Hasta La Motion!

Star Trek: The Starfleet Academy Experience is an <a href="immersive exhibit by EMS Entertainment that will teach participants about the real and speculative science behind Star Trek’s fictional technology as they are “recruited” and “trained” to become members of Starlet. To launch the world premiere of the Experience at Canada Aviation and Space Museum, Acart Communications was selected to develop an immersive campaign using multiple tactics. It began with a mysterious, unbranded, “UFO” video that was featured on local TV news, and argued over on Reddit and social media. Next, the museum released an “intercepted transmission” of a Starfleet Shuttle in trouble. At the same time, an experiential installation of a crashed shuttle nacelle appeared in various locations, with two Starfleet science officers examining it with tricorders and two security officers guarding it. (Those curious enough to ask about it were handed metal cards with the campaign URL, joinstarfleetacademy.ca.) This scene was the subject of a front-page takeover on Metro Ottawa, with a news story entirely in Klingon (which one Redditor successfully translated). Next, a replica of Kirk’s Captain’s Chair toured malls and events, allowing the public to don a captain’s uniform and read authentic Kirk lines into a moderated Twitter feed, @jimmykirk2370. Finally, the main campaign creative was released on street-level posters and bus wraps. All creative was approved by the Star Trek intellectual property owner, CBS.

Starfleet Academy Experience Credits

The Starfleet Academy Experience campaign was developed at Acart by creative director/copywriter Tom Megginson, head of experiential Patrick Kavanagh, experiential project manager Jean-Rene Ello, executive creative director John Staresinic, associate creative director Vernon Lai, account director Craig Cebryk, graphic designer Patrick Harris, digital strategist Charles Crosbie, coding Leighton Rodney, video producer/director/French copywriter Emmanuelle Coutu, videographers Jérémy Prud’homme, Steven Desjardins, production managers Sarah Deschamps, and Lynn Norris.

Illustration was by Marc Audet at Rocket 57.

Klingon adaptations were done at Klingon Language Institute.