We worked carefully with victims’ families, forensic artists, and visual effects teams to “resurrect” two boys who were killed in distracted driving accidents, so they could explain all that was lost in their own words.

In each spot, we open on a young man speaking to camera about how his life might have turned out differently. As we hear his VO, we see home video footage of him as a young boy. When we cut back to him, it’s revealed that this is what he’d look like today if he hadn’t been killed by a distracted driver. We then cross-fade to a newspaper clipping of his death.

The TV spots drove to two online documentaries, one for each boy, shot by Errol Morris. Through extended interviews with family members, the films explore the true depth of loss experienced by those left behind after one of these events.

The spots were rolled out in April which is Distracted Driving Awareness month. AT&T pushed these spots out across channels in large national placements to drive reach, consideration and ultimately to encourage people to pledge to not drive distracted.

The production process took about five months. The campaign was approved in Mid-November and the shoot happened in the first week of December. Post-production lasted from Late December until April.

There was paid social across AT&T’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Premium Forced-View online video Placements (Hulu, CBS and Scripps Network). Cinema (5,500 theaters nationwide from 4/27-7/1 and then again in September. Spotify (Went live 5/2). Pandora (Going live, 5/4). Kargo – Mobile Placements (W/O 5/7)

As a result of the campaign, 60% of viewers said it would change their behavior, garnering over 73 million media and earned media impressions and over 13 million views in less than a week. We achieved engagement rates of 47% on Facebook and 44% on Twitter – effectively doubling the average engagement rate of all past AT&T brand advertising benchmarks, helping It Can Wait surpass 20 million pledges to end distracted driving.