REACH UP L.A.
THE CHALLENGE: The City of Los Angeles was chosen to host the Special Olympic World Games in 2015, the largest event since the 1984 Olympics. Yet, there was little or no awareness about the games or their purpose. Worse still, most people confused them with the Paralympics. Our objective was to fill the L.A. Memorial Coliseum with spectators, all with zero dollars to spend on advertising, relying on donations and word-of-mouth.
THE RESULTS: I observed the athletes throwing their arms up in triumph whether they won or lost a race. This insight led to the creation of the World Games “Reach Up” pose that became the cornerstone of our awareness campaign. With a small team consisting of one Art Director, one Camerman, and eighty dollars in my pocket, we took to the streets of Los Angeles to shoot footage guerrilla-style - this would become our television commercial. Opening night was sold out. For the first time ever, live broadcasts of the events were shown on ESPN with more than 20 million viewers. And we achieved 4 billion social media impressions worldwide. The 2015 Special Olympics World Games have been the most successful in the client’s history to date.
CAMPAIGN MANTRA
Courage
For those who said you’d never amount to anything.
For every person who ever made fun of you.
For the naysayers. For the ignorant. For the plain rude.
For the underdog inside all of us who needs a role model,
Kick some judgemental butt.
Determination
To those who said I was too dumb to play.
To those who made me feel left out.
To those who made me cry.
I want to hold up my middle finger at you,
But I’ll hold up a medal instead.
Joy
I don’t want your pity.
I don’t want your condescension when you speak to me.
I certainly don’t want you to look away.
Check this out, I’m the best in the world at my sport,
What can you do?