Historically, AARP and their state offices have partnered with the most iconic Black institutions to participate in over 300 in-person events a year. But when COVID-19 ensued, it became clear that in-person events would not only be impossible—they would also be life-threatening. In order to reach our community safely, we had no choice but to pivot AARP’s in-person event strategy into a “Digital First” strategy. 

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Their opening salvo was the livestream series, Real Conversations with AARP (RCW),  featuring a star-studded line-up of some of the best Black celebrities, experts, and community leaders in the world. Facebook’s AARP Black Community proved to be the perfect launchpad for the 50+ African American age demo to meet our target where they already were – online. 

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AARP's flagship show, Real Conversation With AARP (RCW), received over 2 million views

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Buoyant wanted to ensure that AARP was delivering content with higher production value than a typical Zoom video recording in order to drive engagement and aspirationally lift up the AARP brand. We also wanted to ensure that the online space was safer than it had been to date, as AARP had been receiving a barrage of spam seeking to lure their senior audiences off the AARP site. 

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Buoyant raised production values through employing state-of-the-art virtual production platforms for professional remote virtual production, as well as employing artificial intelligence to fight the stream of spam bots luring audiences away from the AARP Black Community page. In doing so, we changed the way AARP showed up for Black audiences altogether, creating the most successful online series in the history of AARP. 

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And now that we’re coming back into public spaces, Buoyant is booking studios for live video capture anywhere in the country, in multiple locations simultaneously, to capture any configuration of host and talent, whether they’re in the same room or in different regions of the country.

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Buoyant’s work in 2022 has been elevated to oversee production across the entire Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) category, including Hispanic/Latino (H/L), Asian-American Pacific-Islander (AAPI) and LGBTQ divisions.