u.s. department of veteran's affairs

the second thing

NOTE: This work is highly confidential. It has not launched yet. Please do not share with anyone else.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ main purpose is to take care of America’s 22 Million military Veterans
after they leave the military with benefits like health care, home loans and pensions.
But there’s a problem: 14 million Veterans haven’t applied for their benefits.

So, how do we encourage Veterans to apply?

We started with an emotional truth that all Vets share: The First Thing. Every Veteran had the first thing they did when
they left the military. They played catch with their son, ate a home cooked meal or just got on a motorcycle and rode, alone.
Then, we created a new thing — our call to action. We call it, “The Second Thing.”

The message: Vets, whatever your first thing was when you left the military, make applying for VA benefits The Second Thing.
We interviewed over 300 Veterans to get real first thing stories. Here’s the launch film we created with director Eliot Rausch.

Here are individual Veterans’ “First Thing Stories.”

We interviewed each Veteran about the benefits they are currently receiving to create a series of
“Second Thing Stories” about the available benefits.

TheSecondThing.gov

TheSecondThing.gov features the films along with tips to help Veterans do The Second Thing and apply for benefits.
The goal was to make it look nothing like a government website with modern design,
a friendly, easy-to-navigate UX and an authentic, friendly tone.

Vets can watch the launch film, with each scene linking to the real Vet interview the scene was based on.

We even featured Vets’ casting interviews to prove to an audience skeptical of big government that we used real Vets and real stories.

Print & OOH

shot by award winning photojournalist Ron Haviv.

CREDITS:

CCO: Ewan Paterson
CD/ART DIRECTOR: Alex Zamiar
CD/WRITER: Jonathan Richman
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Scott Kemper
EXECUTIVE DIGITAL PRODUCER: Jon Ellis
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Uber Content
DIRECTOR: Eliot Rausch
PHOTOGRAPHER : Ron Haviv
DIGITAL PRODUCTION COMPANY: Stink Digital