Our newest Champion for Good is Craig Narveson, General Manager, US at Kahoot! His passion for social good and advice for finding your own personal happiness will leave you inspired. Read on to see for yourself!
Q: How have you worked with the Ad Council? What campaign(s) have you supported and what was the project you worked on with us?
Craig Narveson: Over the past few years, Kahoot! has had the privilege of collaborating with various Ad Council teams to gamify and feature their campaign content on the Kahoot! platform and mobile app to engage youth audiences. Our work with the Ad Council has amplified campaigns including Diversity and Inclusion, Empowering Girls in STEM, Wildfire Prevention, Discover the Forest, and most recently Bullying Prevention. To date, these games have been played by students from classrooms in every US state and in more than 195 countries around the world. We look forward to more collaborations with the Ad Council!
Q: Social good ads pull at our heartstrings. What social good ad has made you cry or stand up and cheer?
CN: There’s a video advertisement from a Thailand-based life insurance company that hits me hard. We all want to believe that we matter in this world, and this inspiring 3-minute ad triggers introspection on the topic. Even the smallest act of kindness can make an important difference in the world.
Q: How do you or your team integrate social good into your work, or how do you think your brand is making the world a better place?
CN: I’m a firm believer that knowledge is the most important tool for unlocking an individual’s deepest potential, and in the macro, our planet’s best chance for long-term success. Kahoot!, a software platform, was designed to tap into our common human desire for growth, inclusion and achievement through play – our first language for learning. I’d say it’s this product design coupled with our ongoing mission to ‘make learning awesome’ that serves as the foundation for how Kahoot! can make the world a better place.
We at Kahoot! believe that learning should include everyone, and we work to eliminate barriers to education. One of my roles at Kahoot! is to foster partnerships with organizations and institutions that both share our vision for positive social impact and which have important content to offer the youth audience – our future game-changers. We collaborate with these partners to transform their content into free learning games, which we in turn feature throughout our products for our users to access and play. In this manner, we’ve been proud to support fun in-classroom learning for millions of players on numerous important social good topics.
Q: What was the greatest piece of advice someone gave you, and how did it end up helping you?
CN: In my family, there was (and still is) one saying shared with each other during challenging times: “Keep your chin up.” These four words have become something of a personal mantra — and a very flexible one, whatever the life challenge or disappointment may be.
Only you can define what 'success' and 'happiness' mean for you. Think about and claim these definitions, for yourself; don't let anyone else do it for you.
Q: If you were giving a commencement speech to this year’s college graduates, what would you want them to know?
CN: I think I’d offer something along the lines of the following:
- Follow your dreams. But be open to the ones that will spring up along the way. Life is always presenting opportunities.
- Only you can define what ‘success’ and ‘happiness’ mean for you. Think about and claim these definitions for yourself; don’t let anyone else do it for you.
- Live out of your comfort zone at least a few times in your life. This is where all the best stuff seems to happen.
Q: What value(s) of your organization are you most proud of?
CN: We are playful, We are curious, We are inclusive. These are the Kahoot! company values. They’re synergistic, they underpin our culture and they’re the driving force behind our work.
Q: What can we look forward to from your organization this year?
CN: Kahoot! plans to further its mission of making learning awesome and our vision to build the leading learning platform in the world. We will continue to launch newer, better features to strengthen our platform for educators and for organizations.