THE BACKGROUND

Our team discovers and invests in the development of stories we believe have potential for breakthrough entertainment as well as an opportunity for brands to amplify their messaging. Team Rubicon and it’s incredible mission is one of those narratives. They are a non-profit group that unites the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams to communities affected by natural disasters, as well as giving veterans a new sense of purpose.

In the summer of 2017, we started shooting a Team Rubicon documentary with Kief Davidson, Oscar-nominated director of The Ivory Game. We greenlit the project three weeks before Hurricane Harvey hit, and we were there alongside the veteran volunteers for their journey and some incredibly emotional moments. At the time, we did not have a brand partner attached, but two months later and only a few weeks before the MLB World Series. T-Mobile announced their new campaign focused on Hurricane Relief.

THE CAMPAIGN

T-Mobile, already on the ground aiding in recovery efforts, we saw an opportunity to use its MLB platform on FOX during the playoffs to raise money and awareness for long term hurricane recovery efforts. #HR4HR was born and executed only days before the MLB Postseason with a simple premise—T-Mobile would donate $10,000 for every home run hit throughout the playoffs, plus an additional dollar every time fans tweeted the hashtag. One of the charities that would benefit from the fundraising was – Team Rubicon.

We shared our early rough-cuts of the Team Rubicon footage with our T-Mobile partners and they were on board. We created mini- docs that ran during commercial breaks with our emotional footage and CTAs for fans to tweet #HR4HR from home. On-air commentary from FOX SPORTS talent further amplified the message and focus on Team Rubicon’s mission.

THE RESULTS

#HR4HR made hurricane recovery part of the in-game action and T-Mobile doubled down on their pledge during the World Series by donating $20,000 for every home run and $2 for every hashtag use. The campaign added to the entertainment value of every game, giving fans a reason to participate in a second screen experience throughout the playoffs. Overall we raised more than $3M for Team Rubicon, garnered 2B social impressions, and 770K tweets from fans. The campaign lead to a commitment from T-Mobile to spend more than 30% of their total marketing spend in 2018 on cause oriented marketing.