In order to have maximum impact with limited budget, we went beyond regular business communication. We added an element of surprise by making our audience part of the message. The unique execution caught the attention of the public. In combination with the poster explaining the kid’s idea, it made people realise anything can happen if you challenge the status quo and think about new ways to improve our lives. In an entertaining way we made people feel the idea behind IBM’s vision and let them think differently about their brand. And that’s exactly what IBM wanted to convey.

Building a Smarter Planet starts with challenging the status quo. Thinking in an unrestricted way about what can be improved. Like children do. They come up with surprising questions and original ideas. So to come up with smarter solutions, you have to think as free as children do. To get this message across in a compelling and personal way, we chose to realise a real life demo. To make Smarter Planet come to live in the street. We wanted people to experience the effect of this fresh way of thinking. For this real life experiment we started with asking children for smart ideas. End then chose one of them: making crossing the street safer with a zebra crossing that lights up when you walk on it. Then we built it in one of the busiest streets of Rotterdam… and watched what happens.

Most people in the Netherlands have heard of IBM, but they don’t know what IBM actually does. With solutions for today’s challenges in traffic, energy, safety and more, IBM is striving towards a ‘Smarter Planet’. A vision that goes beyond a mere business proposition. A vision that puts a different light on IBM as a company. That’s why IBM wanted to get this vision across. But in the Netherlands IBM doesn’t use mass media and only has a limited communications budget. So how do you tell that IBM’s Smarter Planet vision is about working on new solutions to make our world better? We needed to communicate the message that IBM strives for a Smarter Planet in a simple and compelling way. Not by telling, but by experiencing. We had to do something special to make people see IBM differently by making the Smarter Planet message relevant and tangible.