Letter from Nick
SAP/ SAP Concur
Issue 51 | June 2019
Agency
BBDO New York
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars (BBDO Worldwide) Chief Creative Officer: Greg Hahn (BBDO New York) Executive Creative Director: Tom Godici, Greg Ketchum Creative Director: Kleber Menezes, Corey Rakowsky Art Director: Kleber Menezes, Marina Gokman Copywriter: Corey Rakowsky, Steve Schroth
Production Team
Donna Mendietta (eg+)
Other Credits
Group Planning Director: Brit Browning Associate Planning Director: Damon Garrett Communications Planner: Ali Goldsmith Account Team: Gerhard Remlein, Kristen Roche, Jesse Schwartz
Date
January 2019
Background
The objective of this project was to announce SAP’s purchase of Qualtrics to the business community and introduce SAP’s new Experience Management solutions, which can help companies better listen and react to the feelings of their customers. The primary target was business decision makers (CEO’s and CIO’s), while the secondary target was customers of those very same businesses. Their purpose was to illustrate what SAP calls “the experience gap.” Namely, that while 80% of CEO’s think their companies offer an outstanding customer experience, only 8% of those customers agree.
Idea
A full-page open letter appeared in the WSJ, written by a fictitious customer, Nick Vitale. In it, he outlined many common opinions, both positive and negative, held by customers across several industries, touching on everything from air travel, to subscription models, to the free self-serve waffle stations now offered at many hotels. The letter was followed on the very next page by an immediate reply from SAP CEO Bill McDermott, detailing how SAP can give businesses the technology they need to offer a better experience to customers like Nick, who it was now clear, was a fictional character. To further illustrate their point, many real-life customers were inspired by the letter, and posted a picture of the article on social media to echo “Nick’s” thoughts. The ad went viral, proving to the CEO target that the experience gap is real, and needs to be addressed.
Results
Screen shots of the letter jumped the chasm into social media, where the piece went viral, generating widescale venting of customer experience feedback and prompting responses from industries mentioned in the letter. Over just 3 days, using only organic PR and with no paid influence, the ad generated 18,895,010 impressions (13x the circulation of the Wall Street Journal), spread to 83 countries, and increased conversation about SAP 7000%.