Little captains at play

Abstract

This paper presents Little Captains at Play, a public communications

campaign and national play movement by four final-year undergraduates from the

Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information.

Playtime has been continually declining over the past decade, with an

increasing overemphasis on structured programmes over unstructured play. In light of

this trend, Little Captains at Play was hence conceptualised to reinstate the balance of

structured and unstructured play among preschoolers in Singapore.

Targeted at parents with children aged three to six years old, the campaign

aims to address the need for holistic development by utilising parents’ stories to

encourage self-reflection and discussion. Supported by expert opinions and a range of

online and offline engagement strategies, the campaign employed a three-pronged

approach to educate, inspire and empower parents to provide their children with more

opportunities for unstructured play.

This paper contains primary and secondary research detailing society’s

attitudes and perceptions towards children’s play, and explains the framework used to

build up the campaign’s communication strategies. The campaign execution is

outlined and its effectiveness evaluated through qualitative and quantitative methods

including pre- and post-campaign surveys, analysis of media reports, and assessment

of the audience engagement strategies. Finally, the paper addresses limitations to the

campaign and presents recommendations for future initiatives.