Living Maths Space Tour 2019
The Challenge
Former NASA Astronaut, Dr Don Thomas - a veteran of 692 space orbits of the Earth - was returning to South Africa for a national roadshow, with STEM-based educational NGO Living Maths. This was the third consecutive year Dr Thomas was visiting South African schools, to promote the importance of Maths and Science and inspire the ‘Mars Generation’. Media covered his 2017 and 2018 South African Space Tours extensively, so the challenge was to come up with new and innovative ways of promoting the 2019 tour and generating fresh media interest.
The Idea
2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. The celebration of this accomplishment was the perfect opportunity to look back at the last 50 years of space travel and discuss the very real possibilities of human travel to Mars in the near future.
The Implementation
Traditional media relations landed substantial coverage announcing the 2019 Space Tour and the various public talks across the country. In addition, email Q&As with Dr Thomas were secured prior to his arrival in South Africa and broadcast interviews took place at national, regional and community level when Dr Thomas touched down.
Living Maths partnered with other sponsor brands including I-Innovate and the Amdec Group for the 2019 tour, to further promote STEM education to learners in Gauteng and Cape Town.
Thanks to 21st Century learning specialist, I-Innovate, nearly 400 disadvantaged Gauteng learners had the incredible experience of meeting Dr Don Thomas, at the Sakhikamva Foundation STREAM Lab facility at Lanseria Airport.
In Cape Town, the Amdec Group hosted a special Astronaut encounter at Christel House – a school for under-privileged children on the Cape Flats. Both these events created added talkability and new media angles on top of his public roadshow promotion.
The Results
The campaign generated a total of 97 media clippings, across broadcast, online and print media. The possible audience reach amounted to 36,997,467 and the AVE value of the coverage obtained totalled R1,952,068.00 (1:1) over a 4-week period.
