Every year in mid-October the American Chemical Society celebrates National Chemistry Week as a way of uniting businesses, schools, and individuals to enhance the public's perception of chemistry. We proactively came up with a one-week program on behalf of our client, The Chemours Company. A recent spin off of DuPont, Chemours is a new chemical company that's still establishing themselves as a leader in the industry. Championing famous chemicals that have changed the world like Teflon™ and Ti-Pure™, The Chemours Company is committed to supporting science-, technology-, engineering-, and mathematics (STEM)-based learning and champions the importance of chemistry as a building block for modern conveniences and solving world challenges.
After an analysis of the 2015 National Chemistry Week social media promotions, we believed we could create compelling and engaging content that Chemours could share to lead the 2016 conversation with the ambition of being the most shared brand during #NationalChemistryWeek.
For many, learning about chemistry has never been something to sing about. Our ambition was to take an esoteric subject like chemistry and make it exciting and fun. So to promote #NationalChemistryWeek, we created a series of original, animated music videos titled, "The Periodic Table: Something to Sing About" to celebrate the most fundamental tool in chemistry: the Periodic Table of Elements. Utilizing stop-motion animation, 3D printed and handmade props, we turned every set into a stage to help parents, educators, science enthusiasts, and students understand the pervasiveness of chemistry and inspire the next generation of chemists.
From a classical performance by the Noble Gases to a punk tribute by the Halogens, various elements of the Periodic Table were assigned a distinct genre, style, and lyrics for each day of the week to make chemistry approachable, fun and surprising. Drawing inspiration from Chemours' color palette, we created individual custom-built sets based on 5 different music genres. From a Victorian parlor for the Noble Gases to a gritty billiards lounge for the punk Halogens, every scene featured custom-designed 3D-printed furniture with unique arrangements. Everything was designed, executed and produced by hand by the Ogilvy creative team. We created a stage for chemistry where the intro, outro, and curtain were all made out of paper. We sourced 3D-printed props and were literally "all hands on deck" to paint the blocks and move each figurine for each action.
"The Periodic Table: Something to Sing About" teaches parents, educators, science enthusiasts, and students about the elements and builds awareness for The Chemours Company. As National Chemistry Week started on a Sunday, we teased the upcoming campaign that evening on Chemours' Twitter and LinkedIn, and then from Monday through Friday we released a new 30-second video every day—as well as a final compilation video to conclude the week. All 6 videos were uploaded on Chemours' YouTube channel and shared through Twitter and LinkedIn. A targeted paid search campaign with a small paid media budget of $2,500 was activated to increase our reach outside of Chemours' small Twitter fan base of 960 followers.
Each video was edited to create GIFs and stills to promote fun facts about the elements on the Periodic Table as well as give followers and post recipients engaging knowledge about chemistry's role in everyday life and how Chemours harnesses the pervasive power of chemistry to make modern-day conveniences perform better and last longer—from your refrigerator, to your car, to your smart devices and more.
We made our client the big winner during National Chemistry Week, providing educational, entertaining, and branding content. In seven days with just $2,500 in paid media, our videos earned 881,375 impressions and 121,769 views. Chemours was the most shared brand during #NationalChemistryWeek and the #1 most retweeted company compared to all media, brands, and institutions.
Earning 25% of all mentions around #NationalChemistryWeek, Chemours followers grew by nearly 300 and earned more engagement and impressions than Q1 and Q2 2016 combined. We made Chemours stand for something more than their products and reached beyond C-suite executives and customers to make educators, parents, science enthusiasts, and children see chemistry at its best.
