Hidden Figures, a 20th Century FOX film, tells the true story of three African-American ‘human computers’ who worked behind-the-scenes at NASA during the Space Race. The IBM 7090 Data Processing System played a role in history, too. But rather than using IBM’s partnership with Hidden Figures to amplify the brand’s place in history, we used this opportunity to reveal more of history’s hidden figures to provide missing role models and help inspire a more diverse future for STEM. We developed a new augmented reality platform with The New York Times’ T Brand Studio and placed AR statues in public spaces across America. We also partnered with Vanity Fair to profile a new set of diverse role models within STEM today. These brilliant women were treated like A-list celebrities in the pages of the magazine, and shared their experiences and advice on Vanity Fair’s online platform, Hive.

Over three months, our campaign rolled out in two key phases—centering first on awareness raising and next on engagement. With social promotion around video content dialing up the connection between IBM and Hidden Figures, we first sought to establish the relationship between the film and IBM. Next, we ran an 8-page insertion in Vanity Fair which profiled a diverse set of inspiring STEM stars who are changing the world here and now. As the film launched across the U.S., the T Brand Studio AR app launched—with IBM’s ‘outthink hidden’ experience serving as the inaugural content—providing users with rich, multi-media content around ten, diverse ‘hidden figures’ in the history of STEM, and celebrating these new role models in an exciting way through AR statues.

Over the course of campaign, we generated over 259 million print, social and digital impressions, with additional reach stemming from pickup by over 30 publications including Elite Daily, Mashable, Forbes and The Verge. The T Brand Studio AR App outperformed 80% of branded apps in terms of downloads, and generated 6,000 engagements within our four-day CES activation alone—and demonstrated higher-than-average levels of usage against wider app usage trends. Our Vanity Fair digital content saw 2x the average platform engagement time, while much of our social content driving our campaign’s core messages exceeded brand benchmarks, suggesting high levels of engagement across core audience groups. Stemming from all these communication touchpoints, which hit on all our intended audience groups, we recorded a 265% increase in conversation linking IBM with diversity in STEM, with 60% of campaign survey respondents citing increased brand favorability stemming from IBM’s stance on this issue.