My role on this project was to create banner ads. I came back with a campaign idea. Countless times I have Hail Mary’d a campaign idea that predictably landed nowhere. This time my team was able to turn a simple request into an ambitious campaign.
Our challenge was that news is a crowded market and the nation was more polarized than ever. How could we remain honest with the fact that the news is hurtful and divisive, while creating a campaign for Newsroom that was compelling and hopeful?
The news is emotional. It stirs curiosity. Anger. Sadness. Hope.
We decided our campaign should too. We went beyond a list of product features and benefits. We wanted to tell the human experience of how the stories we read on the news deeply impacts us, and become our stories too.
We gathered dozens of everyday people from across the nation to ask them about their honest reactions to major news events. Charlottesville. Prince’s death. Sandy Hook. And the #MeToo movement. And while their stories, perspectives and opinions differed, they also shared a common thread. The emotional impact that this headline wasn’t something that happened hundreds of mile away. It happened to each of them right where they stood.