The Grand National Assembly of Türkiye through the Eyes of Children: TBMM Children’s Project
Although pondering the most intriguing topics seems to be quite normal in childhood, being curious about certain things isn’t. The question “How are laws made?” probably hasn’t crossed the minds of most of us, except for the overly curious, enthusiastic, and unconventional friends in our group. Even if we understand why our April 23rd celebrations are linked to national sovereignty and know the founding date of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, we probably haven’t thought much about the Assembly’s main mission. To be honest, we hadn’t thought about it ourselves until we came across the TBMM Children’s Project Working Group. However, over the next five years, as the first and only agency of the TBMM Children’s Project, we have developed a lot of content explaining Parliament to children.
- ZMarketing Strategy
- ZDigital Marketing
- ZVideo Production
Services We Provided
- Marketing Strategy
- ^Content Marketing Strategy and Planning
- Digital Marketing
- ^Video Content Production
- Video Production
- ^Promotional Film
- ^Product Video
The TBMM Children’s Project began with the need to create educational materials for preschool children that would allow them to learn about basic social values, the legislative process, and internalize the concept of citizenship in a fun way. In the following phases, both the type of content and the channels through which to reach the target audience diversified. From explanatory videos created with two-dimensional animation to original character designs, from videos combining video and three-dimensional animation to social media posts, from children’s books to promotional products, a wide range of content was produced. A website showcasing all digital content was also created entirely by Siu Digital.
How We Started?
After realizing the significant contribution that children’s interpretation of active citizenship makes to their development as conscious and responsible citizens, we realized the importance of the TBMM Children’s Project to our country. After researching how to explain the abstract concept of legislation to preschoolers and consulting with experts, we decided on a gamification-based approach that included the development of a web portal, 3D animation films, explanatory videos created using two-dimensional animation techniques, and storybooks.
The materials developed were intended not only to support formal education, but also to engage children through play and instill a sense of citizenship. For this reason, we created two characters named Ali and Ayşe and decided to introduce children to the adventures they would experience through three-dimensional animated films and storybooks. In addition, the project aimed to develop children’s reading habits through printed versions of the storybooks, which were published and distributed in addition to the digital versions available in the library on the developed portal. The project also served to introduce real places related to the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye (TBMM) or important places for the Republic of Türkiye through interesting animated characters in the background of 3D animation films. With these decisions, the development process of the TBMM Children’s Project began in 2013, a valuable resource for the generations that will shape the future.
What We Did?
TBMM Children’s Project is a very special project that created different types of content and the most visited children’s portal in Türkiye during its active period. The following services were provided as part of the project:
- ZDuring the preparation phase of the project, Detailed Literature Review and Conceptual Design studies were conducted. Examples from around the world were studied and projects of this type developed by different country parliaments and children's portals were evaluated through detailed studies.
- ZThe names Ali and Ayşe were chosen for the cartoon characters to match the sensitivities and culture of the Turkish nation. We provided all kinds of services, from the conception of the characters to the design of the musculature to the preparation of environment designs, and the modeling of the entire three-dimensional world for the animation production.
- ZThe animation characters were set to music by famous Turkish animation artists. A jingle composed and recorded especially for the project was prepared.
- ZThe project produced four 3D animation films, two 2D explanatory videos, and four storybooks suitable for children aged 5 years and above, containing information about citizenship and legislation to create a basic awareness of citizenship in the minds of children.
- ZThe purpose of the books, which were created by converting selected scenes from the prepared 3D animation films into a comic book format, was to reinforce what the children had learned. To make the books appealing to children, some pages were converted to a black-and-white and line art format suitable for coloring, and they were designed to be playful.
- ZDue to the application of the gamification approach in the developed web portal, three different designs were created for each age group to attract children's attention and increase their time spent on the website. Three separate user interfaces were developed for ages 5-8, 9-12, and 13-18 to keep children on the website longer and redirect them to other destinations when they reached certain goals.
Result
The TBMM Children’s Project was for us not only a project with many of the social benefits mentioned above, but also a very profitable project that offered us a vision for the development of our storytelling skills first at the national level and then at the international level. At the end of the project, the following results were achieved:
- ZThe portal that was created for the project www.tbmmcocuk.gov.tr became one of the most visited children's portals in our country during its active period.
- ZIn the first six months of 2017, the TBMM Children's portal was the most visited children's portal in Türkiye, with approximately 264,000 visits, and recorded a 70% increase in the number of visitors.
- ZThe content produced was found to meet the need for educational materials on the topic of national sovereignty and citizenship awareness, especially in the context of April 23, National Sovereignty and Children's Day at the primary school level.
- ZThe project served to introduce interesting animation characters in real places relevant to the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye or the Republic of Türkiye.
- ZThanks to the library included in the portal and the developed printed storybooks, a contribution was made to the reading habits of children.
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