Case Study
Young People Address the Nation
How we built a Webby Award-winning youth-led campaign that has reached 150K+ people and shifted the national conversation toward Gen Z priorities
At a Glance
Client:
Young People Address the Nation is a youth-led campaign that hosts actions in response to national moments lacking young people’s perspectives, including the annual Youth Response to the State of the Union.
What We Did:
End-to-end campaign development, video production, and partner coordination.
Headline result:
150K+ people reached, 50+ partner organizations, and a Webby Award win for Public Service & Activism.
The Challenge
A generation showing up at the polls, and missing from the conversation that followed.
In 2020, young people showed up to vote in historic numbers. But the voices of youth changemakers and their stories were consistently missing from key decision-making tables and the national conversation that shaped what came next. Career expertise was prioritized over lived experience, and the young leaders driving intersectional movements for racial equity, climate action, and systemic change were too often left out of the on-air commentary, op-eds, and policy discussions covering the issues they were leading on.
There was real interest across youth-focused organizations in creating moments that shifted national attention to the priorities of Gen Z leaders. What was missing was the platform, the infrastructure, and the strategic muscle to make it happen at scale.
The Gallery
The Work
Campaign development and project management
Spearheaded by our youth-led team, we led the strategy and execution for Young People Address the Nation from concept through delivery. We built the campaign architecture, managed day-to-day content scheduling, and ran the project end-to-end across multiple high-profile national moments, including the 100th day of the Biden-Harris administration in 2021 and the first-ever Youth Response to the State of the Union in 2022.
Video and livestream production
We led content production for the campaign's video segments and livestream programming, building intentional space for young leaders to react in real time to national moments. The 2022 State of the Union response featured over 30 young people from 26 states reacting in real time through themed panel discussions directly following President Biden's address.
Partner coordination at scale
We coordinated over 50 organizational partners and 60 young people to push content across social media in lockstep, building a distributed amplification network that mirrored the energy of grassroots organizing inside media channels. Past collaborators have represented more than 1.5 million young people across the country, including March For Our Lives, NAACP Youth & College Division, Future Coalition, and the Center for Native American Youth.
Pre-event, day-of, and post-event engagement
We developed and ran the campaign's full digital engagement strategy across every phase of each moment, building evergreen and repurposed content that extended the campaign's reach long after the cameras turned off and ensured each Address moment fed sustained narrative change rather than a single-day spike.
The Results
150K+ people reached.
Young People Address the Nation reached more than 150,000 young people and adult allies on social media, building a sustained platform for youth-led narrative change across multiple high-profile national moments.
A Webby Award for Public Service & Activism.
The Amplify Pledge team won an audience-voted Webby Award in 2022 for the campaign’s intentional approach to authentic youth engagement, and was featured on Youth.gov, AFRO News, and NBC LX News.
A coalition built to keep going.
Beyond the metrics, Young People Address the Nation built durable infrastructure that has powered the campaign forward year over year, with the 2024 Youth Response to the State of the Union engaging over 50K viewers and partnering with influencers carrying a combined reach of more than 600K followers.
The Context
In 2020, young people showed up to vote in historic numbers. However, the voices of youth changemakers and our stories were often missing in key decision-making tables and the national conversation. Using that as our drumbeat, there was interest across youth-focused organizations to create moments to shift attention to the priorities of Gen Z leaders.
The Project
Spearheaded by our youth-led team, we led the strategy and execution for Young People Address the Nation. In 2021, the first event was held on the 100th day of the Biden-Harris administration, and featured 30 young leaders on topics such as economic recovery and youth engagement across the federal government. On March 1, 2022, Young People Address the Nation presented the first-ever Youth Response to the State of the Union that featured over 30 young people from 26 states directly following President Biden’s State of the Union Address.
What We Did
Led campaign development, project management, and day-to-day content schedule
Led content production for video segments and live stream
Coordinated over 50 organizational partners and 60 young people to push content across social media
Led pre-event, day-of, and post-event digital engagement strategy, including developing evergreen and repurposed content
The Impact
Young People Address the Nation reached over 150K young people and adult allies on social media. In 2022, the Amplify Pledge team won a Webby Award and was featured in Youth.gov for our intentional approach to authentic-youth engagement.