IBM Hidden Figures

The Brief: Showcase IBM’s long history of diversity and inclusion and ties to space exploration.

20th Century Fox was releasing a movie based on a novel entitled Hidden Figures. During the Space Race, NASA’s computers were women. Hidden Figures tells the unbelievable but true story of three African-American female mathematicians working at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. They wanted a chance to change their lives; while they were at it, they changed history.

These human “computers,” with help from an early mainframe provided by IBM, created computations that enabled John Glenn to become the first American astronaut to orbit the earth. The 1962 launch of the Mercury capsule Friendship 7 transformed the Space Race, became a symbol of American pride, and led to breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics worldwide.

Our Response: Showcase many more Hidden Figures throughout history and shine a light on women and people of color who have made great achievements in STEM.

We partnered with the New York Times and TBrand studio to create an augmented reality application that would place statues of these people in your real-life setting. We also placed the statues in geo-fenced areas of large cities so you can see them next to other landmarks of the era. The augmented reality app debuted at the NY premiere of the Hidden Figures movie, portraits were taken with the stars of the movie standing next to their augmented reality counterparts.

The second extension of the campaign was a custom Vanity Fair profile in the print magazine and online that shone a light on current notable and diverse role models in S.T.E.M.

We then took the campaign to the Computer and Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where we created an installation that allowed many more people to be exposed to the story of these historical women. The CES event consisted of a live panel moderated by Soledad O’Brien. Panelists were the director of the movie Hidden Figures Theodore Melfi, actress Octavia Spencer, IBMer Kristen Summers, P-Tech founder Rashid Davis, Fox President Elizabeth Gabler, VP of Girls Who Code Leah Gilliam, and IBM’s Chief Diversity officer Lindsay McIntire.

My role as Executive Producer was to determine feasibility, scoping for augmented reality application, the premiere activation, CES booth, Live Panel and distribution of AR markers throughout Las Vegas.

ClientIBMServicesAugment Reality / CES Booth / Live Stream PanelProd CoNYT TBrand Studios / Vanity Fair Studios / Internal