Time Warner Cable Brings Space Shuttle Endeavour Home - Time Warner Cable & California Science Center
Time Warner Cable is the major cable provider in Southern California, serving almost two million subscribers. With a philanthropic focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and faced with the challenge of cutting through local media clutter in the Los Angeles marketplace, Time Warner needed a blockbuster campaign. When NASA announced that the California Science Center would be the final home of the space shuttle Endeavour, they jumped at the chance to participate. Their goals? To generate visibility and interest in STEM education, to create a campaign that would engender company goodwill and loyalty, to engage our employees in ways that generated pride in their own STEM skills, and to provide support for the California Science Center in their challenge to raise enough funds to bring Endeavour home.
The partnership around Endeavour between the California Science Center and Time Warner Cable was one of the largest either entity had undertaken. The campaign was multi-dimensional in scope, but short in timeframe. The space shuttle landed in Los Angeles in late September 2012, and two weeks later, it needed to move to the Science Center.
To ensure media coverage in a city that values celebrity above all, Time Warner Cable engaged Captain Mark Kelly, the final commander of Endeavour, as the spokesperson.
In order for Endeavour to move through 13 miles of city streets, 30 key cable sites had to be renovated, re-routed, or altered to ensure Endeavour could pass clearly, all without negative customer impact. As part of the partnership, Time Warner Cable donated six months of work by the construction team, more than 45 engineers and on-site technicians, as well as engineering expertise to the California Science Center for use with other utilities and city services.
Additionally, Time Warner donated more than $2.7 million in airtime to the California Science Center over a three year time span. This ensured that, not only did Endeavour receive tremendous visibility in the weeks after its arrival, but that the emphasis on engaging young minds in STEM education through Endeavour will continue through 2015.