AARP’s Real People, Real Stories series celebrates the actions of ordinary individuals from diverse backgrounds whose actions have made an extraordinary impact on themselves and a wider community. The series continues AARP Studios’ longstanding tradition of powerful profiles on Facebook but with a more templatized, quicker-turn approach.
Since 2021, this series has been a hallmark performer on our Brand Facebook page, garnering an exceptional amount of views and engagement among our community. As such, our goal this year was to strategically scale the production of these age-positive, human interest profiles; increase the pipeline for authentic, multicultural voices; and create a storytelling vehicle that inspires, connects and uplifts viewers to choose how they live as they age. Our hypothesis was that by finding and telling stories that speak to underserved audiences, and meeting them where they were – on Facebook – we could generate initial interest with a target audience and then expand the story’s impact to resonate with all viewers who appreciate compelling narratives and inspirational storytelling.
In order to accomplish our goals of producing a timely and diverse series of age-positive human interest profiles, we continued to refine our workflows, series style guide, and distribution channels.
Our plan of action was to find central characters that align with AARP’s social mission and ensure the stories resonated with our audience. We executed the plan by adhering to a “story guide” framework to choose subjects and by filming original interviews and b-roll. In order to decide on which characters to focus on, we held regular pitch meetings and vetted stories through a set of criteria which all Real People Stories must meet. The key features for each profile are: it must be a people-driven human interest story that connects, inspires, and uplifts; it must have a clear and lasting impact on the individual and a wider community; and it must be able to answer the question “Why is AARP telling this story?” Whether highlighting a caregiving issue or illustrating ways to be healthy and fulfilled as we age, our stories should connect with our core 50-plus audience and exemplify AARP’s mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age.
Intentionally crafting diverse and multicultural narratives was another vital aspect of the series this year. In choosing our subjects, we strove to have purposeful representation and tell authentic stories of multicultural experiences. For some of our Hispanic/Latino subjects who felt more comfortable speaking Spanish, we interviewed them in Spanish and added English subtitles to the final video. This approach allowed us to authentically and comfortably capture our subjects.
Since this is a social-first video series, we know graphics and text-on-screen are a vital part of the storytelling experience, particularly for “sound-off” viewing. So, we utilized our unified graphics package and “story guide” rules to allow for more consistent storytelling, including hooking viewers at the top with a key message and visuals.
We expanded the reach of the series beyond our main brand Facebook account by sharing relevant videos on AARP En Español and AARP Black Community Facebook accounts, meeting people where they are online and allowing them to engage with AARP within these friend groups and communities.
This is the most engaged video series on AARP’s Facebook account. As of June 2024, the 64 episodes in the series have reached over 44 million people, garnered 38 million views and generated more than 1 million engagements, with comments reflecting how deeply the stories resonate. The series has earned 7.5 million views across AARP En Español and Black Community accounts. Real People Stories also has the highest average views across all video series on Facebook for AARP.
We’ve found the stories are resonating with viewers. This emotional impact has been demonstrated through comments such as, “What a beautiful soul, you have to be who you are meant to be, I hope you inspire many young souls to find their true self.”
“Beautiful! Gives us all hope for future health and continued activity.”
“Dierdre is one of the smartest and bravest women I have ever known! She’s amazing! What an inspiration!”
“Great history and inspiration. I’m still longboard carving at 67. The flow keeps you young.”
“Thank you for sharing. People talk about age they got it wrong ‘it isn't age, it is what you do with age.’”
“What a gracious lady, thank you for the service you and the other ladies worked so diligently at to get those precious letters/packages to the rest of the service men and women!”
“Giving back is proven to heal and this life story is verification of a great value system. Keep paying it forward Roger Montoya. Your love will shine forever.”
