The goal was to raise awareness of AARP's efforts to protect Social Security. This was achieved by creating pages for people to contact their local congress members or pledge support. People were driven to these pages through print, video, photo and other assets on aarp.org, email and social channels.
AARP is seen as a fierce defender of Social Security. We amplified our advocacy efforts to protect Social Security from potential changes that could affect the lives of millions of people who rely on it as a source of income, many of which are AARP members. A potential change included cutting the ability to confirm identity over the phone while applying for benefits, and instead making them go online or in person, which AARP opposed. One of the challenges was measuring the level of response for a big organization and making sure that all messaging was consistent for an organization with hundreds of people working on this one effort.
Social media posts reached more than 2.5+ million people and garnered 240,000+ engagements. A live “town hall” style event had 55,000+ live viewers. AARP received more than 2 million pledges and had 2 million people reach out to Congress. The Social Security Administration rolled back their changes and allowed phone appointments to continue.
