Celebrating those that play an integral role in our lives.
As the Official Accounting Services Partner of the Tony Awards since 2016, Grant Thornton wanted to demonstrate the firm’s independent, people-centric philosophy through its support of the Broadway community through a socially activated charitable campaign.
CLIENT
Grant Thornton
PROGRAM
Supporting Cast
DATE
June 2017
SERVICES
Strategy, Social Media, Talent
IMPACT
See the Results
No One Triumphs Alone
Whether it’s on stage or in everyday life, we share our successes with the people that push us to realize our true potential.
Each June, millions of people will tune in to celebrate the incredible talent within the theater community. Fans will wait with bated breath to find out if their favorite talents have won the ultimate honor in their field; the revered Tony Award. Behind the scenes, Grant Thornton is there, ensuring each and every win is undeniably accurate.
In 2017 we were tasked with activating Grant Thornton’s sponsorship of Broadway’s biggest night. Supporting Cast was a strategically-driven platform that showcased the brand’s overall support of both the Tony Awards and the greater Broadway community.
Donating to Theater
Every use of the #SupportingCast hashtag resulted in a charitable donation to our partners.
The campaign featured a fan-supported social challenge that would trigger donations to the Broadway League Foundation and the American Theatre Wing.
We helped Grant Thornton identify and manage partnerships with Laura Heywood and Rachel Potter—two well-established social media influencers in the theatre community—to amplify #SupportingCast online and on the red carpet.
In the run-up to the awards, Grant Thornton shared personal stories from 2017 Tony nominees to drive awareness of their campaign and encourage others to contribute their own stories about their #SupportingCast. In addition, GMR created original content featuring Laura and Rachel that engaged theatre fans across all social platforms.
Results
We couldn’t have done it without our supporting cast.
The brand broke through the clutter with a social media command center to capture and publish content and a Tonys Watch Party with Jennifer Ashley Tepper and Katie Dillon to generate conversation among theatre fans and get #SupportingCast to trend nationally and earn a significant share of voice during the 71st Annual Tony Awards.
The brand considers this one of its most successful sponsorships to date. Through the campaign, “Grant Thornton” was mentioned more often on the night of the Tony’s than any other day, going back to 2013, and drove well over 27 million earned media impressions.
Grant Thornton also exceeded its projected impressions by over 120% and achieved a share of voice of 1.72%—in comparison, PwC had a share of voice of 0.37% for the Oscars.
56 million
total campaign impressions
250k+
organic engagements with the brand
$2.24 million
net impact on client program sales
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