ONE BILLION IMPRESSIONS
ONE BILLION IMPRESSIONS. One billion. It’s an incredible amount. It means that we’re on to something. That the right eyeballs are finding their way to Better Make Room’s message. That we’re breaking through to those we serve. Our journey to a billion has been wildly important for education around America, and to us as an agency.
When we got a call from the White House a few years ago, we answered promptly. A small-but-incredibly-mighty creative agency of eleven people headed over to the 16 00 Pennsylvania Avenue to join the fight for the future of education in America. Working with Michelle Obama and some clever co-conspirators (the fantastic Ell Creative, Always Creative, Primer Grey and Poetic Systems), Better Make Room was born. The campaign created an engagement layer to the First Lady’s Reach Higher initiative, encouraging students in high school to seek out higher education in whatever form serves them best. The idea was to give young people a space to inspire each other and access the resources they need on their journey
Since the campaign launched in 2015, we’ve been living, breathing, sleeping and drinking in education in America—talking with counselors, educators, students and parents across this great nation. We learned about the obstacles students face when thinking about higher education. We heard their struggles and cheered at their triumphs. Education, after all, is one of the biggest advantages you can have in life. It’s the spark that gets people moving and the fire that inspires them to change the world around them. Education gives you the chance to become more than what you’ve always been. And that’s an idea that infuses every component of the Better Make Room campaign.
Better Make Room serves to unite students who are facing similar challenges, bringing them together in a space where they can create, connect and make a commitment to their future. Fueled by user-generated content and the spirit of community, the Better Make Room movement elevates those who are continuing their education to the level of celebrity status, as if to say to the world, “you’d better make room, because this person is about to arrive.”
As you all know, 2017 brought with it some changes to the world, to our nation and to our campaign. Some of you may be wondering, “I thought this was a White House campaign, and you were working with Michelle Obama. But what now? Are you working with her still? Or are you working with the White House?”
Well, we’ve got answers. Better Make Room, It’s On Us and Heads Up America are a few of the campaigns that live with Civic Nation, a nonprofit that’s been with us since the get-go. With Michelle Obama on the board of Civic Nation, these campaigns are still very much a part of a legacy project from the Obama Administration.
Since the launch of the campaign, we’ve launched students’ voices to the WORLD. We’ve worked with valuable partners around the nation to launch big events, new initiatives and inspiring PSAs. We’ve recruited celebrities to join the campaign. We launched our Better Make Room Student Advisory Board. We’ve launched nationwide essay contests through Seventeen Magazine and MTV Founders. We launched Up Next, a texting initiative that provides resources for students. We’ve put on Texas-sized events in New York for National College Signing Day and invited students to the White House for Beating the Odds. We’ve seen thousands of students make commitments to their futures, plan for college, apply for their FAFSA (early!) and lock their eyes on the future, where they have the potential to be whatever it is that they want to be.
And as we celebrate a billion of those eyes already upon Better Make Room’s message, we’re excited to see what the next billion impressions will bring.