The Brief

Each year, The Institution of Engineering (IET) hosts its Engineer a Better World imitative designed to get kids aged 4 to 13 to engage with STEM subjects through a variety of creative and thought-provoking challenges. The brief was to develop a creative campaign that would not only drive awareness of STEM studies, and IET’s ambition but tap into a passion point that appealed to both kids and their parents to drive engagement and consideration of STEM as a career.

The Big Idea

With the women's World Cup and another Moon landing attempt on the horizon, the 2023 IET Engineer a Better World campaign and competition was a timely combination of audience passion points: space and football.

Designed to capture children’s imaginations and demonstrate what science and engineering can make possible, the Moon United campaign gathered a panel of IET experts to predict what it would be like to play football on the Moon, as we announced that the first game could take place as early as 2035.

The predictions were unveiled in the first-ever Lunar Football Rule Book – a reimagining of football rules and game adaptations required for humans to have a kick about the Moon. The book was launched alongside a nationwide children’s competition to design the first-ever football kit for the Moon, in which we tasked children to design the first Moon United home and away kits in a bid to get them to think about how space and science will affect the beautiful game of the future and what equipment would be needed to play football on the Moon.

To drive engagement and entries the competition was amplified on social media via a set of strategic influencer collaborations before two winners were chosen and their inspirational designs then unveiled to the world as the first official football kits for the Moon by England Lioness and Tottenham Hotspurs captain, Bethany England and Aerodynamicist Sophie Harker.

The Results

This out-of-this-world campaign generated over 500+ competition entries from across the UK, beating the year prior, along with 82 pieces of coverage including seven nationals.

Highlights included Sky News, a half-page picture splash in the Daily Star newspaper, the MailOnline, kid’s favourite CBBC online and First News and Match magazine.

From a social standpoint, the content created was viewed by over 290,000 people on Instagram to an audience of over 3 million followers.