GE: GE

Credits & Description:

Brand GE-DAKO
BBDO NEW YORK New York, USA Entrant Company
BBDO NEW YORK New York, USA Idea Creation
OBSCURA DIGITAL San Francisco, USA Production
SMALL GIRLS PR New York, USA PR
David Lubars BBDO Worldwide Chief Creative Officer
Greg Hahn BBDO New York Chief Creative Officer
Michael Aimette BBDO New York Executive Creative Directors
Lance Vining BBDO New York Senior Creative Director/ Art Director
Sarah Kara BBDO New York Art Director
Lily Bussel BBDO New York Copywriter/ Art Director
David Rolfe BBDO New York Head of Production
George Sholley BBDO New York Executive Producer
Adrienne Katz BBDO New York Executive Experiential Producer
Mo Twine BBDO New York Senior Producer
Peter McCallum BBDO New York Account Team
Lindsey Cash BBDO New York Account Team
Zandy Fretts BBDO New York Account Team
Joslyn Dunn BBDO New York Account Team
Frank Cunningham BBDO New York Account Team
Yin Chung BBDO New York Planning Team
Jen Leung BBDO New York Planning Team
Ben Bass BBDO New York Planning Team
Anna Le Breton Obscura Digital Producer
Ari Ali Obscura Digital Media Producer
Can Buyukberber Obscura Digital Art Director
Crystal Feldman Obscura Digital Illustrator
Greta Knutzen Obscura Digital Account Executive
Matty Dowlan Obscura Digital Chief of Production
Joel Berroteran Obscura Digital Animator
Ron Robinson Obscura Digital Animator
Brett Bailey Obscura Digital Animator
Joshua Pipic Obscura Digital Creative Director
Lucy Sheils Obscura Digital Sound Designer
Marc Melzer Obscura Digital Director of Media Arts
Andrew Plourde Obscura Digital Senior Technical Director
Jim Ellis Obscura Digital Technical Director
Technical Director Obscura Digital Technical Director
Diego Novoa Obscura Digital Systems Technician
Joe Goldring Obscura Digital Systems Technician
Chris Dadzitis Obscura Digital Systems Engineer
Cullen Miller Obscura Digital Systems Engineer
Bryant Place Obscura Digital Interactive Engineer
Harvey Moon Obscura Digital Interactive Engineer
Vlad Spears Obscura Digital Director of Software
Brent Ferro Obscura Digital Production Assistant
Brittnie Diamant Obscura Digital Production Artist
Gary Du Toit BBDO New York Senior Creative Director/ Copywriter

Synopsis
Women make up 47% of the workforce but only account for 14% of engineers—and even the work of these women often goes unrecognized. Only two women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics, with the most recent awarded over 50 years ago. GE believes that great female scientists should be treated like stars. So they launched their Balance the Equation initiative—a push to hire, promote and retain more women in science and technology, including the goal of hiring 20,000 female scientists and engineers by 2020. GE also wanted to honor the work of women in STEM fields and inspire young girls to follow in their footsteps.

Strategy
Our target audiences included the general public (to create awareness about the underrepresentation of women in STEM fields), female scientists (to show that GE appreciates their efforts and is actively recruiting women) and young girls (to inspire them to follow in the footsteps of great female scientists). We wanted Unseen Stars to feel organic, and for commuters and tourists to discover it as they were passing through. For people who couldn’t experience Unseen Stars in person, the show also lived as a YouTube 360 video and ran on GE’s Facebook channel as a Live 360 video. No one had attempted to projection map the ceiling of Grand Central before. So we partnered with a company with industry-wide recognition that had extensive experience projection mapping other historic and complex venues to bring Unseen Stars to life.

Relevancy
Women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) are often overlooked. STEM leader GE is concerned about women’s lack of representation in science. So we created Unseen Stars as part of GE’s Balance the Equation initiative—a push to hire and promote more women in the sciences, including the goal of hiring 20,000 female scientists and engineers by 2020. Unseen Stars created an immersive brand experience on a massive scale, transforming an iconic landmark—Grand Central—into the world’s biggest (and busiest) planetarium. From the physical to the 360-live experience, Unseen Stars connected with millions of people across multiple touchpoints.

Outcome
Unseen Stars had over 300 million total impressions and received an estimated 2.3 million views in person—that’s more than Manhattan’s entire population—all for an event that only ran four days. As a result of the campaign, GE’s careers page saw a 10% increase in traffic and, in 2017, the number of women hired by GE rose an impressive 6%. People shared the show, sparking a conversation about the next steps to take in order to #BalanceTheEquation. The show lived on across multiple digital channels, aggregating 1.5 million views in the following weeks, and was picked up by outlets like NBC, ABC, Forbes and Teen Vogue.

Execution
From September 19 to 22, we transformed Grand Central into an immersive experience that took viewers on a voyage through the universe. Tourists, commuters and families sat on the floor and gazed up at the 51,836-square-foot ceiling to learn more about these new constellations depicting brilliant women scientists. People shared the show, prompting a conversation about women in STEM across news and social channels. Unseen Stars had over 300 million total impressions and received an estimated 2.3 million views in person—that’s more than Manhattan’s entire population—all for an event that only ran four days.

Campaign Description
Women in science are often overlooked, with credit for their discoveries sometimes going to their male colleagues. GE believes that great female scientists should be treated like stars. Grand Central is known for the constellations painted on its ceiling depicting mythical heroes. We transformed them to show real heroes: women scientists to look up to. For this “Unseen Stars” experience, we created constellations of pioneering female scientists as part of a show that took viewers through outer space to discover these new constellations. We projection mapped this onto Grand Central’s ceiling—the first to do so. The show was accompanied by a narrative that took people on a journey where they learned more about each woman’s contributions to the sciences. In effect, we transformed Grand Central into one of the world’s largest (and by far its busiest) planetarium.