What is a radical hero, and why is it “radical” to be this kind of hero?
We live in a world that values warriors, loud unambiguous acts of righteousness, great feats of physical strength, and displays of incredible outward beauty. There is a time and a place for all those things. But elevating these narratives above all else leaves society unable to sit with discomfort, unaware of the type of courage required to embrace our ideological opposite, and impatient with the hard work of finding consensus in the name of progress. A society that doesn’t value these traits is easily cleaved in two, polarized by extremes, violently pitted against itself, and ill-equipped to build a pluralistic future.
This is why we sought people who exemplify these powerful but often overlooked narratives. Stories that inspire people to ask themselves not what they would do when faced with absolute evil but the more relevant and meaningful question of how they would face down all the gray and messy parts of life and triumph. These are our “Radical Heros.”
Can you accept someone for who they are today when their behavior yesterday was criminal? Can you love your enemy enough to change your heart? Find faith in friction? Be curious enough to explore the darkest parts of your past and yourself?
We chose a simple, clear, and straightforward style to make these narratives shine. We were exhaustive in our search for people who leaned into compassion, curiosity, and courage in the darkest and most unlikely places.
And we found a palpable hunger out in the world for this story. On platforms filled with anger and division, these stories have broken through and begun to chip away at the idea that other people have to change. In truth, it starts with us.
We start with the story and creative, and then also optimize the final video creative to be native for each distribution channel. For each Radical Heroes episodes, we generated optimal cuts and formats across Instagram, TiktokStories (FB/IG), Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok.
We have a process for examining every aspect of the video creative including, copy, thumbnails, format, and structure of the video narrative.
Furthermore, we use paid social to amplify the organic content posts, generate earned media through consumer press outreach, and leverage our network of highly influential movement partners with large social presence to distribute the episodes. Post-episode launch, we measure the performance, and use it to guide future programming and execution – examining what doesn’t work, and what works.
Radical Heroes as a series across 7 episodes has garnered nearly 9MM video videos, 13 million impressions, and 228K content engagements (shares, comments, likes, clicks, follows, etc.).
The series has broken through not only in culture with celebrities and influencers, including engagement from Kim Kardashian, Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman, George Takei, Yvette Nicole Brown, Daniel Lubetzky, Fred Guttenberg, and more, but the coverage across issues has garnered community and activist support within Disability Awareness, Asian American, Gun Safety & Rights, Community Policing, Addiction, and Religious groups.
These videos also generate impactful conversations from our audience. We have been astounded to see engagements from audience members that show the impact of the videos:
