2020 was truly an unforgettable year -- we all lived through an ongoing pandemic, racial tensions and the most important election of our lifetimes. Virtual communities took over physical ones, which shone a light on the power and influence online communities like Reddit’s have in driving conversation, empathy and action.

While competitors shied away from annual recaps, Reddit wanted to increase social capital with the platform’s communities by acknowledging the key role they played in making a challenging year a little more bearable, and facetiously saying goodbye to 2020.

In a playful elegy to 2020, Reddit partnered with folk singer/songwriter Dan Bern to create an original song and music video encapsulating the frustrations and challenges 2020 brought, but with an upbeat catchy tune. Lyrics covered a broad range of topics in a way that was commiserative, tasteful and cathartic, and all of the video content used was original found footage from real Reddit posts throughout 2020. Viewers and listeners alike were left with a sense that we’re all in this together and that sometimes in life, all you can do is shake your head and laugh.

2020 took the world on a rollercoaster of emotions; moving people from a state of hope to exhaustion. Plans and dreams for what the year would bring quickly turned into living through a pandemic and an onslaught of political turmoil, leaving people angsty, uncertain and searching for a reprieve from just about everything.

Ultimately, mankind made plans but 2020 called the shots. In a sense, 2020 had seemed to take the year into its own hands without any regard for those of us living through it.

But during a year that was so relentlessly bad that it practically took on its own identity, Reddit users came together in powerfully positive ways that deserved to be celebrated. In a pointed yet lighthearted ode to a year like no other, Never To Be Forgotten Kinda Year said goodbye to 2020 and told it exactly what we’ve all been thinking.

Never to Be Forgotten Kinda Year was comprised solely of original content from the Reddit community. In order to remain authentic, the footage was left in its original state with minimal color correcting needed. Animation was inspired by elements of the Reddit platform, including the voting feature and Reddit’s unique UI, to bring the content to life in the edit.

Never to Be Forgotten Kinda Year was executed with virtually no budget—produced in-house and promoted via PR and Reddit owned and operated channels. The majority of the budget was put towards the writing and composing of the custom song.

The year-end tribute launched on 12/8/2020 and ran on Reddit through end of year. To bring its communities together for a moment of collective resilience, Reddit supported the initial push with multiple livestream performances by Dan Bern on Reddit’s streaming platform RPAN throughout the month and premiered the song on Spotify.

Never to Be Forgotten Kinda Year was made first and foremost for Reddit users, to demonstrate the brand’s appreciation and admiration for how they handled the trying year as a community.

The video amassed 4.6M views across Reddit-owned properties, an overwhelming 78% of which came from organic views on the r/blog post. The post received active engagement and high-praise from the Reddit community, with over 170K upvotes on the video (100K of which were received within hours of posting) and 6.5K awards given to the video by the community (meaning Reddit users paid to their love and appreciation of the video). These engagement numbers are the highest ever seen on a brand post on r/blog, ultimately delivering on our intended outcome.