Giving Christmas a Personal Touch
Giving Machines
#GiveThanks
Gratitude Goes Viral
The Challenge
In the autumn of 2020, after months of pandemic isolation, President Russell M. Nelson of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints proposed something simple: a worldwide prayer of gratitude, offered during the Thanksgiving season. We had just a few months to build a global campaign around it, localizing the message and coordinating a simultaneous launch across dozens of languages and every major platform. Failure meant missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share hope with millions worldwide.
The Insight
After a year of hardship, people didn’t want to hear another bulletin or receive a message from an institution. Especially a religious one. We realized we needed to reframe gratitude as something universal, not denominational. If the message was an invitation for anyone to join, it could reach well beyond the Church’s audience.
The Solution
Boncom created #GiveThanks, a hashtag campaign that launched with the global video release of President Nelson's message and prayer. His video went live simultaneously across YouTube, social platforms, and Church-owned apps, unified by a worldwide countdown. We produced short-form videos, paid ads, interactive social content, and email assets localized into dozens of languages. Each piece encouraged viewers to share their gratitude on personal social media accounts for seven days. As people posted about their own experiences, their networks did too, creating a wave of self-amplifying kindness across every major platform.
The Outcome
The campaign reached far past the Church’s membership, proving that a message of faith could still change worldwide behavior, if paired with the right insight.
* 410M+ total impressions across all channels
* 66M video views across platforms
* #GiveThanks trended on Twitter's top 10 topics throughout the seven-day campaign
* 3.4M posts on Instagram alone
