At the start of COVID19’s spread across the United States, ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth brands (led by MTV) realized there was an urgent need to educate audiences on the importance of social distancing and staying home. Bars were packed, and students were heading off to spring break despite reports of the virus’ severity. To help flatten the curve and save lives, the team had to provide a loud call to action across screens. In partnering with the Ad Council, ViacomCBS was able to blast the message beyond its portfolio, delivering a brand agnostic toolkit that’s seen adoption across the media, marketing and advertising industry.
As the pandemic took hold, the objective of the campaign evolved to meet the needs of the crisis. The #AloneTogether campaign worked to:
+ Educate the audience on the importance of social distancing, providing clear information and a call to stay at home when possible
+ Share mental health resources to address the effects of isolation
+ Provide entertainment and opportunities to connect at a time when the world was retreating
+ Offer meaningful support to frontline workers
With #AloneTogether, we wanted to encourage people to stay home to help save lives, while developing a platform that provided a sense of community through entertainment. To do this, we:
+ Engaged channel, music and celebrity talent for self-shot PSAs and custom creative opportunities that lived on brand platforms and their own social handles
+ Spoke directly with fans on a day-to-day basis through social accounts, encouraging conversation
+ Highlighted and supported first responders
ViacomCBS reaches every demographic, with networks representing 1/5th of all television viewing and 825M+ social followers. In partnership with the Ad Council, we were able to connect with the broader industry and create an incredibly powerful distribution pipeline.
At ViacomCBS, #AloneTogether provided a steady stream of engagement and entertainment opportunities. It reignited MTV’s ‘Unplugged’ and ‘Club MTV’ from home, and launched live performances on Instagram and Twitch. MTV News highlighted frontline workers with its new ‘Essentials’ series, and offered helpful Q&A from professionals.
Comedy Central’s The Daily Show Social Distancing Show was the first late night show to launch from home, and spread laughs through comedic short form like ‘Quarantine Confessions.’ CMT served cooking classes with Kimberly from Little Big Town, Logo Live DJ sets inspired dance, and Smithsonian’s Julie Montague livestreamed ‘Break and Breathe’ yoga classes for moments of zen. On Paramount, a 24-hour Bar Rescue YouTube marathon gave fans a St. Patrick’s Day binge.
Across our suite of brands, music and channel talent sent supportive messages, and a new digital coloring book provided a creative outlet for fans. Throughout the campaign, alonetogether.com shared helpful resources and tips to Stay Calm, Stay Active and Stay Connected.
#AloneTogether successfully carried its stay at home, social distancing and mental health messages globally – outside of the ViacomCBS portfolio, our Ad Council partnership connected us to Universal, ABC/Disney, WarnerMedia, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Verizon, IBM and thousands of other companies that adopted the #AloneTogether assets for their constituents.
In a study from the MTV Insights team, 51% of people shared that the campaign makes them feel like we are all in this together, with 45% reminded of the importance of social distancing. 64% of people who are familiar with #AloneTogether say they took an action as a result of our campaign. Top actions included “Showed appreciation for healthcare workers” (27%) and “Donated money to COVID-19 charities, causes, and organizations” (17%).
Recent Stats:
Linear: Over 174,000 linear spots have aired globally across the house to-date
Pluto TV: Over 35M insertions to-date
Social Engagements: 33,990,270
Social Video Views: 944,177,271
Social Impressions: 2,036,267,447
