Say Communications - Low Budget Campaign of the Year

Company: Say Communications, London, United Kingdom
Company Description: Based in London, Say Communications is ranked 20th and 40th in UK’s PR Week Top 50 Healthcare, and Technology Agency League Tables, and ranked 118th out of 4,635 UK PR agencies. With a talented pool of 23 PR and digital communications consultants, Constantly building upon its achievements Say delivers laser focused creative campaigns to secure measurable results on a local and global scale.
Nomination Category: Corporate Communications, Investor Relations, & Public Relations Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Low Budget (Under $10,000 / € 8,500)

Nomination Title: Dancing through the pandemic: teaching a Universal Robots’ cobot to dance

Campaign launched in February 2021 and still ongoing

This campaign was created in order to break stereotypes about robotics and particularly women in STEM. There is a common misconception that automation will replace human workers and that people pursuing careers in manufacturing cannot be creative. We wanted to highlight the flexibility of collaborative robots (cobots), as a creative problem-solving tool to enhance human performance, rather than replace it. Dr. Moore chose a UR cobot due to the flexibility and dexterity of the technology, as well as its ability to react safely and intuitively to human movement. Dr. Moore is an award-winning quantum physicist with a PHD in laser physics from the University of Oxford. She is also an accomplished ballerina, having danced with the Norwegian Ballet, Boston Ballet and English National Ballet. What she is not is a trained robot programmer. She was therefore the perfect ambassador for cobots, which can be easily and quickly programmed by anyone with minimal training to respond to movements and dance sequences.

Dr. Moore said, “I believe that arts and STEM should not be considered separate disciplines. For scientists and engineers, creativity can benefit our work immensely. Similarly, as a dancer, the ability to be technical and analytical has allowed me to hone my practice.I hope that the next generation of women will be inspired to defy expectations of how a career in STEM should look.”

Say approached Dr. Merritt Moore and secured her as a brand ambassador for Universal Robots, knowing she could reach beyond existing users of robots and inspire a new generation of women to pursue a career in STEM, challenging stereotypes around the technology.

We worked with her and renowned visual artist, Darren Johnston, to develop video content that blends humanity and technology. The concept for the video was to explore how the arts can take technology beyond the laboratory. The choreography was filmed in an atmospheric, disused theatre.

We then leveraged social media channels and high-profile traditional media to draw as much attention to the campaign as possible. This included:

-Working with BBC Click to develop an interview feature that showcased Merritt’s choreography with the cobot, and the ability of cobots to enhance human performance
-A prominent feature in the Financial Times profiling Dr. Merritt Moore and her collaboration with her robot dance partner “Baryshnibot”
-A continuous presence on Dr. Merritt Moore’s Instagram profile, most notably featuring synchronised viral TikTok dance performances featuring herself and the cobot
-20 stories in key trade media

As a result of our campaign Merritt was invited to audition for America’s Got Talent alongside her UR cobot and will be participating in the 2021 season of the show.

She was also invited to create an interactive gallery exhibition at the Koppel Gallery in London where Visitors are able to learn a simple choreography and dance alongside the cobot. https://thekoppelproject.com/events/loading

This campaign was launched in February 2021. Since the initial launch, we have achieved 20 press clippings, an exclusive feature with BBC Click and a profile piece in The Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/d45e7fc5-9974-4be2-84ba-70b7554e05a9

On social media, we have achieved the following:

No. Instagram posts – 60
No. Instagram post likes – 400k
No. of views for video clips – 8.6million

As a direct outcome of the campaign we have also generated the additional exposure that will result from appearances on America’s Got Talent to a global televised audience and through the cobot’s inclusion in an interactive gallery exhibition in Central London.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wnT1yKHSSn6YEhd4bIL7iJ-KRB7ArTQO?usp=sharing
Universal Robots interview: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJEKXYhApFF/
Meme about govt initiative to retrain dancers for tech careers: https://www.instagram.com/p/CH0_gZxANyF/
TikTok dance trend: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFfL2lMAGCY/
TikTok dance trend: https://www.instagram.com/p/CER7UodARqX/

Press:
BBC Click: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ-c_y31LUs
FT: https://www.ft.com/content/d45e7fc5-9974-4be2-84ba-70b7554e05a9

Video:
Full dance video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSOHc3ODLzU

Photography:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jpzNZ1UEc4eqvO-scsNzVTy1WwaSMukN/view?usp=sharing