She Can STEM

Brand Refresh | Social Media

Winner and audience honor: Technology category

Winner: Technology

Winner: Audience Honor

Client: Ad Council
Role: Creative Director
Art Director: Sara Liberthorn
Agency: Ayzenberg

Colorful Storytelling

*Bright young STEM star Sandali Kumarasinghe 🌟*

In 2019, Ad Council asked our team to take over the social strategy and creative for She Can STEM, which lives primarily on Instagram. She Can STEM works to keep girls interested in STEM subjects by showcasing compelling role models.

We came back with a campaign that focused our lens on one goal: colorful storytelling.

The refreshed campaign has been a hit. We’ve more than doubled the audience and the user engagement. Also, at the 2020 Shorty Awards we beat out twenty other submissions including GoPro, HP, and two separate entries from Google.

*Karlie Kloss and her non-profit partnered with our campaign to create several videos and social posts.*

Campaign Redesign

**Before**

We redesigned the campaign aesthetic…

**After**

…giving it a *colorful* refresh.

Copy Refresh

Our new approach didn’t stop at design. Staying true to our concept, we leaned into storytelling with generous post copy and extensive research.

Instagram copy

Marian grew up in New York City 🌆. When something in her house broke 📺🚽☎️, her mother would call her father and her father would call a repairman👨🏾‍🔧. Marian would follow the repairman around, watching him fix whatever had broken. She realized that she loved learning how things work. In high school, teachers recognized her passion and encouraged her to study math and science 📐🧪. Marian followed that passion to college and later graduate school. After finishing her Ph.D. on a Friday 👩🏾‍🎓, she began work at AT&T the very next Monday 👩🏾‍💻. At AT&T, Marian pioneered Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which became one of the most influential technologies of our time. Today, she holds over 200 patents and is a Vice President of Engineering at @google. 🌟#shecanstem

Tools of the Trade

Working with our agency’s in-house photo studio, we created a series colorful layouts that invited young women to imagine their lives in various STEM occupations.

#TBT Through Herstory

It may sound counterintuitive, but sometimes the most colorful stories are told in black & white. In order to showcase seminal women of STEM, we worked with government agencies, historical societies, and media companies to secure rights to photos and stories of these great women of science.

Instagram copy

We're celebrating the 50th anniversary of @NASA's Apollo 11 mission today! 50 years ago today, human beings landed on the moon 🌕, and do you know who programmed the computers on the Apollo 11 spacecraft 🎛? Margaret Hamilton! That's her standing next to a print out of all the computer code she developed for the mission. She led the team of software engineers on the project, and she coined the term "software engineering"! Margaret's life has been a fascinating adventure. She studied mathematics and philosophy in college 🎓, worked her way into a computer lab where she led projects for NASA 🚀, founded her own software company 👩🏼‍💼, and in 2016 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama 🏅. Margaret's an inspiration to people everywhere, so we hope that you take this message to heart: She Can STEM. So can you!

Throughout our campaign we’ve featured a number of incredible women representing many different fields of STEM and diverse backgrounds. Each of their stories is unique, and their photos speak volumes.