Recognizing the power that young people have to enact change in their communities, Viacom launched the global initiative Generation Change and partnered with Catalyst to bring it to life. Generation Change is Viacom's audience-inspired and audience-led initiative designed to elevate and empower young people who are making a difference in their communities and beyond by connecting them with audiences, mentors and tools for civic engagement. For this important initiative, we wanted to ensure a DIY feeling that reflected the ethos of the campaign – that it's all about youth making change in ways they feel passionate about.
To tap into the DIY feeling, we developed a customizable brand identity that gives young people the opportunity to raise their voices – which we then use the power of our brands and other platforms to amplify. Designed to be an adaptable campaign, Generation Change has the ability to be utilized by each of our brands and by market, and is driven and inspired at every step of the way by young agents of change who are passionate about improving their communities.
In order to equip, engage and inspire young people who identify with Generation Change, we created a series of digital activations and promotions in order to innovatively and efficiently reach our target audience to provide them with a useful platform to have their voices heard.
Catalyst helped lead this initiative with the overall branding and strategy of Generation Change, along with providing additional components and deliverables to kickstart the campaign. With digital video at the core of youth culture, we decided to do a soft launch of Generation Change at VidCon – Viacom's global conference for digital video content creators and fans – with a promo video featuring young people discussing what social activism means to them.
VidCon also presented a panel moderated by host of MTV's TRL Sway called, "The Power of Youth to Create Change," that had young changemakers discussing how their generation will continue to enact change in their communities. Other campaign components included social content captured at the conference, video content, a branded website highlighting Generation Change initiatives and more.
After a successful debut at VidCon in July 2018, Generation Change launched the first-ever Generation Change Award at the 2018 MTV Europe Music Awards in Spain. Presented by superstar Alessia Cara, the award recognized five global changemakers for their efforts in inspiring change within their communities.
