The Chemistry of Success

For global chemicals giant BASF, creating chemistry is the foundation of their business model. It’s also a central message the company espouses to partners, customers, employees and in the communities where they live and work.

While the program has attracted great interest over the past few years among students and their parents, its media profile needed a boost to make it work harder for the company. Working together with Ketchum, BASF re-energized their media strategy by rolling out a pre-event education and publicity strategy targeting the kids, parenting and education sections of leading print and online outlets in the city.

As part of its global corporate social responsibility activities, BASF has expanded this message to children around the world, by educating them about the significance of chemistry in their everyday lives.

Its signature program, BASF Kids’ Lab, is an interactive chemistry education program first launched at BASF’s headquarters in Germany in 1997. It was introduced to Asia Pacific region in 2002, and now takes place in 12 countries and region in Asia Pacific, where children have the opportunity to discover the world of chemistry through simple and fun chemistry experiments, that can be related to daily life. In 2010, BASF Kids’ Lab made a special presence in “The Magic Map Show” at Shanghai Expo 2010, brought by Sesame Street and BASF.

For the first time, the company also expanded the program’s profile among social media channels, including parenting blogs, by establishing a dedicated Facebook fan page for participants and interested parties to share photos and comments about Kids’ Lab.

This strategy created the perfect chemistry for success by elevating the program’s awareness across the local community, while creating an opportunity for the program to engage a new community online.