Bank of America believes that when people with intellectual disabilities are given the chance, they can achieve more than others think possible. To prove to an audience of millions, we worked with ESPN to give a former Special Olympics athlete the opportunity to sit at the anchor desk and be the first ever analyst with intellectual disabilities at the 2015 Special Olympics World Games.

Dustin Plunkett was a member of ESPN’s live team covering the opening and closing ceremonies, he also worked in studio as part of the nightly highlight show, and taped segments with athletes, families, and volunteers at venues throughout the Games.

To complement Dustin’s on-air role, we wanted to reach a highly engaged sports enthusiast audience. Starting with the Unified Relay through the closing ceremony of the World Games, we drove awareness of Bank of America’s commitment to Special Olympics and Dustin’s story through high visibility ad placements across display, social and search, including ESPN’s digital platform, MLB social channels and Bank of America social channels. Our content featuring Dustin was more authentic and native to ESPN’s Special Olympics digital experience, leading to higher, more quality engagement.

• 140MM media Impressions across digital & traditional channels

• Special Olympics partnership drove appreciation for Bank of America, resulting in above-average sentiment scores and brand impact  (+4.59 Bank of America and Special Olympics sentiment, +.11 Impact)

• Impacting brand conversation – the World Games posted the highest impact by time period and was the shortest period overall.  Bank of America ranked 3rd in social mentions during the Games with fewer than 1% of mentions being negative.

• Dustin’s video on the About Bank of America site outperformed historical benchmarks with a 61% completion rate and continues to be the most played video on the site.