D-Day 80

Executive Summary

The Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day, held at Normandy American Cemetery on June 6, 2024, marked a pivotal moment for the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) to captivate global audiences. This heightened visibility served as a prominent platform for ABMC to amplify its mission, vision, and values through extensive earned media coverage and owned media content.

The ABMC Public Affairs and Pinkston worked together to formulate and execute strategic initiatives to raise awareness among both new and existing audiences. These efforts included orchestrating earned media interviews and placing op-eds featuring Secretary Djou and ABMC Commissioners, crafting impactful videos highlighting WWII veterans and next of kin survivors, and disseminating compelling content across social media platforms. For example, the Flagship video created by Pinkston was played directly preceding President Biden’s speech and picked up by both CNN and Fox.

When compared to the 75th anniversary, the communications campaigns generated a more than 600% increase in ABMC mentions in earned media coverage, an 80% rise in video views, nearly a 40-fold surge in social media click-through rates, a strong engagement rate of 7.3% (exceeding the industry average of 1-5%), and a substantial social media audience growth of over 6,700 during the week of D-Day 80.