Lessons in Strategic Planning from Sandy Hook Promise’s “Evan”
By: Michael Schonfeld
Tags: Facebook, YouTube, Social Media, Twitter, Marketing

Today, consumers live in a world inundated with ads and content. The more media we consume, the less we tolerate being “sold to” or “talked at,” forcing advertisers to create content that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.

This rings especially true to PSAs; getting the general public to think differently about an issue requires a shrewd and emotionally gripping approach.

BBDO New York rose to this occasion by teaching viewers about the behavioral warning signs we often miss before shootings in “Evan,” a shocking long-form film for the non-profit Sandy Hook Promise. Working on “Evan” and watching it spread online taught me the following about rolling out thought-provoking creative work and maximizing its impact:

Native Uploads Help Your Work Get the Most Reach From Influencers

Of the 115 million trackable views that “Evan” got, the vast majority (about 103 million) came from paid influencers and earned press.

We partnered with Joe Hanson, host of the PBS Digital Studios show “It’s Okay To Be Smart,” to share out “Evan.” Rather than post a link to the YouTube video, he natively uploaded the film to his Facebook page. His post garnered 29 million views, the most of any influencer and the second most of any page to share the video. Eric and Hannah Alper natively uploaded “Evan” to their Twitter pages, earning 30,000+ retweets and helping the film trend on Twitter.

Our other influencer partners created custom content and shared out YouTube links to “Evan.” We found that this approach reached fewer people than the native uploads for two reasons; Facebook and Twitter algorithmically favor native content, and the user experience of viewing native content on those platforms is much simpler than clicking through a YouTube link.

Facebook and Twitter Work Best for Spreading Your Longform Content’s Message

Posts from influencers like Joe Hanson and Eric Alper or news outlets like Fox 32 Chicago and Yahoo Spain showed us that Facebook and Twitter reign supreme for sharing out long-form, thought-provoking creative work.

Fox 32 Chicago and Yahoo Spain earned the most shares out of any page on any platform to upload “Evan,” combining for over a million shares. Both outlets natively posted the film to their Facebook pages, outperforming uploads of the YouTube link (just like we noticed with our influencer partners).

Twitter also played a strong role in spreading Sandy Hook Promise’s message. Eric Alper’s tweet helped to more than double the amount of total conversation online about “Evan,” while also landing the film a feature on Twitter’s home page.

Facebook and Twitter gave Sandy Hook Promise the means to spread “Evan” and drive conversation online because both platforms are the most conversation-friendly; People use them more than other platforms to learn about and discuss social issues, creating a perfect environment for content like “Evan” to thrive.

Reaction Videos Offer Perspective on Driving Conversation and Impact

Whether responding to a film like “Evan” or a TV show episode, response videos show a more meaningful engagement with content than a standard “like” or “share.” A viewer’s decision to watch a full piece of content, react to it on camera, edit the video, and post it for others to see shows a greater willingness than the average viewer to spend time with a message and (hopefully) absorb it.

We were blown away by the reaction videos responding to “Evan.” The film garnered over 1.25 million views alone from 51 separate reaction videos. The responses ranged from amazement to shock to disbelief, giving us a visceral look at the viewer’s experience.

Working on the “Know the Signs” campaign for Sandy Hook Promise taught me a great deal about maximizing the effectiveness of longform, thought-provoking content. Planners should keep these findings about influencer work, channel choice and engagement in mind when their campaigns lean in to these types of creative assets. Whether for a non-profit or a brand, this approach will help to break the clutter we face every day as advertisers and storytellers.