USA PARALYMPICS

40+ million free impressions for athletes who need it most.

A lot of sports fans don’t watch the Paralympics because they don’t see Paralympians as “real athletes,” though nothing could be further from the truth. To combat this stigma, I wrote the campaign line “Show the World,” challenging fans to experience—and share—the excitement of the Paralympic Games. We then highjacked the language of the Internet, memes, to get people to spread the word. And they did. Tens of millions of times. All at zero cost to the client.

THE MEME OPENING CEREMONIES
During the opening ceremonies, we put Paralympians at the center of the global conversation by working with Giphy to flood the Internet with Team USA versions of the most popular memes and gifs for people to use. With over 41 million shares (and counting), the effort helped normalize and raise awareness of Paralympic sports in a way paid media couldn’t.

GIFS WITH SOUND
To be more inclusive for our visually impaired audience, we created some of the world’s first audio-enabled memes, able to play like gifs—but with sound.

SOCIAL – PASS THE TORCH
The Paralympic Games start two weeks after the Olympic Games. To spread the word, we enlisted Olympians to send messages of support to their Paralympian counterparts.

LAUNCH FILM
We kicked things off with a film starring Paralympians who challenge viewers to use their devices for good. Featured in People.

The “Show the World” campaign was a huge success: The Paralympic Games exceeded all previous broadcast viewing records. And due to its success, #ShowTheWorld was adopted as the unofficial hashtag of the Games overall, used by organizations, brands, and fans across the globe.