THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

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Special Project

Special Project
From the 15th Annual Shorty Awards

FIRST®’s More Than Campaign

Audience Honor in Brand Awareness Campaign

Entered in Storytelling

Objectives

An alarming majority of children learn to doubt themselves, feel unworthy and fear shame, which holds them back from discovering untapped potential, passions and interest in their early stages of life.  FIRST® 's More Than campaign set out to address this cultural issue by inspiring young people with the message that they are more than the societal boxes designated to them. The goal was to not only prove to children that there is an inclusive community waiting for them in STEM, but to create brand awareness positioning FIRST® as the bridge to STEM engagement for the millions of young people who currently feel left out. 

More Than succeeded at this by taking an integrated approach to expanding its audience with paid media, earned placements, influencer partnerships and more.

Strategy and Execution

Since its inception, FIRST® has inspired young people to be leaders and innovators by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build STEM skills, inspire innovation, and foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership. 

The nonprofit’s campaign, More Than, is rooted in insights from surveys gathered by listening to students, educators, and experts about young people’s barriers to success. In fact, the Allison + Partners survey found that when it comes to extracurriculars, 29% of kids don’t feel smart enough to join a STEM program. This comes despite 54% of students stating they did, or would, want to join a STEM extracurricular to learn a new skill. 

American children are learning to doubt themselves because of fear from the judgment of others, which holds them back from exploring their interests, passions and potential at a formative age. Sometimes, and often by accident, children are made to feel like they aren’t good enough or the “right kind of kid” for a certain academic subject or extracurricular – negatively impacting their self-worth for a lifetime. This campaign is set to change that way of thinking.

As an organization passionate about preparing young people for tomorrow, we felt the need to bring awareness to the struggles happening among today’s youth, while offering solutions to parents and educators about how to build their self-esteem, especially through stem-related programs.   

More Than used a fully integrated approach with multi-channel tactics to emphasize to parents and educators the important role they have in supporting kids’ involvement in self-esteem-building activities. Facets of the campaign included: 

This was a collaborative effort made possible by several dedicated teams including STEM, communications and film professionals. Nation of Artists produced the PSA, while FIRST® and Headstand worked together to expand audience reach through earned media opportunities, paid ads, a satellite media tour, TV and social media influencer partnerships, community-centric talk sessions with leaders in the FIRST® community and more. 

Results

We saw an outpour of community support and excitement; members of the FIRST® community felt empowered to share their stories and we saw an influx of interest from new members, proving we were able to resonate with young people and the problems they face.

In addition: 

Media

Video for FIRST®’s More Than Campaign

Entrant Company / Organization Name

FIRST®, FIRST®

Links

Entry Credits