Together with Special Olympics, we created a movement for inclusion and respect, staging the first-ever cross-country torch relay, the Unified Relay Across America (URAA). We recruited and organized more than 20,000 athletes and volunteers to walk, run, and wheel the “Flame of Hope” through all 50 states to start the World Games in LA.

To raise awareness for the 46-day relay and bring the movement to life, we created a multi-channel campaign called #PassTheFlame, connecting people everywhere to the torch relay, the World Games, and the mission of our work: to break down the stigma and stereotypes associated with ID.

At the heart of the campaign were powerful stories told by Special Olympics athletes, volunteers, coaches, ect., communicated through TV commercials, a groundbreaking partnership with ESPN, short films on Facebook and YouTube, in person at relay events, and via real-time updates along the relay route on Vine, Instagram, and Twitter.

Our belief: the wider the reach, the bigger the impact. We tapped every possible avenue for exposure, from traditional paid media, to owned and earned channels, to UGC.

- In May, a TV spot featuring Special Olympics athlete and Bank of America employee, Kenny Jones, launched the campaign by asking viewers to join the #PassTheFlame movement.

- Throughout 2015, a series of Special Olympics athlete stories ran on BofA’s social and digital channels.

-We arranged the first-ever World Games coverage on ESPN by a Special Olympics athlete. Dustin Plunkett appeared daily as an ESPN analyst to share feature stories.

-Thousands of Bank of America Banking Centers used window and in-store displays to bring the #PassTheFlame movement to millions of customers and encourage participation, resulting in 62,947 relay attendees across 138 cities.

- 3,000 Bank of America employees volunteered to make the Games safer and better organized for athletes and fans.

In the end, 10 million Facebook and YouTube video views, 195 million media impressions, and thousands of miles carrying the Flame of Hope across America added up to the largest fundraising event in Special Olympics history, raising $4.3 million.

Most importantly, the partnership helped change hearts and minds. Pre- and post-campaign attitudinal tracking clearly showed important gains in understanding and awareness around intellectual disabilities, including a 7% (8.7 million people) increase in U.S. Households who identified as knowing a coworker, neighbor, or friend with ID.

For Bank of America, the work earned a 4.5% lift in positive online sentiment as conversation topics in owned social channels shifted from day-to-day financial matters to our role in sparking real social change. Internally, the campaign galvanized hundreds of our employees with ID as they lead and inspired 20,000 participants through all 50 states to start L.A.’s largest sporting event since the 1984 Olympics.