When photographers, designers and web professionals turned out the lights on May 5, 2013, all was right with their world. When they woke up and went online on May 6, they found that the earth as they knew it had changed. What happened?

For over 20 years, creative professionals had bought or downloaded Adobe Creative Suite software. Adobe effectively was the creative industry (there were few other competitors at scale). A range of products answered the needs of distinct disciplines, and new versions of the suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) were released regularly. Customers would upgrade or sit out a version and trade up later.

In 2013 Adobe changed that model. Professionals would no longer buy and own their software; they would access it by subscription via the Adobe Creative Cloud.

Adobe’s intention was to shift its business from a downloaded-software or box-selling company to a creative-services company that made periodic buying of shrink-wrapped products a thing of the past.

Within 24 hours of the new Creative Cloud announcement, the creative community began to protest. An online petition began to circulate challenging the decision; it received over 35,000 signatures in less than a week.

What began as online chatter threatened to create a mutiny among Adobe’s most loyal base of users. Just as importantly, the chatter threatened to destroy Adobe’s ability to change from a box-selling brand to a creative-services company.

It became clear that Creative Cloud couldn’t make a better rational case for itself. What Adobe needed to do was to stop talking about the cloud and take the conversation back to an audience that feared it was being left behind. Adobe needed to be their biggest fan, cheerleader and advocate again—and position every creative as part of a whole-new creative world.