Science, technology, engineering and maths are behind many of the greatest innovations in human history. Sadly, they also face an image problem. Created to knock down the barriers to young people studying and entering STEM careers, the Smallpeice Trust was founded in 1966 by a brilliant engineer – Dr Cosby Smallpeice.
Now, 50 years later, the charity needed a brand refresh to bring it into the 21st century, and to appeal to a new generation of potential engineers, scientists and mathematicians.
Working with the Smallpeice Trust, we were faced with two challenges. First, how do we appeal directly to a younger audience? And secondly, how do we cut through the noisy teen market in a way which is fresh, fun and appealing?
Focusing our efforts on making the charity (and STEM subjects) more appealing to young people, we created a whole new look and feel for the brand, combining modern design with elements of the charity’s heritage. We also created parameters around parent, teacher and corporate messaging to ensure that it reached the right people at the right time for optimum engagement, without losing credibility in the eyes of our core audience. Having developed new visual identities for each of the Smallpeice Trust’s subject categories, we then rolled these out across a brand-new website, a suite of course brochures, event collateral and in-school advertising.
Following the extensive rebranding and repositioning of the Smallpeice Trust, audience interactions with the brand via social media platforms increased significantly. The brand refresh and accompanying campaigns reached 50,000 students, with 2,500 attending residential courses, and in total 587 STEM course days were delivered, a record number for the charity.
