Millennial, Gen-X Opps: Special Olympics launches campaign amid CMO search (Score 58)

Sales Lead: As it seeks a new CMO, Special Olympics (SO) launched an awareness campaign that shows how it helps unite people amid division and isolation.

• Made with barrettSF, "Do Something Special" features real athletes and highlights the power of what's considered special.
• The organization will likely:
  • Continue rolling out new work
  • Implement additional strategy shifts
  • Keep increasing national TV spend
  • Seek new agency partners, especially once it finds a new CMO
• Target demographic: 
  • Older millennials and Gen-X

Additional spending insights:

• Broadcast insights (TV ad creative spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: So far this year, SO has allocated roughly $841.4k toward national TV commercials, already 4% more than the roughly $810.6k allocated in all of 2022.
  • Last year: The organization allocated around $810.6k toward this channel last year after having allocated much less, around $102.2k, in 2021.
  • 2023 ad programming: SO's 2023 commercials have targeted male sports enthusiasts watching shows such as NHL Hockey, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour, Athletes Unlimited Basketball, MLB Baseball, and Women's College Basketball.
• Digital and social insights (digital ad spend, effectiveness, impressions, and performance)
  • YTD spend: The organization has spent approximately $46.3k on digital ads YTD, a mere fraction of the approximately $267.4k spent by this point last year.
  • YTD data: Since the beginning of 2023, SO has earned ~7.7m digital impressions via Facebook (42%), desktop display (28%), Instagram (24%), mobile display (4%), and YouTube (2%) ads.
    • Top site destinations for this year's desktop display ads include chicago.suntimes.com (41%), earthlink.net, suntimes.com, cnn.com, and kohls.com.
  • Last year: The organization's estimated full-year 2022 spend decreased by 31% to $495.7k from that of $721.2k in 2021.
• Additional channel insights  
  • SO utilizes Google Ads along with email, print, digital, local broadcast, and OOH ads.
  • The organization sponsors podcasts such as The Fighter & The Kid, Marketplace All-in-One, The Howie Carr Radio Network, The Sports Junkies, and Marketplace Morning Report.

Additional agency insights:

• Opportunity: If you haven't yet done so, reach out soon to remain top-of-mind when SO selects a new CMO to succeed incumbent Kelli Green Seely.
  • BarrettSF seems like a relatively new agency partner, but we will let you know what we confirm.
• Current agency roster:
  • ​​​​​​​barrettSF: Agency partner (at least for this campaign project)
  • Publicis West: Creative and social agency partner
  • Uproar: PR agency partner

Insight Sources: Broadcast insights estimated by iSpot; digital spend insights estimated by Pathmatics; email marketing insights by Bombora; additional channel insights estimated by Vivvix; podcast insights by Podchaser.