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From the 3rd Annual Shorty Social Good Awards

American Family Insurance & Mashable: One Saturday to Dream Fearlessly

Entered in Media Partnership

Objectives

In 2017, Mashable & American Family Insurance (AFI) teamed up to deliver a fully-integrated campaign that encouraged Americans to insure carefully and dream fearlessly, while also fostering community engagement. Through partnerships with non-profit organizations and celebrity ambassadors, these "One Saturday to Dream Fearlessly" (OSTDF) events sought to create meaningful impact at the local level. At the same time, AFI looked to build awareness and share their message globally, while remaining a positive, encouraging voice during moments when we face everyday hurdles.

Strategy and Execution

Given Mashable's global reach and role as an authoritative voice on social good, American Family Insurance felt that Mashable was the ideal partner to help amplify their #DreamFearlessly messaging through in-person and online content creation. American Family Insurance hosted events in Atlanta, Seattle and Madison where they brought together local AFI agents, their families and communities to create meaningful change.

Atlanta's "One Saturday" delivered a day of fearless dreaming to both students and their parents as kids we introduced to career opportunities beyond athlete or singer. Hosted at Deerwood Academy, the afternoon featured local organization Because of Them, We Can and had visits from Atlanta Falcons' Mohamed Sanu and Vic Beasley.

In Seattle, AFI enlisted the help of Richard Sherman and Bobby Wagner of the Seattle Seahawks to lead volunteers in creating care packages for the city's homeless community. Volunteers were divided into teams, and raced to finish packing in time to surprise local aid organizations Mary's Place and YouthCare with the donated packages on their behalf.

Madison's "One Saturday" welcomed hometown heroes J.J., Derek and T.J. Watts to the Goodman Community Center. The day's volunteers were tasked with providing enough food staples to restock the Goodman Center's food pantry, while also building a chicken coop and greenhouse that would service the Center for year's to come.

Mashable's Experiential Team joined AFI in Minneapolis, where together they produced an afternoon that educated, empowered and entertained Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Greater Twin Cities. Mentors and their Littles were invited to participate in a series of activities that showcased their creativity through technology. As a reward for their participation, the Bigs and Littles were treated to an intimate concert with AFI Ambassador and Grammy award-winning artist John Legend.

Finally, Mashable and AFI took their OSTDF message global through an onstage thought leadership opportunity at the 2017 Social Good Summit. Held annually during the United Nations General Assembly week, the Summit unites a lively community of global citizens and progressive thought leaders around how we can utilize global connectivity--both online and offline--to build a better future. AFI's Chief Marketing Officer Telisa Yancy took to the Summit's mainstage to share the "One Saturday" story.

Throughout these events, Mashable was onsite to capture custom photography and document the "One Saturday" series through Mashable's longform storytelling format. These events were also brought to life online through video and Instagram stories.

This nine-month campaign highlighted uplifting stories about the power of community. Driven by Velocity, Mashable's predictive proprietary data platform, the campaign featured weekly sponsored editorial articles that narrowed in on that week's most heart-warming story--in real time, all with the potential to go viral. In all, there were 25 articles and four (4) event recap immersives written based on data and insights that were then used to guarantee views and reach AFI's target when and where they'd be most likely to engage socially.

Results

With events hosted in 4 U.S. cities, "One Saturday to Dream Fearlessly" brought out 582 volunteers to participate in day-long activities that directly impacted their local communities. Atlanta's "One Saturday" event helped more than 130 kids realize their dreams and explore career possibilities. In Seattle, 3,000 drawstring bags--consisting of 36,000 items--were delivered to the city's homeless. Madison saw nearly 250 volunteers come together to package 3,000 boxes of food that fed 150 families. And in Minneapolis, nearly 85 Big Brother-Big Sister pairings enjoyed a day of educational activities! The 2017 Social Good Summit livestreamed Telisa Yancy's keynote-style presentation into 7 different languages, and the Summit reached 2.1 billion social impressions through its hashtag #2030NOW.

Online, AFI-branded content performed 234% above the social share engagement benchmark, proving how impactful a real-time content creation/distribution partnership is, and how much more engaged the audience is in response. Additionally, Mashable's social coverage of the events saw 669k total impressions, with each Instagram Story frame seeing 2x - 3.7x above view benchmarks. Through targeted distribution, Mashable's "One Saturday" recap videos saw 1.3 million total video views. In addition to the coverage by Mashable, "One Saturday" events received earned print and digital media coverage in local publications.

Media

Video for American Family Insurance & Mashable: One Saturday to Dream Fearlessly

Entrant Company / Organization Name

American Family Insurance, Mashable

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