in the park heard the message.
My Role:
I led DE-DE, the studio that funded and produced Thunderclap. I also led the branding, marketing. launch and initial partnerships for the product with Droga5’s support.