Oat the Goat
Ministry of Education
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
FCB New Zealand
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Tony Clewett Creative Director: Matt Barnes Copywriter: Lennie Galloway Art Director: Thomas Gledhill
Production Team
Assembly Ltd Liquid Studios Composer, Tane Upjohn-Beatson New Zealand Symphony Orchestra FCB New Zealand
Other Credits
Jenni Doubleday Sarah-Jane Ferens Rebecca Casey Matt von Trott Pip Mayne Carl Sarney, Clare Bone, Nick Pengelly, Corban Koschak, Josh Fourt-Wells, Matt Wilson, Elliot Stronge, Celine Giovanni, Geoff Kirk Smith, Gary Sullivan, Katie Naeher, Craig Speakman, Damon Duncan, Marcus Godoy, Scotty Wilson, Hamish McKeich, Graham Kennedy, James Dean, Tamara O’Neill, Shirleyanne McDonald-Shaw, Dave Fane, Piripi Taylor, Alistair Fraser, Melissa Neutroski
Date
May 2018
Background
Shockingly, New Zealand has the second worst rate of schoolyard bullying in the developed world. Last year, bullying was at record levels, with 94% of teachers witnessing it happening in their schools. The Ministry of Education acknowledged that their past method of telling children to say “Stop it, I don’t like it,” wasn’t working, and they needed a different approach. They also wanted to curb bullying at the earliest stage of a child’s development. So, the task was to create a resource that would captivate 4-7-year-olds and arm them with the tools they’d need to combat bullying in the schoolyard.
Idea
Unlike past campaigns that have tried to make victims more resilient, the focus was shifted to a previously unconsidered group - the bystanders. They recognised that attention is like oxygen for bullies – ignore them and they lose all power. From this insight, ‘Oat the Goat’ was created; an interactive online story where children and parents could help Oat navigate right and wrong as he encounters bullying on his big adventure. An adventure only made possible by ignoring the bullies and being kind to the victims. While the tale showed children the right thing to do as a bystander, it also gave them freedom to make the wrong decisions in Oat’s world, so they’d learn to make the right decisions in the real one. It was important that ‘Oat the Goat’ felt like a story made specifically for Kiwi children - not an off-the-shelf anti-bullying tale. So, each chapter was illustrated to represent a NZ environment - from Kauri forests to glow worm caves. These environments were enhanced with a sound bed and music score bursting with native birdsong and Taonga Puoro; sacred Maori instruments indigenous to New Zealand. They also worked with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to create an original, 78-piece orchestral score for all 11 minutes of Oat’s adventure.
To ensure every child was reached, regardless of socio-economic status, the tale was developed using WebGL, so the music, narration and animation could play across a broad spectrum of devices and connections.
Results
Just days after launching, Oat the Goat garnered the attention of families, teachers and the New Zealand media, with headlines such as “An absolute hit” and “Every child needs to read this”. Moreover: - In the first 3 weeks, OatTheGoat.co.nz received 105,000+ unique visits.
- Children spent an average of 9 minutes immersed in the story.
- To date, over 85% of all 4 to 7-year-olds in New Zealand have engaged with the online tale.
- And, it’s now an official part of the New Zealand school curriculum.
But, most importantly, children were helped to realise the power they have as bystanders. Never before has a campaign given this group on the periphery the language and behaviour needed to effectively stop bullying it in its tracks.