Winner: Weber Shandwick with Reboot - Taking a Tech Detox: National Day of Unplugging
The American Psychiatric Association considers internet addiction an official mental health disorder. That’s why nonprofit Reboot developed the National Day of Unplugging, encouraging all hyper-connected, frequently frantic people to take a tech detox from all things digital. During the NDU, Reboot asked participants to “unplug” by turning off all their gadgets for a full 24 hours beginning at sunset March 1 through sunset March 2 in an effort to bring balance back into their lives and allowing them to spend the time reconnecting with friends, family and community.
This year, the organization also wanted participants to actively pledge participation by filling out an “I Unplug To__” sign and posting a photo with the sign to the NDU website. Reboot enlisted Weber Shandwick for the third consecutive year to continue to help generate broad traditional and social media awareness and to encourage participation for the campaign.
Weber Shandwick developed fresh NDU story angles and sought to spread the news coverage across more general consumer lifestyle publications. The firm assisted Reboot in writing and editing press materials and executed strategic media outreach to major media outlets. Of course, some NDU promotion had to take place online, and Weber Shandwick helped Reboot craft posts for Facebook and Twitter as well.
Overall, the campaign was a huge success. Strategic media outreach garnered 602,588,800 impressions—an increase of over 400 million from the previous year—with 269 online and 178 broadcast placements. Some top-tier placements included CBS This Morning, TIME, Real Simple, The Huffington Post, TechCrunch and PCMag. Reboot experienced greater participation than ever before and exceeded its engagement goals with more than 28,000 unique visitors to the NDU website, 5,000 likes on Facebook, and 6,749 individual mentions on Twitter.
Honorable Mentions:
- Canadian Dental Hygienists Association - Sports Mouthguards: Putting More Bite into Injury Prevention
- Global Strategy Group - Scouts for Equality: The Campaign to End Discrimination Against Gay Scouts
- Pollock Communications - ASH and Hypertension Research Awareness Campaign
- Uniomedia Communications - Szuno - Our Dreams: A Support Campaign for the Development of Mostly Roma Kids and Their Families in East Hungary
- Webster University - In the Heart of Football Country, a Different Kind of Champion