Case Study

FUTURELAB:
The Innovation Expo

How BRAINBOX helped show nearly one million students the power of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

Details

Delivering Innovation, Imagination and Discovery

Challenge

The Student Loan Finance Corporation was looking to educate a new generation of students about their options to pay for college, so they came to the BRAINBOX team for help. But there were a few stipulations. How to find students who intend to go to college and might be interested in student loans? How do you find the students who were most likely to graduate and start careers, making them good loan customers? Our answer was STEM-focused students. Our solution was FutureLab: The Innovation Expo, an ever-evolving, touring exhibition that introduced students across the country to careers and new technologies in nano-tech, deep space, robotics, and the life sciences.

Our Roles

Market Research
Experiential Marketing
- Exhibit Curation and Migration
Website Development and Management
Marketing and Public Relations

A New Frontier

Bringing FutureLab To Life

Interactive. Immersive. Improbable?

We like big challenges here at BRAINBOX, and the FutureLab Expo was one of our favorite puzzles to solve. We knew we could bring the world of STEM to students through a completely interactive and immersive experience, despite all obstacles. In collaboration with, Dr. James Canton, a futurist and head of The Global Futures Initiative, a think tank that helps organizations plan for the future, we began our quest. Before we knew it, FutureLab blossomed into a 10′ tall, basketball court sized, immersive experience that travelled to over 350 markets in over 10 years.

Working With The Best

Our Brand Partners

From the start, our main client the Student Loan Finance Corporation (SLFC) wanted to make these events as big as the future, so that they could impact as many young people as possible. That meant we were given freedom to collaborate with the biggest names in science and technology in the country. But keeping science exhibits up to date is no easy feat. To make sure that our moving museum was always on the cutting edge, we partnered with top brands and experts in futurism. From NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Dominion Power to top manufacturers like Toyota, we took companies exactly where they needed to be: in front of the generation that would shape the next phase of their industries.

Here are some of our favorite brand partners who sponsored FutureLab with their exhibits:

From the Client

“Our primary charter [at SLFC] is to make sure the next student gets an education. FutureLab [allows for] another thought process where students can think about what else is out there other than what I see from the guidance counselor.”

Ken Halvorsen, SLFC

Miles Traveled

70,000+

Schools Visited

382

Teens Reached

700,000+

Cities

72

Sharing the Future.

Mission Accomplished.

From high school gyms and robotics competitions, to Boy Scout Jambourees and national science fairs, the FutureLab Expo remains a great example of the positive impact a well-executed experiential marketing campaign can have. But more importantly, it’s a testament to what can happen when a company allows itself to dream big, to not be satisfied with simple solutions, and to think outside the BOX.

Dream Bigger