2021 Winner
2021 Winners
Dairy Farmers of Ontario
Dairycraft
For 40 years, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO) have been part of Toronto’s Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (RAWF), offering in-person learning experiences to teach kids about all things dairy. In 2020, however, the Fair was closed to the public. The tas was to shift to a virtual experience, so DFO could maintain its long-standing relationship with RAWF and continue to educate children on the merits of milk and dairy farming.
No Fixed Address’s solution had to be virtual, classroom-friendly, and congruent with Ontario educational curriculum guidelines. They needed a creative way to break physical boundaries and bring the farm into the classroom (or the classroom @home) and get students just as excited as a trip to the Fair. Plus, it needed to be easily accessible to teachers, students and the general public.
Play is an extremely effective yet underutilized learning device. Teacher interviews and desk research taught us that kids learn best when actively participating in teaching experiences. Field trips have always been a great way to get kids engaged in learning because they are hands-on, immersive, and fun. They couldn’t recreate the hands-on experience of a field trip to the Fair, but what if they created a gaming Trojan Horse that used an interactive and immersive experience to teach the rich story of Ontario dairy farms?
DairyCraft: a dairy farm built on Minecraft that Ontario students could visit from anywhere in the world to learn about the merits of milk and dairy farming. They created their own Minecraft World, transporting students and teachers to a virtual dairy farm. DairyCraft included a range of immersive learning experiences designed around the core concepts of the Ontario elementary school curriculum. For example, a lesson plan for grade 1 taught science and technology by inviting students to explore the different structures on a dairy farm and learn about their role in dairy production.
Three lesson plans were developed based on the Ontario curriculum requirements for grades 1, 4, and 5. Each provided immersive educational experiences that could easily be used as part of a teacher’s lesson plans, either in the physical classroom or through synchronous learning at home – for free.
The execution of this innovative project required a hybrid perspective that integrated multiple skill sets. They tapped into the expertise of game developers, thought like educators, became engaging storytellers and brought it all together with digital communications.
A communications plan to drive traffic and promote the Dairycraft brand was divided into teaser and launch phases. The teaser launched November 2. Emails drove users to their landing page. There, a countdown timer enticed users to sign up. The launch was executed on November 10 on the website landing page with a direct link to download DairyCraft and learn more about the available lesson plans. Ad placements within the virtual Fair and additional targeted email communications drove traffic to experience Dairycraft.
“It is a very unique and creative way to engage students while enhancing their learning in this 21st century framework of teaching. The program brings an exciting and modern flare to concepts not thought about regularly by children.” commented one eager educator.
By March 2021, Dairycraft had been downloaded more than 1.8 million times. From 8000+ reviews from users and educators, they’ve garnered a 4+ star rating. Dairycraft is still being played around the world by some of Minecraft's 126 million monthly active users!
Some students and even gaming influencers have gone so far as to record their gameplay and post these sessions on YouTube.
Minecraft isn’t used by many brands. When it is, it’s typically a cursory attempt to motivate positive sentiment in the platform’s young, gamer audience. They wanted to do more than that. To use Minecraft for good and not just leverage the block-building aspect of the game. To integrate actual Ontario Curriculum into the experience, making it beneficial for teachers, students, and the DFO.
They started by partnering with Blockworks, an official Minecraft game studio partner. Together, they set out to build the game and lesson plans. Working closely with DFO’s educators, they built core lessons and topics, aligning them with lesson plans suitable for grades One, Four and Five - fully compliant with the Ontario school curriculum.
The immersive environment offered hours of self-led discovery on top of the game’s assigned tasks and learning modules. Web assets and data-driven email communications drove teachers and students to the experience.
The lessons designed for grade 1, 4, and 5 teachers and students were available on both Minecraft’s Education and Public Marketplace. This way, anyone working in-class, or virtually could benefit from learning about a working, Ontario dairy farm. This was also a findability asset.
Their in-game UX provided kids with a wide range of tasks and challenges. Players could interact with characters on the farm, getting tips and clues to help complete tasks. Especially helpful to teachers, as they didn’t need to be so involved and could rely on the platform to help teach the curriculum.
Working with teachers is a delicate process. Since they can’t be targeted through typical channels, there was no paid digital media. They leveraged DFO’s title sponsorship at the 2020 (virtual) RAWF with “virtual signage” in their “virtual booth” that promoted Dairycraft and prompted visiting teachers, principals, and educators to sign up to the distribution list through their custom, lead-gen landing page.
Data-driven email comms were then sent to this and the DFO’s educator mailing list, leading to a microsite that provided access to the curriculums and linked to the download of the Minecraft dairy farm map on the Minecraft Education Platform.
