In a space as competitive as telecommunications/entertainment, AT&T is constantly fighting a battle of perception among existing and potential customers. When it comes to Corporate Brand Marketing, the brand is consistently finding itself at the intersection of needing to drive revenue and building a brand story that changes how people see AT&T—especially as the company itself continues to grow.

With the 25th anniversary of the brand’s iconic “You Will" campaign approaching, AT&T looked for the right environments in which to distribute and amplify the reimagination of this campaign to celebrate this milestone. The goal would be to demonstrate the innovation potential of the brand while also highlighting the things in our present that AT&T’s 1993 campaign accurately predicted in the past. Our ultimate goal would be to shift brand perception and generate impact with efficient strategic partnerships.

To do justice to the impact of “You Will,” we looked both backward and forward. AT&T created two compelling documentary videos—for the first, we looked back at the development, creation, and vision of the original “You Will” campaign and the advances it predicted. For the second video, we convened a panel of today’s leading futurists to predict how our daily lives will be transformed by innovation over the next twenty-five years. Experts from inside and outside AT&T discussed the changes that remain just over the horizon—transformations that, like those featured in the original “You Will” campaign, feel like science fiction in the present day but will evolve into facts of everyday life.

We accompanied these with interactive graphics showing how the original predictions made in “You Will” have come true in the intervening decades—and how these innovations will continue to advance over the next twenty-five years.

The campaign—dubbed “You Will 2.0”—targeted technology and cultural influencers across Wired and AT&T’s owned and operated digital and social channels. To maximize reach potential, contextual adjacencies with Wired’s 25th Anniversary content (including but not limited to coverage of the WIRED25 event held in October 2018) were built into the foundation of the campaign. In order to promote engagement, we combined high-impact masthead units, multiple lengths of social video and links to dive deeper into alternate versions of the experience throughout the user flow. AT&T also pitched media outlets for additional coverage wherever possible.

Understanding that consumers engage with the content best tailored to their desired experiences, we built out two versions of the “You Will” experience on Wired: (1) an interactive timeline that housed the long-form video asset (2) a native article that told the story behind the original campaign and simultaneously introduced audiences to the documentary-style video, highlighting future predictions from AT&T employees and futurists.

CAMPAIGN COMPONENTS

Interactive 1993–2018 and 2018–Beyond Timeline explored the “Future of…” the industries highlighted by the futurists in the corresponding video content (housing “Look Back” and “Look Forward” chapters.

Facebook Canvas/Instant Experience Unit translated the interactive web experience into a high-reaching social environment.

“You Will” Documentary Distribution included an advertorial format that mirrored Wired’s editorial cover stories, social amplification of cut-downs through dark posts on @Wired (Facebook, Instagram) and on-site distribution via section takeovers, rotational high-impact units and pre-roll.

Paid Amplification via AT&T O&O Social Channels

Overall, the campaign proved to be a huge success, generating 75% positive sentiment for the brand. Front-end media metrics consistently outperformed benchmarks, with pre-roll video completion rates hitting upwards of 83% (70% Wired.com benchmark) and video completion rates of 12.8% (3.3% Wired.com benchmark, for videos of comparable length).

Per reporting from measurement partner Knotch, users spent upwards of 1:00 min with each content piece. And when it came to social, engaging promotional units and teaser videos captured users whose interest in the content drove them to the full .com experience

18.04% FB Video Click Rate | Short-form Teaser (benchmark: 7.64%)

21.41% IG Video Click Rate | Short-form Teaser (benchmark: 14.79%)

1.71% TW Engagement Rate | Mid-length Video (benchmark: 1.41%)

6.68% FB Canvas Unit ER (CN benchmark: 1.38%)