Five years ago CHWA reimagined the long-standing partnership between the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) and Chevrolet, creating Discover the Unexpected (DTU): a living embodiment of what it means to “Find New Roads.” Developed for Chevrolet as an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) fellowship program, DTU’s purpose is to create and share optimistic stories while reinforcing Chevrolet’s continued commitment to the African American community.

The DTU Fellowship:

This program offers HBCU journalism students an opportunity to intern with Black-owned newspapers and break meaningful and positive stories about the community. It provides the students the mentorship necessary to develop marketable skills as they transform into full-time journalists in an already hyper-competitive news landscape. Our key challenges included:

1. Running a predominantly virtual internship in the midst of a pandemic.
2. Expanding from 6 to 10 fellows.
3. Introducing a Corporate Internship track.
4. Offering a Thursday night lecture series.
5. Reimagining DTU content to engage the audience with the Chevrolet EV Bolt.

Creative Objective

• Build a program launch rebrand under Chevrolet’s Real Talk, Real Change initiative.
• Create access and opportunity to employment in industries that are actively evolving.
• Increasing African American engagement with Chevrolet electric vehicles – in particular, the all-new Chevrolet Bolt EV.

“What’s Cool About Electric?”

• DTU content has traditionally centered around our journalism fellows taking a road trip around the country, interviewing leaders in their community who are living Chevrolet’s mantra, “Find New Roads,” to uplift their community. However, under the Real Talk, Real Change expansion DTU looked to increase electric vehicle (EV) awareness in African American and HBCU audiences through socio-educational content.
• “What’s Cool About Electric?” used NNPA fellows to encourage the consideration of EVs for communities of color by educating viewers on the direct impact driving an EV can have on their community’s health, empowerment, and trendsetting mindset.

Solutions

DTU: Journalism Track (Content Creation)

Chevrolet offered 5 fellowship spots to the content creator track. Content creators interned for the NNPA. Fellows created news content as well as weekly updates on the official social channels. Fellows also got access to a Chevrolet Bolt EV for one week to create marketing content under the guidance of Chevrolet Marketing.

DTU: Corporate Internship Track

Chevrolet offered fellowships to 5 HBCU students for 10 weeks fellows worked in their department of choice and focused on Chevrolet’s journey to electric. Eligible fellows in the corporate internship track could earn full-time employment.

DTU: Thursday Night Sessions

Fellows met for a 60-minute long virtual mentorship session for 10 weeks, curated and led by a DTU Ambassador. Sessions included celebrity guests and leadership executives from Chevrolet partners.

Achievements

• Significant lifts across EV brand metrics of awareness, and opinion.
• Social content moved middle-funnel metrics like Opinion, and video moved upper-funnel metrics like Unaided Awareness.
• The audience rated creative favorably; in particular with digital and social channels playing a formidable role in spreading awareness of the program as a whole.