An adorable fuzzy blue animatronic puppet named Patch is teaching children digital skills for the future. The initiative, Codemates, is by partners, Telstra, +61 and Bear Meets Eagle On Fire.

Children learn to control the puppet, with program tutorials aligned to the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies, in learning modules designed to teach complex problem-solving skills. But they have a lot of fun doing all that by coding musical farts, martial arts moves, and terrible jokes.

With Australia facing a shortfall of 131,000 technology workers by 2030, according to the Future Skills Organisation Workforce Plan 2025, the digital skills that coding teaches kids are more valuable than ever.

Brent Smart, CMO, Telstra, stated, “Instead of creating a campaign about how many young people the Telstra Foundation has helped, we thought it was more interesting if our idea focused on helping even more young people.”

Micah Walker, founder and chief creative officer of Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, added, “Bringing a puppet to life, literally, with the help of young coders is as fun as it is smart. Can’t wait to see what kids make Patch do.”

The 2025 initiative continues two decades of Telstra working to help hundreds of thousands of Australian kids to acquire digital skills through free programs such as Code Club. This campaign coincides with the 10th year anniversary of annual coding competition Moonhack, so it will be rolled out to thousands of Code Clubs across Australia.

Credits:

Creative Agency: +61 with Bear Meets Eagle on Fire
Media Agency: OMD Australia
PR & Communications agency: Herd MSL

Client: Telstra
Chief Marketing Officer: Brent Smart
Head of Brand and Communications: Alita McMenamin
Brand and Sponsorship Lead: Nicola Reeves
Internal & External Communications: Telstra Comms team

Production Company: Nexus Studios
Creative Lead & Director:  Laurie Rowan
Executive Producers:  Julia Parfitt & Zoe Philpott
Senior Producer: Zoe Philpott
Senior Producer Sydney:  Tanya Curnow
Head of Production: Kate Ellis
Creative Director:  Margaux Bjork
Technical Director: Patrick Hearn
Senior Creative Technologist:  Charles Yarnold
Creative Technologist: Hannah Corrie
Technical Lead:  Adam Child