Edutainment
Edutainment delivers specific educational content to a targeted audience in a fun, age-appropriate, and memorable way. Below are examples of original edutainment programs focused on energy conservation and efficiency messaging to young students.
We are currently running multiple activations for a long-time energy provider. These activations focus on conservation programs dedicated to educating K-12 students. The program centers around the importance of saving energy through positive energy behaviors and purchasing energy-efficient technologies.
By engaging future energy customers at an early age, our client hopes to instill in them an energy-efficient ethic. The goal is that it will help students reduce their overall energy usage at home and at school. Also, they will bring home useful tips and information to their families. Focusing on students helps our energy client target their audience by town, as there are multiple suppliers across the state.
Case # 1:
Watts-Ville
In 2018, Motus Experiential was engaged by our client partner, an energy supplier in Massachusetts, to help educate students in grades K-3 on the importance of saving energy through positive energy behaviors and purchasing energy-efficient technologies. The energy company was looking for in-school programming that would be engaging, provide a gaming experience, and be memorable.
Our team came up with “Watts-Ville.” Watts-Ville is a single-class energy efficiency educational program for grade levels K-3, loosely based on the board game candy land. The life-sized board game requires one host that helps two teams play. It includes a backdrop that is visual and attractive. The host helps to guide each team’s frogs through Watts-Ville and asks positive and negative energy efficiency questions. The host then re-enforces all messages with supporting facts. Students have to work together to get to the end. The first frog to the finish line wins the game, but everyone wins in the end.
Motus Experiential worked with the NEED Project to align the images, questions, facts, and host script to the grade level. The mission of the NEED Project is to promote an energy-conscious and educated society. They achieve this by creating networks of students, educators, and business, government, and community leaders to design and deliver objective, multi-sided energy education programs. Simple lessons for this age group include turning the lights off when you leave a room and phantom power loss. We created a simple verbal pre and post-evaluation to gauge the students learning curve and every teacher provides an onsite survey to help us better the program.
Since 2019, Motus Experiential has managed all aspects of the program from outreach through execution. Our team has executed over 450 in-person programs in 220+ schools in targeted towns. Altogether, it has an A+ rating from teachers. Watts-Ville has educated over 6,500+ students and 300+ teachers on the importance of energy conservation.
Case # 2:
Home Energy Challenge
In early 2020, Motus Experiential was working with our energy supplier client on multiple in-school projects educating and engaging with students in grades K-12. Then, COVID-19 arrived. All schools were then closed and students were at home taking classes online.
This program needed to launch quickly, and with the ability to be executed in consumers’ homes. It needed to be COVID-safe, open to multiple states, and deliver on the energy conservation educational requirements. We knew we wanted to provide a fun project that the students could work on either individually or with other family members. We felt it valuable to give them the opportunity to win a prize for participating. Our team worked closely with the client partner team to find the right program to deliver on their goals. We also reached out to our existing trusted partner the NEED Project to get project ideas. The project had to align with the main goal of energy conservation education. The subject of home insulation was selected after providing the energy company with multiple potential projects. Then, the Home Energy Challenge was born.
If you Build it…
The premise of the Home Energy Challenge was to invite parents and teachers to register their student(s) to receive a free project “kit” in the mail. In this kit, they would find a detailed project guide. Furthermore, it contained all the materials needed to complete the project and record their findings.
Insulation is a material used to limit the movement of thermal energy or heat. The challenge was to build a model home out of cardboard that 1) meets the required building code rules described in the guide and 2) uses insulation to slow or stop the movement of thermal energy (heat) into and out of your home. Students would also build a second model home, exactly like the first model, but without the insulation. The second, uninsulated model acts as the experimental control. This second model helps to prove that insulation is helpful for keeping the temperature comfortable or steady inside a home, despite the outside temperature changes.
Materials were sent to each registered student. We asked the students to complete the project as outlined in the official guide, share photos on their parent’s social feeds with provided hashtags, record their findings on the final data collection and submission form, and email or mail the form back to us. After mailing the form, they were entered to win a new IPAD or Chromebook. After all forms were submitted, there was one, randomly selected winner per state.
Registration and Materials
Motus Experiential built a website that explained the rules for consumers, as well as provided an electronic version of the guide. The website also answered questions, promoted the prizes, housed the rules, qualified the entrant, and delivered a smooth registration process. We also worked with our external legal team to produce rules to cover a multi-state contest. NEED Project prepared kits for delivery and the official project guide. Once the site, rules, guide, and digital marketing assets were approved, we were ready for launch.
Results
The challenge launched on May 4th, 2020. Enrollment ended on June 4th. Submissions of the data form were due on July 2 and winners were notified by July 9th. In the end, we had 380 registered households and 638 students participated. Three winners were selected and they received their prizes in the mail. Overall, the program was deemed a success. Since this initial program run, Motus Experiential has managed an additional six (6) Home Energy Challenges.