The website was geared towards educators, but they also knew that, with home-schooling, parents (and even kids) might happen upon the site. To appeal to them, they also linked free access to the dairy farm content from the public Minecraft Marketplace.
No Fixed Address’s solution had to be virtual, classroom-friendly, and congruent with Ontario educational curriculum guidelines. They needed a creative way to break physical boundaries and bring the farm into the classroom (or the classroom @home) and get students just as excited as a trip to the Fair. Plus, it needed to be easily accessible to teachers, students and the general public.
Play is an extremely effective yet underutilized learning device. Teacher interviews and desk research taught us that kids learn best when actively participating in teaching experiences. Field trips have always been a great way to get kids engaged in learning because they are hands-on, immersive, and fun. They couldn’t recreate the hands-on experience of a field trip to the Fair, but what if they created a gaming Trojan Horse that used an interactive and immersive experience to teach the rich story of Ontario dairy farms?
DairyCraft: a dairy farm built on Minecraft that Ontario students could visit from anywhere in the world to learn about the merits of milk and dairy farming. They created their own Minecraft World, transporting students and teachers to a virtual dairy farm. DairyCraft included a range of immersive learning experiences designed around the core concepts of the Ontario elementary school curriculum. For example, a lesson plan for grade 1 taught science and technology by inviting students to explore the different structures on a dairy farm and learn about their role in dairy production.
Three lesson plans were developed based on the Ontario curriculum requirements for grades 1, 4, and 5. Each provided immersive educational experiences that could easily be used as part of a teacher’s lesson plans, either in the physical classroom or through synchronous learning at home – for free.
The execution of this innovative project required a hybrid perspective that integrated multiple skill sets. They tapped into the expertise of game developers, thought like educators, became engaging storytellers and brought it all together with digital communications.
A communications plan to drive traffic and promote the Dairycraft brand was divided into teaser and launch phases. The teaser launched November 2. Emails drove users to their landing page. There, a countdown timer enticed users to sign up. The launch was executed on November 10 on the website landing page with a direct link to download DairyCraft and learn more about the available lesson plans. Ad placements within the virtual Fair and additional targeted email communications drove traffic to experience Dairycraft.
“It is a very unique and creative way to engage students while enhancing their learning in this 21st century framework of teaching. The program brings an exciting and modern flare to concepts not thought about regularly by children.” commented one eager educator.
By March 2021, Dairycraft had been downloaded more than 1.8 million times. From 8000+ reviews from users and educators, they’ve garnered a 4+ star rating. Dairycraft is still being played around the world by some of Minecraft's 126 million monthly active users!
Some students and even gaming influencers have gone so far as to record their gameplay and post these sessions on YouTube.
Minecraft isn’t used by many brands. When it is, it’s typically a cursory attempt to motivate positive sentiment in the platform’s young, gamer audience. They wanted to do more than that. To use Minecraft for good and not just leverage the block-building aspect of the game. To integrate actual Ontario Curriculum into the experience, making it beneficial for teachers, students, and the DFO.
They started by partnering with Blockworks, an official Minecraft game studio partner. Together, they set out to build the game and lesson plans. Working closely with DFO’s educators, they built core lessons and topics, aligning them with lesson plans suitable for grades One, Four and Five - fully compliant with the Ontario school curriculum.
The immersive environment offered hours of self-led discovery on top of the game’s assigned tasks and learning modules. Web assets and data-driven email communications drove teachers and students to the experience.
The lessons designed for grade 1, 4, and 5 teachers and students were available on both Minecraft’s Education and Public Marketplace. This way, anyone working in-class, or virtually could benefit from learning about a working, Ontario dairy farm. This was also a findability asset.
Their in-game UX provided kids with a wide range of tasks and challenges. Players could interact with characters on the farm, getting tips and clues to help complete tasks. Especially helpful to teachers, as they didn’t need to be so involved and could rely on the platform to help teach the curriculum.
Working with teachers is a delicate process. Since they can’t be targeted through typical channels, there was no paid digital media. They leveraged DFO’s title sponsorship at the 2020 (virtual) RAWF with “virtual signage” in their “virtual booth” that promoted Dairycraft and prompted visiting teachers, principals, and educators to sign up to the distribution list through their custom, lead-gen landing page.
Data-driven email comms were then sent to this and the DFO’s educator mailing list, leading to a microsite that provided access to the curriculums and linked to the download of the Minecraft dairy farm map on the Minecraft Education Platform.
The website was geared towards educators, but they also knew that, with home-schooling, parents (and even kids) might happen upon the site. To appeal to them, they also linked free access to the dairy farm content from the public Minecraft Marketplace.