National Geographic is a headline sponsor at The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair

Brandora Redaktion - March 2019

National Geographic was a headline sponsor at the recent Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair. It’s the first time National Geographic has supported this event – and in fact the first time it has carried out cross-channel brand marketing on this scale for a young audience.

National Geographic showcased its broadcast platforms, the National Geographic Kids magazine, licensed products and, with the help of its licensed partners, its growing portfolio of successful and brilliantly designed science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) consumer products. In addition, a number of National Geographic experts were on hand to answer questions and offer careers advice. Over 80,000 young people and families visited the fair over four days, with over 26,000 visiting on the Thursday alone.

The event’s main stage was branded as the National Geographic Stage and featured a number of events – including some explosive live demos as The Big Bang hunted for the ‘best experiment of all time… ever’. With special bannering above and to the sides of the stage, National Geographic had definitely arrived. The show floor theatre housed 1,000 seats and hourly shows were announced to the full show floor.

National Geographic was also headline sponsor of the STEM Playground, a first for The Fair and a ‘blow-out’ success with the younger audience. Here, National Geographic enabled visitors to learn through the brand with codebreaking activity. Dr Gareth Moore, the code-breaking expert, was on site for book signings and codebreaking tips, as well as personality quizzes to find out ‘what kind of explorer you are’, with the reward of an explorer badge – all delivered by Harper Collins.

Bresser featured a collection of microscopes, which the children loved, Bandai brought the world of experiments to life through live mini volcano eruptions, and excavation of their fossil kits, and children fell in love with the Venturelli large animal plush. Meanwhile, National Geographic gave away over 8,000 copies of the National Geographic Kids magazines to young ‘explorers in training’ and also handed out 10,000 stickers provided by Topps. National Geographic also offered ‘up to 30% off’ all products featured through a special show offer for all who attended.

And that’s not all. Claire McNulty, Senior Director, Europe, National Geographic Society, attended the show, judging competitions and visiting the careers zone, where schools could ask Claire about the work of the National Geographic Society and its explorers.

The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair aims to show young people (with a core audience aged 7-19) the exciting and rewarding opportunities out there for them with the right experience and qualifications, by bringing classroom learning to life. It is the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) for young people in the UK. In 2018 it welcomed almost 80,000 visitors over four days,

Helena Mansell Stopher, Director, Consumer Products, UK & Europe, National Geographic says: “We are extremely proud to have partnered with the Big Bang Fair for the first time, and it was absolutely wonderful to see the National Geographic brand come to life in such a setting; there was an overwhelmingly positive reaction from children, teachers and parents. Allowing the brand to come alive in this way is something that we will do a lot more of in the coming years.”

Amber Sutera, Director Marketing National Geographic / Fox Networks says: “With Science and Innovation at our core, we are committed to champion our UK future leaders who aspire to create a positive impact in the world we live in. We could not be more proud of every student who participated in The Big Bang Science Fair this year and look forward to watching them progress in their endeavours.”

Philip McShane, Head of Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Fair, says: “We’re thrilled to have welcomed National Geographic to this year’s Big Bang Fair. This important partnership allowed The Fair to continue to be a great source of STEM inspiration for young people and gives visitors, their teachers and parents an amazing opportunity to get hands-on with a wide range of activities, workshops and shows, and engage in meaningful career conversations with professionals, all designed to bring classroom learning to life and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers."