The Khan Academy embarked on its journey to revolutionize learning online nearly a decade ago with its stated mission of providing free education for everyone. Now it has launched its first-ever communications campaign — with the help of a multimillion-dollar deal with Comcast last December — called “You Can Learn Anything.”
The centerpiece of the campaign, created in collaboration with agency Enso, is a short film chronicling the struggles of learning by a team of filmmakers including Angus Wall of “The Social Network” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” The film lives on a new site that is being promoted on social media with the hashtag #youcanlearnanything, which, according to Topsy, had been mentioned over 500 times on Twitter on the first day alone.
The site also boasts a new digital learning dashboard, which allows students to track their progress across different subjects. There are several new educational resources and features for Khan Academy’s 12 million user base — such as videos about the science behind how your brain grows and discussion guides. There are also shareable charts and graphics, and stories from celebrities like musician John Legend, who discusses his own struggles and growth while learning.
“With so many people feeling disengaged from learning, we needed to start a conversation about how we, as a society, think about learning in general,” said Monica Tran, head of product strategy and marketing at Khan Academy, adding that Khan Academy wanted to dispel the belief that learning only happened at certain ages and certain times.
The idea behind the campaign is grounded in several studies that suggest that intelligence is malleable. The Khan Academy wants to encourage students across a range of age groups and circumstances to keep striving to further their knowledge. It draws significantly from the research pioneered by Dr. Carol Dweck of Stanford University that explores what she calls a “growth mindset” — which when adopted, affects motivation, the capacity to learn and, ultimately, success in life.
“Given Enso’s mission is positive impact at scale by creating movements between people and brands, we felt like the best way to spread the growth mindset to as many people as possible was to create a new movement around learning rather than just a marketing campaign,” Kirk Souder, the co-founder and creative lead at Enso, said.
More in Marketing
WTF is the American Privacy Rights Act
Who knows if or when it’ll actually happen, but the proposed American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) is as close as the U.S. has ever come to a federal law that manages to straddle the line between politics and policy.
Here’s how some esports orgs are positioning themselves to withstand esports winter
Here’s a look into how four leading esports orgs are positioning themselves for long-term stability and sustainability, independent of the whims of brand marketers.
Marketing Briefing: Marketers eye women’s sports as a growth area amid WNBA draft, record March Madness
Marketers are considering the space more this year, according to agency execs, with some noting that the women’s athletes may get more attention from brands ahead of the Summer Olympics this July.