The Unsung
Celebrating heroes across the country doing good for others, and giving Americans hope by injecting positivity in the final moments of the year.
New Year’s Eve was the perfect cultural moment to unveil the most uplifting and underreported stories throughout the country which culminated to CNN’s first live ad broadcast to honor our unsung heroes in New York City, and giving MassMutual the last word of the year.
CLIENT
MassMutual
CATEGORY
Content | Experiential | Production | Media
After rebranding in early 2017, MassMutual’s greatest marketing challenge continued to be building brand awareness in the consumer market. With under 2% brand awareness in the category, the brand was not a household name –– but we had to make it one. For the 166-year-old life insurance and financial services company’s year-end campaign, we aimed to bring to life a truth at the heart of the MassMutual brand: people protecting people. And as a divisive year drew to a close –– one filled with political rancor, global conflict, and natural disasters –– our goal was not only to generate brand awareness for MassMutual but to share tangible examples of the year’s under-praised heroes to drive impact and engagement to change the conversation about 2017.
We identified Great Big Story (GBS) as a perfect partner for this campaign for its unique ability to tell uplifting stories––but also because its parent company, CNN, was a significant source of the negative news were we trying to counterprogram.We worked with GBS to produce short documentaries, profiling our unsung heroes from across the country and wove the stories together to the song “I’ll Stand by You,” and set social, print, and radio to drive to TheUnsung.com with branded content. On New Year’s Eve, we ran all of the documentaries with editorial integrations throughout the day. As the campaign’s centerpiece, we were the exclusive advertiser of the 11pm-12am broadcast on CNN, which culminated in a two-minute live event in honor of our heroes, broadcast in the final minutes of the year––giving MassMutual the last word of 2017.
