Steelcase is 100 in 2012. The goal of the campaign was to use this pivotal moment not for a beating of chests (as 100-year-old companies tend to do), but to beat the drums for a march into the future - effectively, to re-position the company. Steelcase began as just another metal-bender in the American Midwest, an industrial-age office furniture manufacturer. It's now a global innovation company, a thought leader in designed workspace and human collaboration. The job? Find and write the core truth in this long story, and create a thread from connecting 3 very distinct audiences: the internal culture, the design and architecture communities, and – gold dust – the leaders of worldwide business. The truth was 'unlocking human promise'. The campaign was designed to breathe life into this idea through collaboration; ultimately the benefit this company is in business to deliver.

3 key audiences: internal culture, design/architecture communities, and leaders of business. This was not a job for paid media. Instead, we created a ‘flag’ for this pivotal moment, a graphic mark representing an eye rendered in pixels – the eye being the home of human promise. Then we attached it to a series of gestures that made:A behaviour – a company driven by the idea of unlocking human promise; A manifesto – a 3-minute animated film and printed storybook in 6 languages – for the future; A short documentary film about the dreams of children around the world;A website, launched at the 2012 TED Conference in California, showcasing the response to the film from 100 leaders of business, the arts, design, and education; An invitation on Facebook for the world to join the dream;The cover of a design and architecture magazine; And, as they say, much, much more.

The Steelcase Anniversary initiative launched in March 2012, around the time of this submission. In the first month of the launch, 100.steelcase.com had visitors from over 126 countries, 72,000 page views, 22,000 unique visitors, and over 5,300 shares. "Crafting a 100th anniversary message is an opportunity few companies have. At Steelcase we wanted to celebrate in a unique and inspiring way that reflected our history and focused on the future. The agency team was an exceptional strategic and creative partner to Steelcase and brought to life the core idea central to our company, that it is not companies that survive – it is ideas. The agency helped us to express this with a very compelling campaign and visually attractive identity and tools that creates excitement and conversion amongst all our stakeholders.” - Jim Hackett, CEO Steelcase Inc.