AT&T Business partnered with The Washington Post to showcase the power of 5G technology.
Objective:
The campaign's objective was to demonstrate how AT&T-powered 5G technology could fuel business transformation and innovation through an immersive two-year project with The Washington Post that enhanced the collaborative capabilities and field reporting coverage of the media outlet's dispersed workforce.
Target Audience:
By partnering with Washington Post, AT&T Business sought to demonstrate the promise of 5G to business and technology decision-makers.
Creative Strategy:
AT&T Business and The Washington Post partnered to power a modern newsroom across an immersive two-year project. Outfitting the paper's vast remote network with 5G, AT&T ensured the Post's reporting team was well-positioned to deliver insightful coverage on myriad topics — from the election to the unexpected COVID-19 response and recovery and more.
To illuminate the totality of the transformation at work in the newsroom, which was being powered by the established technology partnership, AT&T created a corresponding marketing and content strategy to help solve a recurring problem — namely, the fact that despite the marketplace hype around 5G, many business leaders didn't understand the real outcomes that it made possible.
Ultimately, this partnership would convey to other decision-makers the real-world business applications of 5G technology.
Context:
Though most are familiar with the term "5G," there's a gap between general awareness of what it is and its technological capabilities.
Additionally, at the onset of 2020, one of the most consequential elections was upon the United States. Americans were bound to seek credible news organizations to help them navigate a year of major events, which made quick communication, especially in a newsroom, crucial.
Overall Campaign Execution:
Working together, AT&T and The Washington Post developed a program that surrounded key news moments as well as offered rare behind-the-scenes glimpses into the newsroom to provide living, breathing use cases for the potential of 5G that business leaders could grasp.
To start, The Washington Post's most essential 2020 stories, from the prolonged effects of the pandemic to real-time election tracking, were published with a "Powered by AT&T 5G" attribution. These attributions didn't interfere with the editorial standards of The Washington Post; rather, they simply informed readers of how 5G could transform a publication's capabilities.
As part of the partnership, AT&T and The Washington Post also created an experimental Storytelling Lab to explore how 5G enhanced the newsroom, which empowered coverage of major news events and large-scale, deep-reaching editorial offerings, allowing readers to experience breaking news with greater empathy and understanding.
In 2020, the Lab project powered The Washington Post's "Road to Recovery" coverage. A written callout was then featured within the editorial stories highlighting the instrumental role AT&T Business played in producing them.
In 2021, the Storytelling Lab also showcased the current state of major transit systems in New York, D.C., and San Francisco, building an experience through which viewers could explore a visual map created from point-clouds, which morphed into representations of various transportation vehicles. Using AT&T 5G-enabled devices, journalists were able to capture, edit, and upload 3D images onsite from underground transit stations.
In addition, a series of corresponding custom content was created that dove deeper into AT&T Business 5G technology in the newsroom. These pieces explored how 5G was powering the future of modern journalism during crucial historical moments, giving a dispersed network of reporters the ability to keep up with the rapid real-time pace of significant information.
Other content explored technological innovations in newsrooms throughout history and how a small business could harness AT&T's next-generation technology to adapt and thrive in the COVID-19 era.
A particularly memorable multimedia project immersed viewers in an interactive video experience that traced The Washington Post's evolution from celebrated broadsheet to trusted live video newsroom, highlighting how AT&T 5G would continue to allow the team to experiment with live video in the future.
The partnership is continued to flourish in 2021, enabling premium digital stories around 5G technology.
Mobile Execution:
Each piece of rich multimedia content was designed responsively, with immersive video and interactive elements, which were just as appealing for mobile readers and viewers.
Additionally, an extensive social media rollout teased the collaboration, driving to the responsively designed articles and utilizing selections from the content to bring in social media viewers, incentivizing them to tap through.
