Why is this work relevant for Brand Experience & Activation ?

IBM Think Summit Tokyo 2019 was a big re-branding challenge for IBM Japan. Before this event, IBM Japan was seen as a conservative brand as compared to their competitors. IBM Japan had to "Showing Up Differently" to keep IBM innovative company by continuously transforming themselves. This event truly made it come true.

Background

Disrupt or Be Disrupted. With the rapid advancement of technology, it has become necessary for businesses to transform themselves in order to survive. IBM is not an exception. In Japan, IBM is seen as a more traditional company. As CEO Ginni Rommetty said, they had to "Show Up Differently." Our challenge was to change their perception.

Describe the creative idea (20% of vote)

1) Showing Up Differently In Japan, the events of most of tech companies are held at either convention centers, or hotels. We took a bold approach and chose to hold our event at a warehouse for a creative environment that would inspire IBM employees and partners to “think” and “co-create” new businesses to achieve transformation. 2）Humanizing the Technology IBM has the most advanced technologies in the world. However, people often find technology too difficult to understand. So, we “humanized the technology” through interactive activations for people to experience and play with it. 3）Humanizing the IBMers The most important asset to IBM is people. To make them more approachable, we humanized them at the demo booth on a wooden whiteboard. All staff drew illustrations of themselves on the board to welcome guests.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Target: CEO / CTO / CIO of enterprises. the people who can make architectural decisions. In order to reach the right people, and to make the experience more personal and intimate, we decided to make this event invitation only. (which is very rare for these type of events in Japan)

Describe the execution (30% of vote)

4 days event. 2,524 attendees, 13,137UU for live streaming. 116 sessions, 12 guest speakers, 63 demo booths

List the results (30% of vote)

NPS: 20 *This is remarkably high figures. 47 media coverage We also had positive comments from attendees. These were response we were aiming for. Showing Up Differently: “IBM showed themselves to be different from other tech companies.” “IBM is no longer a conservative brand.” Humanizing technology: “IBM inspired me to think of ways to transform our business.” “Many new technologies inspired me to come up with new ideas.” Humanizing IBMers: “I felt the potential in co-creating with IBM.” “This event gave me an opportunity to connect with IBM.”