Africa is the fastest urbanising continent in the world. By 2050, over 1.4 billion Africans will have migrated to a city. But within this problem lies an opportunity that the rest of the world has never had.

Beneath the surface chaos of an African city lie patterns which can be revealed by data.

So how did we ignite this opportunity in a way that all Africans could understand?

We used data from African cities to create unique patterns and used fabric, a communication tool that’s been used in Africa for millennia, to tell a story about how Siemens can help African cities overcome the problems of rapid urbanisation in a way that the rest of the world has never been able to.

Siemens Fabric Launched on the 23rd of August 2018 with a spectacular fashion event, live coverage on Facebook, Twitter moments, Instagram stories, an online film and a section on the Siemens website.

As the campaign rolled out, we used social media to reveal each city’s fabrics and the data that helped create them.

The fashion designers were interviewed and given a platform to discuss how the data changed their perception of their cities and what influence it had on the design of their collections. Their collections were showcased through fashion photography and video shot for social media.

Digital display and search media targeted Africans in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos and directed them to discover more through the website which housed extra information about Siemens’ role in digital transformation in Africa.

Stakeholders from Siemens were interviewed on television, radio and in the press and press releases and thought leadership pieces were created to give industry and government more insight and direct them to contacts within Siemens for discussions on future projects and initiatives.

Members of industry and government were given high-end Fabric gift boxes that included items made from each of the 9 fabrics and a booklet describing the data used to create them.

A second project film released on the 18th of September showcased the fashion event. In the following weeks, we used Instagram stories and Twitter moments to show a behind the scenes glimpse into the process of creating the patterns, fabrics and garments.

The project is ongoing and has expanded to include another township in Johannesburg and the city of Dubai.