The Compton Cowboys are a real group of young men in South Central L.A. whose lifestyle centres on saving horses from slaughterhouses, nursing them back to life, and riding them through gang-ridden streets. In a region known for crime and violence, they’re finding a way out of gang membership, and reviving a century-old culture of black horsemanship.

The voice-over is from an interview with one of the Cowboys, who says in his own words: “In Compton, you either join a gang, or you find another way to survive - you got to make your own path. A lot of horses around here are throwaway horses. My horse was headed for the slaughterhouse when I got her. I’ve seen horses bone dry…skinny…haven’t eaten in weeks…and we bring them back to life. I think maybe, did I save the horse, or did the horse save me?”

From the outset, the campaign was planned as content as much as a broadcast commercial, to provide deeper engagement for our audience. Planned additional shooting days and a second filming unit enabled us to capture documentary content that told the story in depth.

A series of four mini-documentary films were created, each telling a different side of the Cowboys’ story – ‘The Cowboys of Compton’, ‘The Horses of Compton’, ‘The People of Compton’, and ‘The Two Sides of Compton’.

The films were housed on Facebook and Instagram Canvas, as well as YouTube: allowing people to explore the story, with portraits and profiles of each of the Cowboys to introduce our documentary films

- The public shared their story through their own feeds, with views and interactions over-indexing by 59% amongst 25-34s.

- Our 3 minute documentary ‘The Cowboys of Compton’ outperformed all other videos with 117K organic views on YouTube in the first fortnight with an average view time of two minutes.

- Sentiment over 90% positive in GB and 86% in Ireland

- 31.9M IMPRESSIONS

- 8.8M VIDEO VIEWS

- Following the campaign Guinness Draught now 3rd biggest beer in the On Trade in GB.

- In Ireland the brand has arrested a decline in sales and NSV is now in growth.