Dupont: HORIZONS

Credits & Description:

Category: Best International PR Campaign

Advertiser: DUPONT

Product/Service: DUPONT

Agency: OGILVY NEW YORK

Worldwide Managing Director: Sandeep Vasudevan (Ogilvy New York)

President: Doug Scott (Ogilvy Entertainment)

Executive Director: Andrew Fair (Ogilvy Entertainment)

Creative Director: Otto Bell (Ogilvy Entertainment)

Associate Director: Abby Marks (Ogilvy Entertainment)

Production Company: (Twofour)

Media placement: Web documentaries - Youtube - May 2011

Media placement: Branded Content TV (BBC Horizons) - BBC World News - May 2011



Summary of the Campaign

By 2050, 9bn people will be forced to share the earth. If nothing improves by the time those 2bn new arrivals show up, entire countries will compete fiercely — and possibly even do battle — for the basics of food and energy, creating global instability. Taking the long view, DuPont sees 3 emerging areas where their applied science can help the world:



• Ensuring food security

• Maximising use of fossil fuel resources while developing cleaner, renewable alternatives

• Protecting people and the environment as communities become more densely populated



The challenge of any one these mega-trends is immense. All 3 together require giant changes in how we arrive at solutions.



What’s more, the task is made more daunting by the sharp divisions that now exist among governments, public policy leaders, corporations and other stakeholders as to how these challenges can be met.



DuPont saw a responsibility to act. As a company with a 200-year history of leveraging science to solve tough problems, DuPont recognized it could be the honest broker – the catalyst and convener – bringing together the disparate parties that must unite if we are to succeed.



The result is campaign themed, Welcome to the Global Collaboratory. This non-traditional, 360-degree approach employed digital dominance, thought leadership and 3rd party content partnerships to begin a worldwide dialogue with global influencers and policymakers, express the urgency of the megatrends facing them, and demonstrate the power of collaboration in meeting the challenges of the coming decades.



The Situation

DuPont noticed that the triple mega-threats challenging our future stability sounded no alarm bells with either key policy-makers or the general public. Plus, while some were aware of the mounting challenges, they didn’t see DuPont as a solution. Despite years of creating life-improving scientific innovation, DuPont was still perceived as the same old chemical company it had been a century ago.



Something had to be done. And DuPont was going to do it.



The Goal

The campaign targeted 4 key objectives:



1. Raise awareness that any hope of finding solutions to these three planetary threats demands extraordinary collaboration.

2. Convince policymakers and opinion elites that DuPont is not just an old-line chemical manufacturer, but rather, the world’s leading applied-science company.

3. Ensure DuPont has a seat at the table where relevant policy discussions and decision making takes place.

4. Demonstrate convincingly DuPont’s collaborative and convening power worldwide, and establish the DuPont brand as a catalyst for progress in the minds of opinion leaders, customers and more than 60,000 DuPont employees globally.



The Strategy

Simple:

Become the trusted convener of the most important global debate: how to solve the world’s greatest challenges through scientific collaboration among parties that do not usually come together.



Create compelling branded content with trusted media (including the BBC and National Geographic) that sets up what’s at stake, why we should care, and how collaborative, applied science is making headway. Trigger ongoing conversations with these specific, emotionally-bonding stories.



Convene 2 'Global Collaboratory' events featuring and inviting the most influential thinkers and doers across the Food, Energy, and Protection sectors. Hold these in emerging, giant population markets that will be key actors in the planet’s future.



Finally, take the ambition inside DuPont, starting from the CEO and driving down through all 13 divisions, igniting a fire of purpose in employees.



Execution

Branded content partnerships were developed with the BBC and National Geographic, 2 of the most trusted names in mass communications. For the BBC, a custom television series, Horizons, was created and supported with 14 mini-documentaries showcasing DuPont scientific achievements. 3 films on the three mega-challenges were created in conjunction with National Geographic, as were editorial sponsorships and a co-branded website.



Thought leaders and policymakers around the world came into the conversation via two international summits. DuPont engaged with leading academics, government officials, regulatory organizations, heads of business and industry to move the mega-trend issues to the forefront of policymakers.



Digital media encouraged a true global dialogue by creating a sustainable business forum network (www.sustainablebusinessforum.com), a Facebook page (www.horizonsbusiness.com/account/facebook) for Horizons , and a collaborative microsite featuring interactive white papers and videos. (www.collaboratory.dupont.com)



Documented Results

Making DuPont the honest broker at the center of the collaboration quickly and substantially enhanced the company’s reputation by several measures.



Fortune magazine took notice of the 'Global Collaboratory', with DuPont climbing to #37 on their Most Admired Companies list in 2012, up from #52 in the previous ranking.



DuPont’s own key metrics in awareness, reputation, and recommendation increased an average of 15%.



Additional notable results included:



• A National Geographic poll showed 92% of respondents now have a very positive opinion of DuPont.

• Horizons drew the BBC’s second highest rating, with 450m households tuning in.

• 10,000 people became Facebook fans of Horizons.

• The mini-documentaries garnered 2m views on the DuPont YouTube Channel in just 2 months.

• 200 key clients and influencers, the heart of the target audience, attended seminars in India and Turkey.