TES Global worked with the European and British Space Agencies to deliver a live lesson with British astronaut Tim Peake aboard the International Space Station. They asked teachers to sign up their classes for a live link with Tim Peake on the ISS to make it the world's largest schools and space science event. Through targeted social media posts and creating a "Cosmic Classroom" badge, they helped spread awareness of the event and encouraged participation. When Tim Peake shared updates from the ISS, it drove a huge spike in class sign-ups. On the day of the event, 500,000 viewers tuned in from 58 countries and the #CosmicClassroom hashtag trended at number 1 in the UK for six hours, reaching over 7

1. How TES Global used the power of social media to teach children about
rocket science

2. introduction
Between November 2015 and February 2016, TES
Global worked with the European Space
Agency and the British Space Agency to deliver a live
lesson with British astronaut Tim Peake aboard the
International Space Station.
We asked teachers to sign up their classes to a live
link with Tim Peake on the ISS, and our ultimate aim
was to make this the world’s largest schools and
space science event.
It was our objective for this partnership to specifically
support science learning by providing a spark on
which to build inspiration in classrooms across the
country.

3. In the run-up to the event, in addition to
baseline calls-to-action on our social
media profiles, we focused on driving
engagement through targeting key times
when we knew an engaged audience
would be online. For example, this post
was our most engaged with, shared
during the BBC show ‘Stargazing Live’ in
December 2015. Right place, right time.

4. Additional earned engagement
came via the Cosmic Classroom
Twibbon we created.
It acted as a badge of honour
for teachers and schools,
signaling they were part of
something bigger, and
additionally encouraged other
users to install the Twibbon
too.
This ‘intention signaling’
helped spread word about the
event on Facebook and Twitter,
and although it is
tough to quantify this activity,
73 accounts installed a
Twibbon on their social media
accounts.
Twibbon

5. Thanks to good communication
with our partners, we were
able to secure shares from Tim
Peake himself, who is lucky
enough to be able to share to
Twitter and Facebook from the
International Space Station.
When Tim sent an update,
unsurprisingly, we saw a huge
spike in sign-ups.
Good communication

6. Teamwork
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7. 500,000 viewers
Tuned in on a Tuesday afternoon at 2pm to
watch Tim Peake and ask him questions

8. Outcomes
o #CosmicClassroom hashtag trended at #1 on
Twitter for six hours in the UK
o Tim Peake tweeted the hashtag from the ISS in the
lead up to the event - a Twitter update sent from
the ISS to earth
o #CosmicClassroom mentions on the day: 4,571
o Total Twitter reach on the day: 7.4 million users
o Total Twitter impressions on the day: 36.1 million
o 500,000 viewers in 58 countries globally Making money is art and
working is art and good
business is the best art.

9. Takeaways
o Owned media volume equals engagement success
but not without the legwork: the effort we put into
building relationships, raising awareness and
engaging with our audience on social media
generated huge return on our efforts.
o Less can be more: The volume of the messages sent
had little impact on referrals suggesting that timing,
quality and relevancy are stronger converters.
o A good working relationship between us and our
partners in this project was vital to our success Out
of the top five sources of earned media, four were
partners in this endeavor.
Making money is art and
working is art and good
business is the best art.

10. THANK YOU
BEN STROUD, FEBRUARY 2016
WWW.THEWHATNOISE.COM
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