Deloitte Digital Agency Launch

Challenge:

The consulting & services industry is at an inflection point, with the key area of growth being the shift of spend from the CIO and CTO to the  CMO as the world of marketing is upended by digital – eradicating decades of traditional marketing strategies. Creative agencies are acquiring technical delivery and strategy firms, while there is an arms race in the consulting industry to acquire creative and innovation agencies.

Deloitte had made its initial investments and was ready to unite the partners and principals of the firm around the go-to-market strategy.  Leadership needed to show the global partners how it envisioned them selling differently, with a refreshed brand, and in an unconventional way, in order to corner the market.

Deloitte wanted to host a sales kickoff, launching the brand internally and bringing to life the vision that this is not your grandfather’s Deloitte. They needed to unite 200 partners across the global firm to collaborate and grow sales from $400M in 2014 to $2.1B by 2020.

Solution:

Focusing on the themes, brand goals, and strategic vision of the firm, I reimagined every event element. From the event design to agenda programing, I found ways to make each piece embody the mission of showcasing Deloitte Digital as an innovative digital leader, inspiring and empowering the partners to share that vision with their clients.

I selected Moonlight Studios in the industrial West Loop of Chicago as the venue, a shocking departure from the traditional Ritz Carlton ballrooms of typical Deloitte conferences.

The overall event design concept was that of a mature startup – not the cartoonish colors and aesthetic of your 20-something Silicon Valley, but one in which the team was methodical about the details, with evolved taste and the mentality that anything worth doing is doing right.

From the mahogany stage floor, mid-century modern furniture and lighting fixtures, and absent the suggested laser-light show, Jim Moffat summed up the feedback with his first words in taking the stage at the event “This is a great venue and perfect for what we are launching today.”

I reinvented our elementary “What is Digital” overview video into an energy-building sizzle reel. I also brought in motion-graphics designer Jeffrey Osborne to design subtle projections on nearly every surface of the venue, adding a 21st century immersive feel to the historical walls of the converted factory.

Ahead of dinner and as the evening activity, I designed a live interactive exhibit showcasing the best of Deloitte Digital’s mobile applications on supersize tablets, exposing partners to the work done across the global firm, paired with a few hands-on demos of leading non-gaming VR experiences from which to draw future inspiration for their client conversations, and what ended up being the first time many of the attendees had ever experienced Virtual Reality.

And given that nearly all partners only had one headshot, in conservative dress, I brought in portrait photographer Eric Ryan Anderson, straight from a cover shoot for Hollywood Reporter, to capture our leaders in a modern aesthetic more akin to a Fast Company feature.

For dinner, opposite in spirit to the typical plated filet mignon, firm partners were greeted by the arrival of a fleet of Chicago’s best food trucks.

The evening culminated with entertainment by leading re-mix artist Dj Earworm who combines the old with the new, and the Brooklyn-based indie-rock band Ra Ra Riot, fresh off their Beta Love tour which had a lyrical focus inspired by Ray Kurzweil’s The Singularity Is Near.

Result:

The event lived true to the mindset changing experience, as was designed. The executed vision led partners to not only be convinced of, but also energized by the momentous evolution in the firm toward cooperative selling of transformative digital and creative services. The event served as an example of agency capability, as well as a statement of brand and identity evolution.

Since the event, I was able to carry this energy and sentiment forward, throughout the organization. A recap and video was published on the global homepage of the 160,000 person organization (the biggest internal PR possible). Additionally, I led the development of a series of videos highlighting key messages and depicting various storylines that have since been shared not only across the firm, but also with analysts, and as a tool in client conversations and pitches.