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VIVE LA LIBERTY
The Project
This summer, the French Embassy and Consular network in the US welcomed a transatlantic traveler who closely resembled a favorite old friend. Dubbed #Liberty2021, the voyager was an original Bartholdi made from an 1878 plaster model at 1/16th of the size of the iconic Statue of Liberty. Over the course of a few months, the artifact moved with shipping company CMA-CGM from LeCNAM museum in Paris through Le Havre Port and onwards for a short stay on Ellis Island in New York. Finally, it reached its new home at the French Ambassador's residence in Washington, D.C. The operation was a fantastic example of international cooperation, and it had a great visual element: who doesn't feel drawn into a story with a beautifully lit photo a brand new Lady Liberty?
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Even so, the project posed a few critical challenges: at just over nine feet tall, this scale model is a sight to behold, but it is perceived as small because of the mythical size of what we called its "older sibling." Outside of the statue's diminutive dimensions, little Lady Liberty was also lessened by her history. She is a prototype of the work of art envisioned by Bartholdi and Eiffel. Lastly, her arrival lacked significance. When the first Lady Liberty traversed the Atlantic, it was to congratulate the United States on surviving itself and for sticking to the cause of democracy. Lesser Liberty arrived after a period of pandemic, but only after that chapter had closed for the western world. Even concerning Franco-American history, there was no centennial to celebrate.
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So how does one tell a story that is at times both historic and emotive and limiting and particular? Our team at France in the US took four approaches: historic vignettes, real-time reporting, guest influencers and a creative contest. As the editor in chief of our social media content, I wrote all of the text for the operation, created all of the graphics, collected and chose each photo and communicated with partners and influencers to grow our reach. I also worked on-site at the events that welcomed Little Liberty to the US in New York City and in Washington, D.C.
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Below, I will demonstrate the ways in which I wrote this story.
History Repeats
An important aspect of the campaign was to remind our audience of the history of the original Statue of Liberty and what it means for French-American friendship. For example, our hashtag #Liberty2021 reflected multiple angles of our diplomatic relationship: the word "liberty" recalled the spirit of the first Bartholdi built on Franco-American founding values, and the year recalled the modernity of the operation taking place in the 21st century.
In daily posts on the statue, I sought to include older anecdotes that would provide a history lesson while giving our followers food for thought on freedom in today's world. This is demonstrated in our post on Juneteenth.
Remote Reporting
To keep our audiences engaged in the ongoing narrative of the statue, I relied on my journalistic training to tell the statue's story in a way that was informative, active and engaging. This meant reminding our audience of the significance of the Statue in simple terms and phrases like, "an original Bartholdi, Lady Liberty's Little Sister or an embodiment of Franco-American friendship." In the meat of the text, I dove into the most urgent and active update to the story like a location and, if needed, a summary of the significance of the location. Lastly, I made sure to remind our audience of future changes or opportunities like the ability to see the statue in person or the next stop on its voyage.
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Concerning production, I had to be extremely organized to coordinate with the communications teams of the shipping company and French representatives who were separated from me by an ocean and six hours of time difference. Any requests for images needed to be made about a day in advance, and any request for information needed to account for time for translation from French technical shipping terms into English layman's terms. The result were posts like the one on the left.
Growing Influence
To grow the reach of our campaign outside of our typical Francophone/Francophile circles, our team chose to tap partners and influencers, particularly for our New York event on Ellis Island. This stop on the voyage held the greatest storytelling potential given the history of immigration on Ellis and the proximity of the old and new Bartholdi. Given the love that native New Yorkers have for the Statue of Liberty, we felt that local photographers would tell the narrative in a fresh and compelling way. The question then became: how do we get them to attend and share our little liberty?
For the influencers in New York, my social team and I created a program that would offer them exclusive access to the original Statue of Liberty in exchange for real-time reporting and posting about #Liberty2021. Our plan was a success, and throughout the duration of the inauguration event on Ellis Island, I shared stories on Instagram from the influencers that documented the installation and recounted history. As well, the photographers later posted photos on their Instagram timelines and directed their followers to our account. In the span of just a couple of days, our following grew from 14.6k to 14.8k, and many individuals outside of the France in the US network were introduced to #Liberty2021.
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A Creative Contest
The last part of our outreach was a creative contest that asked our followers to submit original pieces of writing, art, song or dance that emulated the Statue of Liberty or embodied the values for which she stands. For this campaign, I wrote the launch copy and created the logo along with contacting contest partners to secure prizes.
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The result was a stunning collection of art pieces that brightened our timeline and increased engagement, specificially when we chose to post a "top ten" for our followers to vote upon by liking a photo.
