Kids won’t listen to Verizon, so we needed to find the people who could change their minds. We started by asking real kids what they want to be when they grow up and when they answered athletes, models, singers and more—we teamed up with those exact people to deliver on unexpected message. For the first time, LeBron James told the country, “We don’t need more LeBrons.” Adriana Lima, Drew Brees and more celebrities joined in. Our country doesn’t need more supermodels or MVPs when there are over 4 million open STEM jobs.

LeBron didn’t just say “we don’t need more LeBrons,” together we started a movement but through social, online advertising, and more to tell the world what we do need more of. First, we used smart media placement to show people the STEM jobs behind the things they love—Drew Brees proclaimed #weneedmore helmet engineers in online ads on ESPN.com while Nickelodeon YouTube influencers, uncovered the STEM behind music. Then our celebrities started sharing STEM jobs on social and rallied their fans to do the same. We collected all of the STEM jobs shared across social and used them to create live stunts for students in the Verizon Innovative Learning program. Then we gave people a chance to step inside the shoes of our students with a 360 virtual video that showed Verizon is making a difference by giving free tech, access and hands-on learning to kids in need.

The #weneedmore launch drove an immediate and profoundly positive response across social, media coverage, and weneedmore.com. In one weekend we reached 89MM potential impressions and 131 pieces of earned media, from Creativity to the Huffington Post. We earned 8.2k mentions with 77% brand attribution, higher than CSR campaigns from other brands in the category. And with 98% positive sentiment, #weneedmore is one of the most powerful Verizon campaign’s in history. Above all, as people joined the movement we were able to open millions of kids’ eyes to a brighter future.