Winners 2022

Best international campaign

Work 2035: the Born Digital Effect
Citrix
Agency: Man Bites Dog

Citrix is an American software company that provides business technology that allows employees to work anywhere in the world on any platform. It appointed Man Bites Dog to create a campaign that both promoted its services but also positioned Citrix as a thought leader in the ‘future of work’ space.

Man Bites Dog identified that Citrix’s strength would be to make the business case for investing in a digital employee experience for Millennial and Gen Z workers, who are the first to have grown up in an entirely digital world and who today make up the majority of the working population.

The agency worked to develop an economic model that measured, for the first time, the global impact of Born Digital employees on corporate profitability. It found that businesses based in countries with above-average Born Digital populations gain a special dividend, worth an extra $1.9 trillion on corporate profits.

Research conducted across ten countries then revealed that the Born Digital generation feel that business leaders are out of touch with what motivates them. For example, 90 per cent did not want to return to the office full-time but preferred a hybrid model. However, 58 per cent of leaders assumed that employees would welcome the office experience.

These findings armed Citrix with a powerful narrative that corporate bosses needed to provide employees with tools that offered a secure and reliable experience, regardless of where workers were based.

The campaign launched across ten countries, with a suite of digital-first content assets, including a white paper, social assets and microsites. The PR-led integrated launch included marketing, social media, webinars, panel discussions and client forums.

The Born Digital Effect demonstrated the importance of the digital employee experience to younger workers, which built the business case for Citrix’s technology. But by championing the business impact of the Born Digital generation, the discussion moved from HR to the boardroom.

The campaign generated more than 200 pieces of coverage, including broadcast pieces in flagship outlets such as CNN and Good Morning America and articles in The Boston Globe, Singapore’s Business Times and Bloomberg.

The landing page generated more than 29,000 unique page views, with an average dwell time of two minutes, 45 seconds, while accompanying videos were watched more than 1.6 million times. But the campaign also led to business leads: contributing to 69 per cent of new business conversations in the quarter after launch.