ASK
Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) ambition is for Ireland to have an engaged and scientifically informed public. One of the main ways to engage with the public on science is through bringing science to life during Science Week, a national celebration of science with hundreds of events for people of all ages taking place across Ireland.
The aim of Science Week 2022 was to encourage the target audience, specifically 17–40-year-olds, to explore the year’s theme ‘Infinite Possibilities’ of science, get involved in the conversation and drive them to attend events for the first post-Covid Science Week.
APPROACH
Drury has been supported SFI on the planning and delivery of its flagship public engagement event Science Week since 2015.
Science Week 2022 included in-person events for the first time since 2019. For this reason, SFI placed an emphasis on driving people to Science Week festivals and events.
The theme of Science Week 2022 was ‘Infinite Possibilities’, exploring the role that Science can play in assisting Ireland prepare for a better shared future for all.
Throughout the campaign, we executed five media partnerships with the Irish Times, Mediahuis, Evoke, the Journal, and Media Central. Influencer and social activity were also essential elements to the campaign.
Each element of the campaign was designed with a specific audience group in mind. For examples, The Irish Times create a panel event that facilitated discussion around the climate emergency, specifically, if responsibility to change lies with the individual or organisations and government. This event targeted SFI’s existing stakeholders.
Evoke.ie explored women’s mental and physical health pre, during and post-natal and the implications of a child-focused healthcare system. The panel event aimed to facilitate and open conversation amongst women in the target age group.
For Science Week, SFI brought BODY, an immersive experience that explored the human biology through lights, fire and sound, to Merrion Square. As BODY would only be in Dublin for three nights, it meant that we did not have a lot of time to capture content and build awareness. We created a media event on the opening night of the flagship event BODY to generate awareness. We invited over 100 media professionals and content creators and amassed user generated content with a combined reach of over 2 million.
Building on previous work, we partnered with six influencers this year to reach a Gen-Z audience. We worked closely with the influencers to have the theme incorporated into the social content and to engage with their individual audiences.
We also partnered with four podcasts, including a live recording of the Why Would You Tell Me That podcast with Neil Delamere and Dave Fanning. Science Week’s partnership with the 2 Johnnies focused on the topic of Deepfakes and artificial intelligence.
OUTCOME
Science Week 2022 was a huge success when analysed against key performance indicators. Attendance at events was an important objective set at the outset of planning. BODY garnered huge interest with tickets available online sold out by the end of the first night.
The Evoke event reached capacity, and on the night, women openly shared their stories and experiences with each other.
Overall, the four podcast partnerships received over 1.6 million listens, reaching audiences of varying interests and demographics. The combined influencer partner following resulted in an audience reach of over 400K.