CATEOGORY: Integrated Promotion
FIRST-PLACE CAMPAIGN: Sum of all Thrills (also Second-Place Interactive Web Game)
AGENCY: Arc Worldwide
CLIENT: Raytheon
Therein lies the rub: 39% of middle school students say math is the most interesting subject of the future, yet 28% could not name an interesting job that uses math. And by eighth grade, one in five students reported “hating” math, according to Raytheon.com.
Raytheon is a technology and innovation company specializing in defense and homeland security. Its corporate responsibility program is MathMovesU.com, a Web site for middle school students designed to spur interest in science and math.
To spark that interest, Raytheon partnered with Walt Disney World to open a MathMovesU.com attraction at Epcot. The simulated thrill ride, called The Sum of all Thrills, lets visitors use math to design and then experience their creations in a state-of-the-art robotic simulator.
Arc Worldwide’s job was to take that live experience and convert it to an online experience in a new section on MathMovesU.com. The plan was to change student’s perception of math in an innovative and entertaining way.
At the promotional site, which opened Oct. 14, students discovered a 3D world where they could solve math problems to build and test a roller jet flight course. The harder the math the more thrilling the ride and the more points scored. The program was integrated with a summer sweeps offering a grand-prize trip to The Sum of all Thrills opening at Disney. At the end of the ride kids received a souvenir card with the MathMovesU.com URL imprinted on it. Banner ads, e-mails and PR also spread word of the site.
To ensure some consistency with the Disney attraction, Arc incorporated the three different ride scenarios: roller coaster, jet fight and bobsled, as well as the same robotic character used in the ride.
“One thing we didn’t want to do, especially when we’re trying to get kids to enjoy math, is to keep telling them they were doing it wrong, that’s how the classroom is,” Robert Angone, the creative director at Arc Worldwide, said.
“The game challenges the kids but we don’t lock them out so they don’t get frustrated and want to try again.”
Within the first month of the launch, visits to the site increased on average 40% per day and registered users increased 60%. The amount of time spent at the site also jumped by 30%.
“The online experience is a hallmark for our company,” Katie Glick, account supervisor at Arc, said. “It was brand new technology that we used to develop the game. It created a high standard now internally here. It was all hand drawn, unique creative with original sound.” —Patricia Odell
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