UNC Carolina Heroes Social Media Campaign
During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, The University of North Carolina communications department developed a social media campaign to honor the efforts of faculty, staff and essential workers at the university as well as health care workers at UNC Health. The campaign’s call-to-action asked Tar Heels everywhere to post on their social media platforms a picture of themselves wearing Carolina blue and a message of appreciation, using the hashtag #CarolinaHeroes.
Instagram story
Facebook and Twitter artwork
Animated “Super Ramses” GIF sticker
The Work
The social media campaign launched on April 28, 2020, which was also National Superhero Day. As a tie-in to this holiday, the campaign artwork uses a distinct comic book theme. Pop art elements (halftone patterns, bright colors, thick lines) are used to create an uplifting, optimistic message. The artwork was scaled for each major social media platform – Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
UNC’s The Well newsletter homepage
Social media activity
The Results
The multi-platform effort vividly demonstrated the immense value of the heroic work being done by Carolina’s faculty, staff, essential workers and health care workers; mobilized the Carolina community into a powerful, visible show of support for their fellow Tar Heels; and created a morale boost during a difficult time.
The response was clear and overwhelming:
More than 420 public uses of the #CarolinaHeroes hashtag on the day of the event
Trending topic in the Raleigh/Chapel Hill area on Twitter.
More than 39,000 engagements with public uses of the #CarolinaHeroes hashtag on social media.
A potential reach of more than 15 million users on public posts that used the #CarolinaHeroes hashtag across social media.
More than 370,000 views of the #CarolinaHeroes gif sticker.
A potential earned media reach of 854,000 people.
More than 3,600 page views of #CarolinaHeroes content on UNC.edu and thewell.unc.edu.