SCIEX (Boulder group)
Extraordinary Grace: The Change Hypothesis
The time I surprised the scientific community with their own words, convincing them to question their preconceptions and biases.
Film | Animation | Social | Branding | Web
My role in the project: Creative concept, copywriter, scriptwriter, and director.
Discover the live project here: ExtraordinaryGrace.com
We put a global audience of scientists in the position of ‘mentor’, encouraging them to share advice, guidance, and perspectives with a fictitious character – Grace, a young girl passionate about pursuing a career in STEM.
This was an industry-first participation campaign designed to shine a light on the issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in science – and importantly, offer some solutions.
1 - We kicked off the campaign with a video that would launch Extraordinary Grace on different global scientific social platforms, such as IFLscience, with a CTA that would encourage the scientific community to engage with the campaign.
2 - We directed people to a narrative-led survey that was intensively researched and designed to authentically address various obstacles that women and people of colour consistently face, as they progress through academia and pursue STEM careers. Through gathering these perspectives we uncovered staggering statistics, inspiring anecdotes, and words of advice.
3 - Then, brought to life through metahuman technology, we introduced Grace at one of the biggest scientific events of the year, ASMS. Intending to do good with these findings, and using the ideas and solutions from her mentors, Grace presented an eagerly anticipated keynote speech back to the industry - a ‘hypothesis for change’ – in their own words.
4 - To capitalise on the campaign attention, journalist Rich Whitworth followed up with Grace for The Analytical Scientist. A clever combination of green-screen and MetaHuman allowed Grace and Rich to ‘meet’ in a café to discuss her important message.
RESULTS
The campaign has been a huge success, with over 2000 mentors taking part to voice their opinions, answering a total of 24,000 questions. Grace’s social media presence hit 102.1 million impressions, with 14,540 interactions.
Importantly, the campaign revealed compelling statistics, damning evidence of bias as well as heartwarming and relatable stories. Grace herself was sincerely thanked for saying what many underrepresented scientists felt they couldn’t.