Role: Chief Brand & Content Officer | XPRIZE
Nicholas Negroponte proved that kids have an inherent aptitude for learning with his One Laptop Per Child program. The Elon Musk-funded, $15M Global Learning XPRIZE seeks to take that up a notch by crowdsourcing and challenging teams from around the world to develop an autonomous, tablet-learning system that would allow kids to teach themselves reading, writing, and math.
The challenge here was how to inspire advocacy that was uplifting and aspirational without falling back on old, late night, Sally Struthers-type infomercials. It required the right tone and the right mix of audience engagement to propel the competition forward. We coupled uplifting messages and videos with Reddit AMAs, Google Hangouts, a street team kit, and a crowdfunding campaign that was designed first and foremost to create ownership in its success for as low as just $10. 200 teams worldwide signed up to the challenge.
