We needed to break out from B2B-communication. By using an unconventional creative solution campaign at heart, we rewrote the perception of Sandvik as an old industrial company to that of a world-leading digital technology and manufacturing company.

With Sandvik's generative AI and digital manufacturing capabilities, we bent time and space to bring five classic sculptors back to life in an impossible collaboration. A new work of art for the world to see.

The Impossible Statue reached the unreachable, creating global debate about what art really is. It sparked millions of conversations, and ushered in the future of digital manufacturing.

Situation

Sandvik, a 161-year-old global manufacturing company was making a huge shift into digital manufacturing, but their heritage was working against them. They were still being considered a traditional engineering company, while their digital-tech forward competition thrived.

Brief

Our brief was to make Sandvik’s digital manufacturing expertise world famous and to showcase it in a way that was engaging, relatable and respected by engineers the world over.

Objectives

Our goal with the campaign was primary to create fame for Sandvik and its digital manufacturing transformation. To do this, we needed to spark conversation about Sandvik across industries. We also wanted the activation to draw attention to Sandvik as a company that uses technology in ways that push the limits of human advancement. This way we could help them with yet another goal - to attract the next generation of digital talent.

Industrialization 4.0 is changing the manufacturing world. Led by machine learning and generative AI, it is a complex transformation where the applications in planning, design, machining and verification are subjects far from the societal discourse and popular culture.

However, the discussion around the technologies themselves has reached a boiling point in culture. On one hand people are incredibly excited about the capabilities of generative AI. On the other hand, there is fierce debate whether generative AI has the capability to replace humans, by generating original creativity, or an even greater challenge: To generate art.

This cultural tension became our tinder, to create a larger discussion across industries – ‘Can AI create art as good as humanity’s best artists?’ To stimulate this debate, we took Sandvik’s digital manufacturing expertise to the world stage, through popular culture. Focusing on using Sandvik’s AI technology and our creativity, to bring together five sculpturers from around the world. Sculpturers that lived hundreds of years apart, with the purpose of forming the ultimate collaboration.

This impossible collaboration became a focal point of debate in the art world. Countless conversations about if it is art or not emerged. Today, the statue, carved out of steel within 0.03 accuracy to the AI’s output, has become so much more than an exhibit in a national museum. It has become a symbol for the positive use of AI and a testament to Sandvik’s manufacturing technologies.

The business challenge the brand was facing was that the best engineering talent and top clients gravitate towards the manufacturing firms known for their digital capabilities. The problem is that engineers and clients are inundated with digital technology news on a daily basis.

To fulfil Sandvik’s vision of achieving fame as a future-ready digital manufacturing company, they needed to find a different angle to engage their target market - Something that would excite engineers and clients from all over the world.

Sandvik would have to come up with a project that not only highlights their digital manufacturing prowess, but also something that would disrupt the conversations.

The desired outcome was to make the project, and Sandvik, impossible not to talk about.

To tackle the problem, Sandvik tapped into the one trend where manufacturing technology meets popular culture: Generative AI. We discovered a growing societal tension between the excitement of new possibilities and concerns about Generative AI’s ability to create original creativity.

This cultural tension became our tinder to create a discussion among the world’s engineers – ‘Can AI create art as good as humanity’s best artists?’. With our strategic direction to generate brand fame, we went to work to execute a digital manufacturing project so challenging and unique, it could be considered impossible.

After solving complex issues such as turning a 2D image into a 3D model and carving the statue out of steel differing in accuracy only by 0.03%, the breakthrough moment was when the statue was revealed to the public. It showed the world that Sandvik could make the impossible possible using digital manufacturing.

Communicating heavy machinery and digital solutions doesn’t make any impact. We needed to be distinct and surprising and tell a story powerful enough to break into mass culture.

We targeted an already sacred arena, the classical art world.

Using several generative AI, we analysed thousands of sculptures and created a model that resurrected five master sculptors who span three continents and 500 years. We then used AI to design their collaborative vision into one sculpture: Michelangelo’s dynamism, Rodin’s musculature, Käthe Kollwitz’s expressionism, Kotaro Takamura’s focus on momentum and Augusta Savage’s defiance, all in one impossible statue. Brought to life by Sandvik’s engineering skills.

We then used Sandvik’s digital manufacturing tools, to bring the statue to life. The final model was a 500 kg statue crafted from stainless steel. The statue was unveiled to the world as a permanent exhibit at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm.

Our three primary goals were to create fame for the Sandvik brand, consideration for its digital manufacturing technology and to increase job applications from the next generation of digital engineering talent. So, did our activation succeed?

With a modest budget, our campaign reached media outlets in over 66 countries. It generated more than 700 published articles with a combined potential reach of 1.8 billion impressions.

But we didn’t just create attention. We also drove consideration for Sandvik's technologies. As new visitors on the global Sandvik site increased by 43% and time spent on the site increased by 48%.

Finally, we also increased the number of clicks on job postings by 35%, making

the Sandvik brand stand out as an attractive workplace for top digital talent.

As to the debate about if AI can create art, we will leave that for the jury room to decide.

The Impossible Statue by Sandvik was a big disruptor in the digital manufacturing world. By using generative AI to resurrect 5 art masters, and digital manufacturing technology to carve the collaborative design out of steel, Sandvik showed the world what they were capable of.

By completing a project that was steeped in creativity and art, Sandvik openly challenged their competitors to think beyond their respective industries to push the limits of human advancement.

The Impossible Statue being placed in a National Museum in Stockholm blurred the lines between art and engineering and became a cultural icon.

The final execution sparked conversations not just in the engineering world but in the world at large.