As part of a campaign to target executives looking to transform their organisations, digitally, it was conceived that a more lateral approach should be taken, in order to grab the attention of the c-suite's more creative members.
The premise for the overarching campaign was to present the effect of digital disruption and, in turn, the importance of transformation, to challenge more traditional organisations to meet customer expectations in the digital age. The opening pages of the book provided this context, by way of an introduction.
The book was based on the Seven Basic Plots; rags to riches, comedy, overcoming the monster, voyage and return, the quest, tragedy and, finally, rebirth.
Each of these plots formed a story within the book and, as a whole, created a narrative for digital disruption. The characters included conventional-shaped robots, in a cubic form, which represented the traditional organisation; with a slicker machine showcasing the disruptor organisation. Small humans, relative to the robots, represented the customer.
The 'traditional organisation' was also the target audience, so it was important that the conventional-looking robot was the hero of the story, with the modern robot playing the part of the anti-hero.
The story outlines:
Rags to riches - the story of the heroes building their empires
Comedy - enter the anti-hero; young, spritely and triumphing, against the odds
Overcoming the monster - perceived as a threat, the hero looks to defeat the 'monster' that is the anti-hero
Voyage and return - an odyssey of learning commences for the hero, coming back with the experience to tackle the anti-hero
Quest - some of the heroes look to 'acquisition of wealth' to solve the problem
Tragedy - some of the heroes succumb to the threats they perceived and fall from grace
Rebirth - those that learned from the journey see a renaissance in digital transformation
The result was a hard-bound, A5 book, that could be shared, physically, in goodie bags at events or at sales meetings something to keep, and a PDF that could be downloaded from the main campaign landing page. The book also had a call-to-action in the back page, by way of a URL for the campaign page.