Be The One
Discipline: Campaign Development · Brand Strategy · Art Direction · Toolkit Design
The Challenge
During the global COVID-19 pandemic, we were hired as a subcontractor to partner with creative agency Soze and lead the creative direction for a contact-tracing brand campaign. The deliverable was a white-label campaign and toolkit for the hard-hit minority communities of Suffolk County, New York and Philadelphia — a guide for messaging the importance of trusting the call from your local contact tracer. It had to connect across a wide demographic, from youth to older adults, many of whom had good reason to distrust the federal government. The real challenge was trust itself: debunking misinformation and cutting through confusion at a moment when fear and statistics dominated every conversation.
Our Approach
We knew data alone wouldn't move people, so we went beyond the numbers. Following the lead of the CDC and local agencies, we set out to build a program that could earn public trust — and we anchored it in a simple human truth: most people want to be helpful. Rather than lead with fear or statistics, we reframed contact tracing as an act of care for your own community, and built the "Be the One" campaign and toolkit around that heroic, triumphant, fearless, and confident spirit.
The Result
Be the One tested well in the key regions and among the intended demographic — and the takeaway that mattered most came straight from respondents: instead of feeling hopeless, the campaign made them feel empowered to help their community. By leading with human truth over data, we turned a public-health necessity into a message people wanted to act on — proof of what culture-first creative can do in service of community trust.
