Since launch, more than 467,750 users have visited Spotlight, for a total of more than 639,000 sessions, and an average session time of four and a half minutes – all without any paid media support. This shows that the content is compelling enough to draw and hold its own audience, even to the point where people will play through the experience more than once. What’s more, more than 101,000 users have generated and shared their own personalised infographic, generating more interest in Spotlight and in the Census itself. All for a government website about statistics – which proves just how compelling data can be when you build a relevant experience around your audience.

We created Spotlight – an interactive animated film that’s powered by Census data, to show Australians how that data relates to each of them as an individual. Census data is more than just the subject of the film – it’s used to personalise the experience.

At key points in the film, users can add information such as their gender, their state, their family history and their employment. At each of these points, the film accesses the relevant data and uses it to personalise animated comparisons and infographics to help them see the information in a more easily digestible context.

Instead of numbers and graphs, we used relatable comparisons and even humour to show them what the data can tell them about themselves, all driven in the background by real-world Census data. This makes the film not only unique for each viewer, but actually turns the numbers into an experience they find intriguing, fascinating and even enjoyable.

But more importantly, Spotlight makes Census Data relevant to them as an individual, and uses their own fascination with themselves as a unique way to get them to explore and better understand the role of Census Data.

And when they’ve finished exploring Spotlight, users can generate and share a personalised infographic – a data-driven, sharable “self-portrait” that captures the key points of the experience in a single image.