Named connectEd, the campaign solved a very real problem for the agency using a technology it is being called upon to harness more and more often on clients' behalf.
Draftfcb Impact's executive creative director, Marthinus Duckitt, explained that it is an accepted business and social phenomenon: the more one knows about and empathises with one's co-workers, the better the communication between the team in the work place, and the better the team functions. However, Draftfcb Impact's creative team was just too busy to get to know each other.
“Within any people-rich business environment, grabbing a beer at the end of the day or taking a smoke break to shoot the breeze is vital for seamless communication and productivity. We knew that not knowing our fellow creatives' personal foibles was cramping our collective style, compromising our productivity and restricting our professional take. We needed a place, or a way, we could share our thoughts, let people know what made us laugh, what inspired us.
“Our solution to this work-cum-social dilemma was to create a social networking group on Twitter called connectEd. But, this needed to be introduced to the team in a manner that would intrigue and engage them,” he said.
To kick off the project, Draftfcb Impact's intrepid copywriters created unique and slightly off-the-wall-but-100%-true biographies for everyone, and its art directors and designers interpreted these visually to create an aptly-illustrated bio-page for everyone on the team. These were reproduced in a book, to ‘skin' - or individualise - everyone's Twitter page, and to create a screen saver through which you could click to see the various individual profiles.
Prior to officially launching the concept, a teaser campaign comprising stickers and posters piqued everyone's interest, while the launch, with specially-designed connectEd T-shirts and the book of bios, created a buzz around the agency and got everyone tweeting.
Added Duckitt: “As a result of the Twitter networking group launched by the creatives, we got connected and are still connected. Communication in the agency is at an all-time high, and connectEd is proving to be the perfect platform for the young, tech-savvy creatives to interact and solve their creative problems.
“An added benefit is that the team gets to experience firsthand one of the digital media proving to be a necessary elements of most campaigns they are putting together these days. ConnectEd has been a worthwhile learning experience, and rewarding social interaction, for us all.”
ConnectEd won a Silver Loerie at this year's awards in the Internal Marketing Programmes category.
