All is not lost.
Winning over hearts & minds for a merger worth believing in.
Client
Global Technology Group
studio expertise
Event Design
Creative Strategy & Concept
Storytelling: name, tagline, key messages
Brand Strategy & Identity
Event Program & Content Development
Communication Strategy & Assets
Creation of Storyboards & Scripts - Film
Creation of all experiences and activities
Event management & production from A to Z
project partners
Graphic Design - Benoit Clair Film Production - EO Prod
In a nutshell
The objective of this project was to motivate a global sales team to get onboard a new acquisition. Having just come through a recent merger, the situation was a little delicate.
Our brief was to design a global sales meeting experience that would ensure each individual would leave with the feeling — this is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for.
To demonstrate that the future is what we make of it, we created a new kind of sales meeting that had never been done before. This enabled the company to prove that they could do things they previously thought impossible. By giving people an authentic experience of “different”, we engaged teams, boosted morale and instilled a positive outlook on the future.
5 minute read
Insight
How do you get people to see the positive side of change? How do you instill confidence in it? And how do you cope with potential cynicism and skepticism?
We proposed that the company use their global sales meeting as opportunity to exemplify the values of the change they were promising. To motivate sales teams we needed to show them, not tell them, that a positive change was already here.
Communication would be carefully designed to encourage people to keep an open mind and suggest a way of looking at the situation that they hadn’t yet considered.
As for the meeting itself, every single detail needed to be living proof of the change being promised — doing things differently and achieving the extraordinary.
What we did
We created an event over 2 days that was designed to address doubts and create clarity on the vision and strategy for the future.
1.
Rebranding the standard Sales Meeting as a Creative Festival
From the very start the communication had to have a “never seen before” quality in order to break with the past and give people a sense that things had already started to change for the better.
We sidestepped any preconceptions linked with the old brand as well as the future owner (which for legal reasons we couldn’t use) by creating an entirely new brand identity and name that people would own and love. This was not going to be just another sales meeting. This was going to be the Woodstock of sales meetings.
2.
From Numbers to People
Invitations to past sales meetings had been delivered via the impersonal media of mass email. To break from this and reinforce the message that each individual mattered and they were not just a number on the payroll, printed invitations and tickets were sent directly to each sales representative’s personal home address.
The outside of the invitations evoked a VIP feeling and gave a sense of intrigue and "never been seen before".
Invitations opened up to reveal a surprising festive universe reinforcing the message that this was not going to be an ordinary sales meeting.
Once on site, individuals were greeted with personal welcome packages complete with custom made clothing items subtly featuring the event monogram with zero corporate branding. The intention was to create real gifts for people that they would love and avoid the trap of excessive company branding so they could be adopted as personal items.
3.
Rebranding Discipline
We created a time-keeping challenge that started from the moment sales reps arrived at the venue. The goal was to transform the perception of a disciplined person from “a bore who follows the rules” to “someone who has personal mastery.” The impact was measurable and visible. No one was late for any activity and no session ran over time. Arriving on time for activities became perceived as a leadership quality, and most people started showing up 20 minutes early!
4.
Thinking beyond me and mine
Previously, teams had been working in silos. To break this mindset we needed a lightbulb moment. A series of enigmas were developed that could only be partially solved by each team working alone. During the task, each team began to realise that they were stuck, and that the only way forward was to bravely suggest collaboration with others.
The result? Hundreds of sales reps working as one team succeeded in solving the ultimate enigma, and they did it faster than any company in history.
5.
Sales reps singing opera?
Creating something from nothing gives people a kind of satisfaction and joy that is rare. To deliver a tangible and unforgettable experience of unity and to restore a sense of camaraderie we challenged the sales teams to create a choir. In the space of 2 hours, four professional opera coaches took hundreds of sales reps from — I can’t sing to — we’ve just performed a classical concert.
6.
We may still have a long way to go, but look how far we've come.
The true value of this company was its people. They had been pioneers in bringing some of the most innovative technology solutions to market and were backed by the best minds in the business. We created a series of films that retold the story of the company’s greatest breakthroughs and the individuals behind them. This reminded teams of the inherent brilliance within the company which generated feelings of pride and boosted confidence. Focusing the meeting around this essential truth helped to build a narrative of resilience — We did it before, so we can do it again.
A film series took people behind the scenes of the company’s greatest breakthroughs and the individuals behind them.
7.
Leading by example
Following a series of interviews filmed on location all over Europe, we created a docu-series that challenged senior sales leaders to talk frankly about their personal struggles in the recent years and give examples of how their teams had overcome the odds time and time again in the face of enormous competition. The series highlighted the high esteem in which the directors held their sales teams, and gave them a platform to express their personal belief and commitment to the next chapter.
Watching the docu-series together in front of the whole company gave teams a sense of recognition and pride, but also it delivered an inspiring vision of the future that sales teams could really get behind.
Results
They call it Woodstock.
By giving teams a positive experience of the changes to come, the event dissolved doubts, boosted morale and transformed the company narrative.
The event opened up a space for listening which gave management a platform to communicate a tangible vision for the future that people could get behind. Negative attitudes and fears were dissolved. Sales teams left the meeting feeling motivated, re-energized, and confident that this was the place to be.
The level of excellence and attention to detail throughout every aspect of the event design functioned as an example of how the company was going to behave moving forward. It raised the bar and provided a new reference point for “how we do things around here”.
Following the event, language from the various film series and communication collaterals began permeating the culture of the organisation as well as the personal discourse of management team.
Today, people no longer refer to their annual gathering as a “sales meeting”. They call it Woodstock.
Let’s talk! — We’ll look after you.