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.

Our app was for those who had already witnessed the greatness of Canada’s Paralympic athletes and would want to share this experience with others. So, our strategy was built around identifying these advocates and getting them to sign up. We broke this task into three distinct jobs to be done, 1) Find optimal candidates 2) Get them to our Become a Broadcaster site 3) Make participation easy.

A list of criteria for optimal candidates was created including following our Paralympians on social, visiting the Canadian Paralympic website, or seeking out Paralympic content. From there we developed a complimentary media plan to target and re-target these candidates at times and in places they would be most receptive to our message. Finally, once on our Become a Broadcaster site we would ensure sign up was as easy as possible with a streamlined and intuitive user flow.

Not enough people watch the Paralympics. Paralympians are world class athletes who have not only risen to the top of their respective sports but have overcome physical, social and societal adversity in the process. And one of the biggest hurdles to people watching the Paralympics in Canada is actually quite simple – much of it isn’t even broadcasted on TV. At the previous Winter Paralympics in 2014, less than 10% of the events were broadcasted on TV. In other words, even if someone wanted to support Canada’s Paralympians, it wasn’t even available on their TV sets.

Our challenge was to find a way to get our Paralympians the coverage they deserved, outside of traditional broadcast.