Our idea was to turn passionate fans into a network of Paralympics broadcasters. So we created the Become a Broadcaster tool that allowed fans to sign up in advance to broadcast live streams of Paralympic events directly to their Facebook or Twitter feeds. Livestreams happen all the time but creating an app that allowed fans to sign up to automatically live stream an upcoming event was something that had never been done before. This was a first of its kind initiative.

It’s hard enough to build a never been done app that lets people sign up to automatically live stream an event to their social accounts. Creating an app that also let people live stream over 120 possible events seemed impossible. Once the functionality was worked out, we then needed to manage approximately 300 hours of live footage organized by date, time and event. The logistics of the streams alone at times felt insurmountable.

We launched the week preceding the Opening Ceremony when the conversation, enthusiasm, and interest was at its peak. Three online videos were created, each showcasing a different Canadian Paralympian and the incredible odds they needed to overcome to achieve athletic greatness. Static social posts and online banners were targeted to our optimal candidates driving them to our site. Paid media was complimented by a robust earned media push urging Paralympic fans to sign up to become broadcasters.

Our objective was to get our Canadian Paralympians the coverage they deserved outside of the traditional TV broadcast, and that’s exactly what we did. We went from minimal coverage to having thousands of individual broadcasters. Using our first of its kind livestreaming app, fans of the Canadian Paralympics signed up to broadcast over 22,000 events, generating an increase of 11,464% in online viewership compared to the previous Winter Paralympics. Additionally, the campaign generated over 76 million social impressions, an increase of 2,084% compared to the 2014 Sochi Winter Paralympic Games, and increased search volume by 18%.

By giving people a whole new way to watch the Paralympics, our campaign made the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games the most watched in Canadian history.