For the ninth consecutive year, Special Olympics capitalized on the Super Bowl media environment to kick off another exciting year and promote the organization’s mission, 2022 USA Games in Orlando, 2022 Unified Cup in Detroit, 2023 World Games in Berlin and Sport, Leadership, Education and Health programming across six days of activation.
This year’s supporters were paired-up for Unified interviews with the real stars of the media tours, Special Olympics athletes. Our athletes—Stephanie Ching, Daniel Fundora, Justin Hunsinger, DJ Johnson, and Renee Manfredi—were once again eager to share their experiences and spread the word about the positive impact the organization has on their everyday lives, including how they continue to navigate the pandemic, keep up with their training schedules, and their dedication to leading healthy lifestyles.
Despite a challenging hybrid Radio Row environment, Special Olympics was able to successfully charter new waters alongside partners like WWE and NFL Foundation, and the growing FanSided relationship.
Notable accomplishments of this year’s Radio Row include, but are not limited to:
- Secured and facilitated over 50 interviews both nationally and internationally
- Executed nearly all interviews in a Unified manner to feature our athletes
- Special Olympics partnered with a record of 10 celebrity supporters including Champion Ambassadors Mack Hollins (Miami Dolphins), superstar triathlete Chris Nikic (Special Olympics Florida), Montell Jordan (Musician and Minister), Drew McIntyre (WWE Superstar), Gracie Hunt (Miss Kansas USA), and organization supporters, Elisabeth Rohm (Actress/Director), Emma Broyles (Miss America 2022), Kyle Freeland (Colorado Rockies Pitcher), and Big-E (WWE Superstar) as well as Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools’® very own Director of Urban Program Development and NFL Legend, Ray Roberts
- Earned a potential reach of nearly 1.2B (this means we reached many consumers multiple times)
- This year’s social content amassed a potential reach of 408K, 6.6K reactions, 7.07K engagements and over 20K video views across all posts
- Provided support to our partners WWE & NFL Foundation plus our growing FanSided relationship
- Agency support from Allison+Partners & BCW\
“Thank you so much for asking Kelsey. To be honest, I’m not real big on sports. Sports was something I was always left out of, even in school. Any time I tried to join in, I would mess up and the kids would always give you that sigh or scold or just laugh, so I never really got into it. But then my mom talked about Special Olympics and it was the only game in town for an adult that has an intellectual developmental disability. And as hesitant as I was, what did I have to lose? So, we went and it was like walking through a door into a world full of possibility and opportunity. I was welcomed for the first time ever in my life. I was accepted as I was. I was embraced as I was. People actually said, ‘It’s okay to just be you.’”
