Background

In Australia, enrolments in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) degrees are at their lowest level in two decades. Children between the age of 8 – 12 years old are increasingly opting out of STEM subjects at school, leaving huge gaps in participation in STEM careers. This is particularly true for females, who account for less than a third of total enrolments in STEM university degrees and are hugely underrepresented in STEM roles. With demand for STEM-related jobs growing significantly faster than other occupations (+10.8% by 2023), it is imperative that we change this. Our objectives were therefore simple: • To increase interest in STEM subjects amongst children 8-12, especially girls. • To change perceptions of STEM subjects and careers amongst children 8-12.

Describe the cultural / social / political climate in your region and the significance of your campaign within this context

To understand why children were opting out of STEM, we spoke to them firsthand: visiting schools, conducting observations, and organizing several interviews. We uncovered three key findings: 1. STEM subjects are inherently seen as ‘boys subjects’ 2. STEM pathways are perceived to be linear (i.e. I only study science if I want to be a scientist) 3. Children do not consider STEM subjects to be relevant to “what I want to be when I grow up.” This was especially interesting considering 8/10 of the top careers’ children aspire to, are in fact, STEM careers, they just don’t know it! To combat this, we therefore needed to: 1. Neutralise perceptions of gender in relation to STEM 2. Showcase a wide array of STEM career pathways 3. Explicitly make the link between STEM subjects and careers Not only that, but we had to do all of this whilst dealing with the physical restrictions and limitations brought on by a global pandemic, including changing study environments and a shift to home-schooling.

Describe the creative idea

We worked with the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador on an initiative, called Future You, that spoke directly to children, promoting gender diversity across a range of STEM careers and explicitly linking careers to STEM subjects. Future You, shows children that anything is possible with STEM and encourages them to explore what they want to be when they grow up, through a dynamic Future You team. The initiative features twelve animated Future You characters, that all use STEM skills regularly in their jobs. Each character directly challenges gender stereotypes head-on, including: • Blake, the female builder • Mei, the female Miner • Grace, the paraplegic, female game designer • Noah, the male nurse • Frankie, the hearing-impaired, male farmer The Australian Space Agency even heard about the opportunity and wanted to get involved, so we created them a custom character too – Mirra, the female Mission to Mars Director!

Describe the strategy

With strict regulations around advertising to children and kids attention spans being shorter than ever, it was clear that a standard advertising approach wasn’t going to work. We had to go beyond ad formats, to engage with kids on their level, in a fun and engaging way. All whilst adopting a digital-first approach, due to COVID restrictions, which meant competing for their screen time attention. Who better to help us do this, than one of Australia’s leading children’s networks? We partnered with Totally Awesome, who specialise in creating content for Aussie children day in day out. They animated each one of our hero characters and produced a plethora of content that brought each one to life. Importantly, to ensure the content would resonate with kids, we created it with them, getting them involved by helping design and feedback on the characters and content along the way.

Describe the execution

There were three phases to our execution: 1. Introducing Future You To introduce children to the Future You characters, we released a catchy music video, titled “Everything you never imagined”. In the video, each character introduces themselves, their role and how important STEM is to their job, all through song! We promoted the music video across the Totally Awesome network, Unruly and Teads Networks, YouTube pre-rolls and across social. 2. Getting to know the Future You characters To get to know the characters better, we directed children to a fun microsite with information on STEM, in-depth character profiles and interactive games for them to play and learn about the roles. 3. Inspiring kids to discover their STEM superpower We created a custom quiz, so children could find out what their STEM superpower is, what job role could be right for them and which STEM subjects they needed to get there.

Describe the results / impact

We achieved our main objective of increasing interest in STEM subjects. We saw significant shifts amongst children (and parents) who saw the campaign: +240% of girls 8-12 being ‘very interested’ in STEM +40% of boys 8-12 being ‘very interested” in STEM +21% of parents believing STEM is ‘very important’ for their child. Secondly, we began the journey of shifting stereotyped gender perceptions of STEM. We saw improvements in STEM jobs being considered by children as jobs for women (either for women only or for women and men equally). The campaign impacted female bias (jobs being for women) more dramatically, with some key % increases across roles including: +167% for Computer programming +150% for Builder +100% for Mission to Mars Director. Importantly, this is just the first step on our STEM journey, as we aspire to change the future of STEM, one Future You character at a time.