Building Belief in a New Business
How do you get thousands of employees to believe in a new business?
Shell Chemicals had entered the polymers market, and a startup project needed to become a profitable growth engine for the entire company. That could not happen on strategy alone. Thousands of employees had to understand a brand-new line of business and believe in it, raising real business literacy around polymers and earning genuine buy-in company-wide.
Partnering with J. Walter Thompson INSIDE, Shell Polymers built an omnichannel employee activation grounded in established innovation and vision models. An external “Start Believing” campaign was fueled by an internal “I Believe” campaign that asked employees to make personal commitments to the company’s values, making an abstract new market tangible and giving people a way to step into it.
- Shell Polymers
- Petrochemicals & Manufacturing
- J. Walter Thompson INSIDE
- Sr. Art Director
- shellpolymers.com
- 2018 Ragan First Place, Employee Education Program
Royal Dutch Shell Global Award, Best B2B Marketing Execution
Shell Polymers is the polymers business of Shell Chemicals, established to bring a new line of plastics and materials to market. Part of one of the world’s largest energy companies, it entered a competitive petrochemicals category where success depended on both external market entry and internal understanding across a workforce of thousands.
An omnichannel program of brand education sessions, leadership fireside chats, employee role-play experiences, and an employee influencer effort that turned an abstract new market into something people could understand and champion.
A full-scale National Plastics Expo employee experience, a replica of the company’s trade-show booth with ten interactive stations including virtual reality fly-throughs, video, sales content, and product information, that brought the new brand to life from the inside.
After the culminating event, 99% of attendees reported better awareness of Shell Polymers, and half signed up as brand enthusiasts. Two years after entering the polymers market, 90% of employees continued to report solid understanding of the new business.
