Being the Change

INSPIRING CHANGE

Years after their release, some campaigns stand out as gems in our portfolio. Not just because of the impact they had, but because of something far more valuable — the relationships they built. 

Case in point: our Be The Change campaign for SAP Hybris. It gave us the opportunity to work once again with Johann Wrede, then Global Vice President, Corporate Marketing, at SAP. We’d worked with Johann earlier on the Connections video for SAP Hybris which had proved to be a runaway success. Johann wanted us to create a follow-up campaign for SAP Hybris launching its new offensive, “Beyond Disruption”, at the SAP Hybris Live: Digital Summit, a first-of-its-kind online event. 

It was 2017 — omnichannel and digital transformation were gaining traction. Customers were refusing to be passive consumers, and had taken to inform themselves, generating reams of data in their wake. In this complex and rapidly evolving landscape, businesses were struggling to find solutions that could effectively use this data to engage customers across channels. 

Through Hybris, SAP offered a disruptive ecommerce software suite that allowed businesses to capitalise on this data — they could now anticipate customers’ expectations in advance and deliver exactly what customers needed, when they needed it. SAP Hybris provided the agility and scalability that companies needed to become leaders in their industries. 

If SAP Hybris was designed to help companies transform in the new digital economy, then Johann wanted thought leaders across organisations to become disruptors and lead this change. He reached out to create a provocative and emotionally-charged campaign that would drive business leaders and early adopters to do things differently.

A CALL-TO-ARMS

Johann didn’t just talk about his goals for the campaign, but rolled up his sleeves and plunged into ideation with us. Through the enriching conversations that followed, Johann revealed his beliefs about what true change-making entailed and how he envisioned the process of transformation.

“Business leaders need to transform their companies from within, only then can they revolutionise the industry. What’s needed is for one person to spark the change.”  Johann told us.

It was these insights that inspired us to center the campaign around the idea to “Be The Change.”

To fuel this transformation, we looked to history, both past and recent, to identify trailblazers — men and women who had challenged the norms and changed the world. From John Lennon and Leonardo da Vinci to George Orwell and Amelia Earhart, we sought the bold and the brave who had moved the world forward.

We threaded inspiring visuals of these pioneers through a story of innovation and invention for the campaign’s central piece — the brand manifesto video. Set to an iconic soundtrack and accompanied by emphatic text, we had the visuals of these changemakers transition to portraits of everyday people — showing that we all have the power to ‘Be The Change’.

WALKING THE TALK

To bolster the campaign’s message, we worked with Johann to create 15-second videos of SAP thought leaders putting their money on the table.

Through short, punchy interviews, we captured five of SAP’s business leaders sharing how they lived the ‘Be The Change’ message at work. These powerful snippets would serve to make these ideas actionable and relatable, supporting the storytelling with real-world examples of how inspired leaders can apply these principles in their day-to-day.

 THE JOURNEY IS THE REWARD

The event was a success and the tagline “Be The Change” went on to become a theme of the SAP Hybris Digital Summit. But for us, the fun is always in the making, and in the trust that Johann placed in us by inviting us to co-create and evangelise his vision. His generosity and confidence pushed us to create a memorable campaign that we’re proud of to this day.