Keep Running to the Global Goals
A success story of partnering with a popular TV show to promote the Sustainable Development Goals
In 2018, I was assigned by the UN Office in Vienna as the focal point to coordinate with Zhejiang Satellite TV station and seven celebrities for the filming of a special episode of one of the most popular variety shows in China — Keep Running, on the topic of the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Brief & idea.
The popular Chinese youth variety TV show ‘Keep Running’ is watched by millions in China and beyond. The seven leading Chinese celebrities featured in the show have a combined social media following of more than 500 million people. My responsibilities spanned from itinerary planning to coordinating behind the scenes, and from acting in front of the camera to carrying out co-promotional activities. Web stories about this event have been published by the UN, UNOV, and UNODC.
For this episode, we developed two parts. The first part was a tour at the Vienna International Center, involving six UN organizations and one head of agency. I presented the storyline and requirements of the TV programme to UNOV and communicated the difficulties of operating some of the expectations from the TV. After the approval of the filming proposal, I designed a filming itinerary with the Visitor Service that was realistic and accomodating to both sides.
Following the tour, we held an SDG Youth Forum the same evening at the Cityhall of Vienna, involving Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. The celebrities delivered their speeches on the Sustainable Development Goals before audience of more than 500 people. They were joined by six speakers from different Vienna-based UN organizations who spoke about their work to achieve the Goals.
To make this happen, I first communicated the idea of the Sustainable Development Goals to the TV. I proofread the speeches of the celebrities and plugged in some of the essential concepts before the filming took place. We also had a series of discussions on the branding placement for the venue set-up of the SDG Youth Forum in order to make sure that it stayed in line with the UN rules and branding guidelines.
Result.
This significant filming project for the influential variety show “Keep Running”, in result, received 500 million webcast viewership in the first three days. The project has been prominently featured in the USG for Global Communications presentation to the Committee on Information in 2018. More info here.
