Bayer AG Coaching Campaign

Reaching executives and igniting participation throughout the company across the world.

Client Background

Bayer AG* is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and has worked with Korn Ferry for multiple years to bring our Executive Coaching program to their leaders. Bayer’s new CEO sees coaching as critical to Bayer’s future success and wants to take Korn Ferry’s coaching accomplishments and engage interest in executive coaching participation across the company. Previous campaigns at Bayer created administrative challenges that frustrated customers, so Bayer is looking to re-engage their population.

The client wants to re-ignite interest and create participation in executive coaching amongst the top leaders.

*BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT WORK ONLY, NOT PAID FOR BY CLIENT

TEAM

Sarah Jensen Clayton, Doug Cooper, & Myself

TOOLS

Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft PowerPoint

TIMELINE

July 2023 (3Weeks)

My Role

As a graphic designer, I…

IDEATED

Ideated initial concepts through brainstorming with my partner and digital drawing to align with existing assets.


SYNTHESIZED

Synthesized concepts into a cohesive design system, using typographic and illustrative interfaces.

PRESENTED

Presented the final work to my team and the wider team at C3 to receive feedback and handoff to the client.

Problem Statement

How do we reassert the value of coaching to a disengaged populous, and drive awareness across the company and across the world?

We created a high fidelity mockup of a campaign, highlighting the value of coaching through a two-fold method including making bold negative statements.

Solution

Working closely with an experienced designer, we created a campaign centering around two key concepts: the asterisk and “to the power of.” To combat disengagement, we created eye-catching negative comments about coaching, and then used the asterisk to point out the flaws of that idea. The second part of the campaign centers around “you to the power of coaching,” connecting this element visually to the asterisk, producing synergy between these two ideas to both combat disinterest and drive awareness simultaneously.

Initial Development

After some initial designs, we spoke with the lead to realign and better understand the next steps of the project. After receiving some feedback and some new ideas, we took our initial designs and extrapolated them into a poster series, a handbook, an invitation, and a series of video ideas.

Extension

After the design and successful creation of many of these assets, we were asked to take the project a step further with one more concept to drive interest, not just awareness. To do this, we decided to create a new poster series using Olympic athletes to advocate the true power of coaching.

 This process included a mixture of research into athletes and their coaches, as well as sourcing imagery, and finally using photoshop and illustrate to composite these athletes into posters.

Proposal & Implementation

Because this campaign contains so many different elements, we then took the time to bring each into alignment with each other to create a more holistic vision for the future of coaching at Bayer. Logistically this meant working with my lead to bring colors into alignment across assets, using patterns, and smaller elements like logos.

After the final alignment, each of these products was compiled into a slide deck as part of a larger pitch to Bayer executives to help bring Korn Ferry’s new coaching initiative to life.

Key Takeaways

MANAGING STAKEHOLDERS

It was important for me to set aside my own aesthetic taste to represent everyone who was important for this project’s success, which was a vitally important lesson for me, and something I have taken into subsequent projects.

SUCCESSES

The campaign was well received by Bayer, although at this time none of this work has been paid for by the client and is only a part of a business development effort.

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Pharmaceutical Company Campaign