We found two Special Olympic athletes (and zombie filmmakers) who had already taken the Internet by storm. Meet Sam and Mattie. Best friends who met at Special Olympics, with their own production company, and community of followers, they were the perfect spokes-dudes to engage the SO community and challenge societal perceptions. With the use of Microsoft devices, they captured athlete stories in the run up to, and during the 2015 Summer Games in a way no other ‘traditional’ broadcasters could achieve. The content was all their own making and worked powerfully to shift ingrained perceptions of our athletes and the wider community of those with ID.

In the build up to the World Games in LA in July 2015, we learnt the stories of athletes from US, UK, China and Australia, as they prepared for the biggest challenge of their lives. Their journey was captured by themselves, their family and their coaches and edited into films of their herculean training efforts, ambitions and anxieties in the run up to the games.

With the help of Microsoft devices they captured content through Skype, personal recording and pictures taken in the months prior to the games. From May, content was amplified in short chapters through social channels, Microsoft.com, Special Olympic sites and paid for media and at the event / scoreboards. This enabled us to tell their stories in a way that connected with people outside of Special Olympics communities (as well as from within), who could relate to the challenges faced by all athletes.

Video engagement reached 7.4m, with 18.2m overall impressions (CPE of $0.05). Microsoft’s campaign was the most influential of all SO corporate partner campaigns generating the same level of engagement with the general population as we did from the Special Olympic community with 81% saying they would seek to find out more.

Nielsen data shows the 2015 World Games drove an increase in perceptions of the capabilities of people with ID on many measures including attending college, handling money, and living independently with an increased number of households who said they would feel comfortable being friends with and/or including individuals with ID in their lives.

It was also hugely successful for Microsoft with a significant positive net impact on favourability (+5), likelihood to consider purchase (+4), and likelihood to defend the brand (+10) - achieving MSFT’s highest online positive sentiment at 88%.