State Farm: Following, 2

Credits & Description:

Title: Following
Agency: Ddb Chicago
Brand: State Farm
Country: USA
Entrant Company: Ddb Chicago
Advertising Agency: Ddb Chicago
Media Agency: Omd Usa, Chicago
Production Company: Mjz, Los Angeles
Additional Company: State Farm, Bloomington
Chief Creative Officer: John Maxham (Ddb Chicago)
Group Creative Director: Mel Routhier (Ddb Chicago)
Creative Director, Copywriter: Adam Cook (Ddb Chicago)
Creative Director, Art Director: Chris Bruney (Ddb Chicago)
Associate Creative Director: Katie Bero (Ddb Chicago)
Associate Creative Director: Brian Culp (Ddb Chicago)
Chief Production Officer: Diane Jackson (Ddb Chicago)
Executive Producer: Scott Kemper (Ddb Chicago)
Group Business Director: Ben Gladstone (Ddb Chicago)
Account Supervisor: Jaclyn Govostis (Ddb Chicago)
Account Executive: Emily Smith (Ddb Chicago)
Director: Dante Ariola (Mjz)
Executive Producer: Eriks Krumins (Mjz)
Line Producer: Natalie Hill (Mjz)
Director Of Photography: Laurie Crawley (Mjz)
Production Designer: Quito Cooksey (Mjz)
Editor: Joe Guest (Final Cut)
Executive Producer: Eric Mccasline (Final Cut)
Executive Producer: Suzy Ramirez (Final Cut)
Executive Producer: Camila De Biaggi (Mpc)
Head Of Production: Jesse Kurnit (Mpc)
Producer: Barry Gilbert (Mpc)
Colorist: Jean-Clement Soret (Mpc)
Lead Compositor: Matt Tremaglio (Mpc)
Cg Lead Artist: Fabian Frank (Mpc)
Ep/Managing Director: Bonny Dolan (Comma Music)
Ep, A&R + Supervison/Licensing: Michael Paoletta (Comma Music)
Creative Director: Byran Rheude (Comma Music)
Mixer: Mark Ruff (Chicago Recording Company)
Campaign Description:
The site was promoted by a two-minute online film titled “Following”. It detailed one man’s emotional decision to beginning volunteering. To accompany his journey, we completely re-invented a Grammy-winning dance hit by The Chainsmokers; re-recording the original track with singer-songwriter, Joy Williams. She turned the original track into the quiet, soulful centerpiece of the film.
Execution:
The film was posted publicly on State Farm’s Facebook page, Youtube page, and at NeighborhoodofGood.com. After being live for three days, shorter versions of the film ran in broadcast.
Relevancy:
The power of this music helped inspire hundreds of thousands of Americans to begin volunteering in their communities.
Synopsis:
According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, 70% of Americans expressed a desire to volunteer, but only 25% volunteered in the past year (2015). State Farm wanted to close the gap between caring and doing. So they launched NeighborhoodofGood.com; a simple search engine connecting people with volunteer opportunities in their communities.
Outcome:
In its first month, the online film received over 20,000,000 views, with 7,000,000 earned social impressions, skyrocketing State Farm’s positive social sentiment by 300%. Joy Williams' version of "Don't Let Me Down" hit #1 on the iTunes singer-songwriter chart, and was the #1 Most Shazamed Ad for four straight weeks. The Chainsmokers are playing the film to the crowd at the opening of every show on their 2017 summer tour, for free. Most importantly, in that first month, it inspired over 550,000 searches for volunteer openings on NeighborhooofGood.com (with 16x the traffic of the U.S. government’s own volunteering site)
Strategy:
The strategy was simple: Turn the empathy of Americans into action. Inspire them with an online film, and empower them to volunteer via the website.