In October 2024, FIRST, a global robotics community that prepares young people for the future, launched the “Get Anywhere” campaign. “Get Anywhere” was driven by the pervasiveness of the STEM workforce skills shortage, which begins with young people expressing interest in STEM careers but falling out of the pipeline before graduating high school. Gen Z students are interested in STEM fields but are getting insufficient exposure to relevant subjects and opportunities, which negatively impacts their ability to see themselves in these roles: Only 29 percent of Gen Z students cite STEM jobs as their top career choices, despite 75 percent being interested in these fields.
"Get Anywhere" was designed to help students and adult caregivers explore the wide range of STEM careers and academic paths while highlighting how FIRST preK-12 robotics programs equip young people with critical skills for success beyond high school. It highlighted STEM’s role across various industries, including those not traditionally thought of requiring STEM skills, such as performing arts, apparel design, and auto racing, and emphasized that young people don’t need to have everything figured out because STEM can help them ‘get anywhere.’
The campaign aimed to raise young people’s awareness of STEM’s real-world applications, boost their confidence to pursue STEM learning, and help further position FIRST programs as a key solution. We had three main objectives: building awareness among key audiences, reinforcing FIRST reputation, and nurturing engagement.
The "Get Anywhere" campaign embraced a fully integrated communications approach, maximizing its reach across paid, owned, shared, and earned media to engage a wide audience. At its core, the campaign featured an aspirational video series spotlighting professionals from leading global brands such as John Deere, RTX, and Nike whose careers and experiences exemplify the excitement and diverse opportunities within STEM fields. The FIRST alumni cast represented a broad range of industries, from blue-collar to white-collar professions, and highlighted various backgrounds, including gender, ethnicity, socioeconomics, and demographics. This diverse representation emphasized the vast potential of STEM education, with each alum sharing their own unique story in additional videos that further highlighted the individualized paths STEM can offer.
The paid component of the campaign played a crucial role in its success, with a multichannel distribution strategy that reached millions of potential parents, volunteers, corporate sponsors and other adult supporters. We launched a national television advertising campaign featuring a 30-second ad on “TODAY” and “Good Morning America,” and partnered with Fast Company to amplify “Get Anywhere” video content to innovation-minded parents and those interested in supporting STEM initiatives, both of which yielded nearly 8M impressions each. From an earned perspective, we secured an interview for FIRST founder and legendary inventor Dean Kamen in Fast Company’s popular "Modern CEO" newsletter, which reached 25M through email distribution and placement on FastCo.com and Inc.com. Dean’s feature also included a video – Modern CEO’s first-ever foray into video companion pieces – which was published separately and also embedded in the web stories and recut for social media.
To extend the reach of the "Get Anywhere" campaign, FIRST CEO Chris Moore contributed an article to the Forbes Business Council in which he discussed the role of the business community in helping students navigate the broad spectrum of STEM-related career paths and provided examples of how business leaders can contribute to strengthening the STEM talent pipeline.
The campaign also spotlighted key corporate supporters such as 3M, Molex, Novelis and Optimum. Through authentic storytelling, these brands highlighted their employees’ journeys and demonstrated the importance of STEM skills in creating unique career pathways within their organizations. These stories reinforced the central message of the campaign that STEM education opens doors to diverse and meaningful careers, regardless of one’s background. Optimum also contributed national and regional broadcast PSA campaigns to help extend campaign reach.
To generate engagement among potential adult supporters and parents, we implemented a digital strategy aimed at driving traffic to the campaign's dedicated "Get Anywhere" landing page. This strategy included national and regional traffic drivers through our Fast Company partnership, social media content, and video assets. We also leveraged our own social media channels to amplify the campaign, including Instagram Live activations with respected STEM personalities, campaign videos, graphic posts, and story-driven Q&As. These efforts helped generate ongoing interest and facilitated engagement with both prospective participants and supporters, furthering the campaign’s goals of broadening awareness, inspiring action, and nurturing involvement in FIRST programs.
The "Get Anywhere" campaign by FIRST generated significant exposure among target audiences, amassing a staggering 40.5 million impressions from earned and paid partnerships, including its national television advertising campaign featuring a 30-second ad on the TODAY Show and Good Morning America, which reached over 7.7 million viewers nationwide, and its integrated partnership with Fast Company, which also yielded nearly 8 million impressions. The campaign also garnered 300.3K video views across Fast Company, YouTube, and the FIRST social channels and landing page. We also fed strong social media buzz, generating 675.8K+ social impressions across all FIRST-owned platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, X and Threads).
To raise awareness among those who might participate in FIRST as adult supporters and engage their children, we implemented a digital strategy designed to drive traffic to the “Get Anywhere” landing page, leveraging national and regional traffic drivers, along with social media and owned tactics such as targeted newsletters, internal communications and sponsor relations. Curiosity turned into action as the landing page received 23.6K views, with users spending an impressive average of 3.3 minutes on the page. This led to 1,057 people taking the next step and filling out a form to learn more about FIRST, with 66% of those submissions from new contacts. Of the form submissions, 24% expressed interest in starting a FIRST team, demonstrating the campaign’s effectiveness in driving engagement and brand awareness.
