Barclays want to become the only purpose-driven bank, so created a range of new societal initiatives, with a vision to help take everyone forward and leave no one behind in the digital revolution.

Code Playground is the latest initiative, helping children aged 7-17 learn code - the new language for the new economy.

Our brief was to recruit kids to free in-branch coding sessions and to help parents recognise the importance of coding for kids and their future employability.

The site we created is a fun, interactive coding experience, designed to give a first taster and to then encourage signups for branch lessons.

The site features a world of quirky characters that show how simple and yet diverse coding can be. It was designed to break down assumptions that only certain types of people can code - encouraging the belief that coding isn't just about techies in dimly lit rooms.

The Code Playground website was the first element to go live on the 15th January 2015, followed by four TVC variations between January and March.

Paid search and promoted social posts were activated in the first week of February, causing a huge uplift in traffic to the website. Emphasis on these channels was reduced later in the month, as these users were not converting to booking branch sessions. However, as search and social activity reduced, so did total Code Playground website traffic - so a balance was eventually found after some experimentation.

During the website live period it was possible to see where users were engaging more or less, so web optimisation sessions were carried out - for example, reducing the length of the site’s opening credits - to ensure that the bounce rate was minimised (people leaving without engaging), and then number of users and session lengths were maximised.

Targets were hit within two weeks of it going live - receiving over 395,000 visits from 130 countries including 9,500 visits within a single day. Over a million minutes of coding were initiated through Code Playground. The five ads have collectively received 148,000+ views on YouTube.

Over 2,000 places have been booked at Code Playground sessions in Barclays branches.

Through Google Analytics we were able to see that teachers were using Code Playground as an educational resource for their classes, and parents were visiting the site to educate themselves in the evenings.

The site won FWA website of the day.