Cicada Summer

As an historic cicada “double brood” event approached, in which billions of cicadas were set to emerge across 17 U.S. states, Raid wanted to inform nervous residents about what they should and should not be worried about and guide them on ways to keep their homes and families safe—not from cicadas, which are harmless, but from the numerous pests that are attracted to cicadas.

After gathering expert insights from entomologists, the NBC News Brand Studio created an engaging multimedia infographic that explained the patterns of periodic cicadas, whether they posed any risk to humans, when the event would occur across affected areas and what individuals in those areas could expect—including the potential for swarms of wasps, ants and oak leaf itch mites. The infographic also included audio of the cacophonous cicada mating call, a timelapse video of a cicada molting and preparedness tips, including Raid products that can keep at bay any unwanted pests attracted by cicadas.

The infographic ran on TODAY.com and was translated to Spanish to reach Raid’s target audience on Telemundo.com. Rich Media Stories units provided useful snippets from the infographic, engaging readers to click through to the full piece.

The content performed extremely well, far exceeding benchmarks across all KPIs, including average attention time +226%, CTR +127%, Stories unit engagement rate +56% and FB engagement 336%.