HISTORY® premiered "Roots" on Memorial Day 2016, airing over four consecutive nights beginning Monday, May 30. The four-night, eight-hour event series developed by HISTORY® from A+E Studios is a historical portrait of American history and identity during American slavery. It's a story of perseverance by recounting one family's journey and their will to survive and ultimately carry on their legacy despite hardship. Translation teamed up with HISTORY® to create a content campaign to inspire a conversation about how identity.

MEDIA  Broadcast / Print / Digital / Social
ROLE  Group Creative Director
AGENCY  Translation

Roots began as Alex Haley’s journey to find own his identity and developed into a story of how identity extends beyond race, of how identity is more than skin deep. To prove this, we partnered with 23andMe, one of the leading personal genetic testing labs in the world, and invited cast and crew of the show to discover their own personal Roots through DNA testing.

The campaign ran on every media imaginable, across television, outdoor, print, digital and social media. The overall impressions and viewership was nothing short of spectacular, premiering to 8.5 million viewers, and marking the biggest overall crowd for a cable miniseries opening in three years. Overall, the entire series reached over 50 million viewers and inspired hundreds of articles in some of the most important media in the US, re-igniting the racial debate across the entire country.