Case Study:

Boston Red Sox:

Wally & Tessie’s STEMbook

Case study content property of Kidzsmart Communications and their respective clients.

Edutainment & STEAM

Edutainment refers to the seamless integration of educational content and entertainment elements, creating a captivating and interactive experience that promotes learning while engaging and entertaining the audience. It goes beyond traditional methods of instruction by infusing elements of play, exploration, storytelling, and interactivity to make the learning process more enjoyable, memorable, and most importantly, relational for kids.

For the Boston Red Sox, their goal was to create an engaging STEM education program themed around baseball. The goal was to create a book and digital product that promoted STEM awareness in schools, while aligning with the Red Sox's family-friendly game day experience. The program integrated seamlessly with Fenway Park's Kids Concourse and the team's Kid Nation club activations, reflecting the Red Sox's mission, values, and outreach goals.

The Brief

Create an engaging kids club community outreach program for young Red Sox fans that teaches STEM education subjects through baseball.

A print and digital campaign in support of the Red Sox's commitment to a family-friendly game day experience and seamlessly integrate with the Kids Concourse space and Kid Nation club activations at Fenway Park.

The Scope

Creative direction, kids brand development, educational strategy, character redesign, digital and print campaign

My Role

Lead designer, research, and copywriting

The Method

The design methodology for the Red Sox Wally's STEMbook project focused on aligning with curriculum and creating a relational educational experience. The program aimed to seamlessly integrate classroom learning with baseball. Research was conducted to link the content to US curriculum, particularly in Massachusetts and surrounding areas.

Emphasizing the importance of play in the learning process for children, the program also incorporated relational content by featuring players and team mascots in educational games, both in print and digital formats. The intention was to directly engage children in their game-day experiences while demonstrating how scientific methods could be used to interpret those experiences.

Design Process

A baseball-themed curriculum was developed based on Newton's Laws of Motion resulting in a comprehensive program exploring STEM subjects through a baseball lens. Game day experience at Fenway Park taken into account as a means to connect to STEM subjects concepts to game-day observation-based activities.. The result was an engaging STEM program embraced by the Red Sox, blending science and critical thinking with the excitement of baseball.

Solution

The solution delivered for this project included:

  • Redesigning the kids' program aesthetic with updated characters to resonate with a new generation of fans.

  • Creating a baseball-themed STEM workbook with activities for each STEM subject, integrating the team's players and mascots as storytellers.

  • Developing an interactive digital newsletter and web content for the kids' club, featuring online games, trivia, and engagement with team personnel, including STEM elements and insights into Fenway Park operations.

  • Providing downloadable content for fans unable to attend games and for continued engagement at home or in the classroom.

Results

The program gained traction with local educational centers, museums, and schools due to its curriculum alignment and accessibility to STEM. The Red Sox organization continues to use iterations of the program in partnership with these institutions to this day. From a marketing standpoint, my team's work was well-received, as evidenced by the positive client testimonial. I am proud of our accomplishments at Kidzsmart Communications and grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Boston Red Sox's fantastic organization and front office team.

Client Testimonial

“Major League Baseball, over the past few years, has recognized the importance of marketing our brand to today’s youth in an effort to bolster the sport’s popularity as competition in the sports/entertainment industry becomes increasingly competitive.

To meet these goals, the Red Sox organization has revamped our Kid Nation fan club program and implemented our new “Calling All Kids” initiative. This includes redesigns and rebranding of locations within Fenway Park as well as a heavy push through print and digital media. Kidzsmart has been an integral part of this effort. Through a collaborative effort between the Red Sox marketing department and the folks at Kidzsmart, we have been able to create great new content through our Kid Nation Newsletter email blasts and physical activity books. This content has been extremely helpful in capturing young fans’ attention and exposing them to America’s pastime. Content-wise, we’ve covered everything from activities, player profiles, collectible posters, and STEM reasoning and problem solving puzzles to engage kids and make the game more relatable to them.

I believe the efforts from this partnership have been very successful and have added value to our Fan Clubs memberships while also helping us on the way to accomplishing our broader organizational goals.”

— Boston Red Sox Fan & Youth Engagement