World Ocean Day for Schools 2020

World Ocean Day for Schools 2020 was an experience like no other - We were asked to join the Wild Labs team in designing & delivering the event, a day celebrating all things blue with a mission to deepen the understanding of humankind’s relationship with the ocean. 

World Ocean Day for Schools was launched in 2018 - inspired by World Book Day and engaging 400 schools around the UK to celebrate the ocean on the 8th June. In 2019, the event grew with over 2000 schools taking part by hosting assemblies, dressing up in blue & engaging with ocean activities & lessons on the day.

But, as we all know, 2020 was a year unlike all others - and as we began the planning process we were constantly met with unknowns. Will kids be at school in June ? How will schools react to lockdown ? What if everyone is homeschooling ?

A decision was made in late April (in the midst of the UK’s strictest lockdown) that the design of the event would need to shift from a school-focused day, to an online festival that would enable kids (and their parents) to engage from home.

We assembled an incredible team of ocean activists to help build the line up - Over 35 hours of workshops, activities, storytelling & more. The theme for 2020 was the connection between ocean health & human health. The  interconnection gave us a lens to explore all of the issues impacting the ocean: water pollution & the food chain through to the mental benefits of being in, on, under or near bodies of water. As curators this allowed us to subtly weave a theme of general wellbeing throughout the day via our contributors.

This year’s theme also enabled us to launch the first of a series of animations - Every Second Breath -leveraging the opportunity to move from awareness to understanding. This combined with new visuals, GIFs, videos & web updates to create a more consistent brand look & feel.

We designed a platform & lineup that could be adaptable to both classroom and home environment. The ‘festival’ feel allowed us to create a framework for the day that followed a journey from learning - creativity - celebration but also left plenty of room for young people to be curious and choose their own adventure. The audience we were marketing to was 60% weighted to parents so we could leverage social media as a tool to spark conversations between friends, families and school groups. It also allowed us to tap into the followings of all our partners and contributors which boosted reach massively.

In the weeks leading up to the event we shared themed content on the issues of oxygen, well-being, pollution, climate, weather, etc. Connecting up the weekly newsletter with socials to provide learning in each of the issue areas. Always linking back to interconnection of human health and ocean health. This also helped established a tone of voice and acted as a source of inspiration for how parents/teachers could take the day into their own hands and create their own ocean adventure. 

The day itself was a huge success, with more than 160,000 visits to our home page, 4000 schools registered and over 28,000 views of our World Ocean Day for Schools assembly.