Case Study:
Choose Your Sex-Edventure

CLIENT: LIFESTYLES

The Brief 

Following the success of Ask Grandad (national sex-ed program we created) in 2012\13, LifeStyles (formerly, Ansell) approached Venn to design, develop, and produce a new national sex-ed program alongside La Trobe University.

Together, we determined the key objectives for the project were: 

  • Provide a valuable and relevant resource to teachers and students across Australia, utilising the latest research from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) at La Trobe University. 

  • Bring LifeStyles’ brand values to life by demonstrating their commitment to sexual health and wellness, as well as diversity and inclusion.

Research & Strategy

Our initial research was focused on creating a valuable and relevant resource for students and teachers. We did so through a series of workshops (with LifeStyles and La Trobe University) and insight gathering processes, including: researching the curriculum, the legalities of sex, existing student resources and conducting stakeholder interviews with teachers and students. 

The result was a comprehensive report outlining our key findings and strategic recommendations. Creative development was guided by the following consolidated insights:

In addition to the creation of the resource, we recommended the content be supported by online resources for students and teachers, to be accessed outside of the classroom. 

For teachers, it would provide recommendations for how to structure their sex-ed classes, including other sex-ed resource recommendations.

For students, their website (originally established in 2012\13) would be a place to access additional information and support services.

Creative Development

After testing several ideas with La Trobe University experts, as well as teachers and students, we moved forward with a ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ interactive series.

The goal was to use the ‘moment of choice’ as an opportunity to start a class discussion about what was going on for the characters in that moment (and throughout the sequence they just watched). The themes and issues the story would explore would be managing relationships, digital interactions, peer-pressure and the complexities of consent. 

The diagram is a summary of the content we produced and how the ‘choices’ informed what happened next.

The content is supported by a comprehensive Teacher’s Guide, developed alongside a sex-ed education consultant and La Trobe University. The goal was to ensure that the guide was teacher focused, easy to use, supported by academic research, interactive and activity based, and that the classroom discussions were structured and safe for both students and teachers.