Siemens is widely known as a global engineering and technology company, but what is less known is that they are a world leader in digital transformation. Siemens is pioneering cutting-edge digital solutions specifically for the African continent in infrastructure, energy, transport and manufacturing

We were tasked to ignite a conversation primarily in three key African cities about how digital technology could help Africa's development and transformation.

A broader objective of giving governments and industry a topic to engage with Siemens on was desired, but no KPIs were set as Siemens had never undertaken a project of this nature.

Africa is the fastest urbanising continent in the world. By 2050, over 1.4 billion Africans will have migrated to a city. But within this problem lies an opportunity that the rest of the world has never had.

Beneath the surface chaos of an African city lie patterns which can be revealed by data.

So how did we ignite this opportunity in a way that all Africans could understand?

We used data from African cities to create unique patterns and used fabric, a communication tool that’s been used in Africa for millennia, to tell a story about how Siemens can help African cities overcome the problems of rapid urbanisation in a way that the rest of the world has never been able to.

Our primary audience were Siemens’ clients and prospective institutional customers, including governments, big businesses and decision makers in infrastructure development primarily in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, but also across the African continent

The secondary audience focused on industry experts and thought leaders, who shape and drive the narrative of digitalisation and technological impact in Southern Africa, and to demonstrate Siemens own thought leadership and innovation in the sector

The tertiary audience was the African general public primarily situated in Johannesburg, Lagos and Nigeria, who are not aware of the dynamic role Siemens plays in the fabric of their daily lives

Our approach was to demonstrate how Siemens is a technological leader in the conversation of growth & urbanisation in Africa, and how important data-driven decisions are for that sustained growth. The campaign needed to bring that hidden data to reality by demonstrating to consumers in an easy to understand and relatable manner, how data can be generated, captured and analysed. We also needed to demonstrate how decision making and planning, using Siemens technology and infrastructure, could help drive African growth and development.

Siemens Fabric Launched on the 23rd of August 2018 with a spectacular fashion event, live coverage on Facebook, Twitter moments, Instagram stories, an online film and a section on the Siemens website.

As the campaign rolled out, we used social media to reveal each city’s fabrics and the data that helped create them.

The fashion designers were interviewed and given a platform to discuss how the data changed their perception of their cities and what influence it had on the design of their collections. Their collections were showcased through fashion photography and video shot for social media.

Digital display and search media targeted Africans in Johannesburg, Nairobi and Lagos and directed them to discover more through the website which housed extra information about Siemens’ role in digital transformation in Africa.

Stakeholders from Siemens were interviewed on television, radio and in the press and press releases and thought leadership pieces were created to give industry and government more insight and direct them to contacts within Siemens for discussions on future projects and initiatives.

Members of industry and government were given high-end Fabric gift boxes that included items made from each of the 9 fabrics and a booklet describing the data used to create them.

A second project film released on the 18th of September showcased the fashion event. In the following weeks, we used Instagram stories and Twitter moments to show a behind the scenes glimpse into the process of creating the patterns, fabrics and garments.

The project is ongoing and has expanded to include another township in Johannesburg and the city of Dubai.

Over 27 million impressions

Over 2,7 million reach

1:5 PR Return on Investment

35+ Multi-Million Dollar new business leads for Siemens in Africa.

15 New Jobs for disadvantaged women in Johannesburg. In December 2018, Siemens launched a fourth fabric from the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg and partnered with a 100 percent black-owned women enterprise, Legae Larona Sewing Co-operative, to create proudly South Africa merchandise using a data visualisation pattern of Alexandra.

Siemens has been contracted to consult to a municipality in Accra, Ghana based off of interest from this campaign.

Siemens has entered into a Digital Mining Incubator partnership with Wits University and Tshmilogong to advance the mining sector.

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa was exposed to the campaign at the Berlin G20 Summit and subsequently mentioned the campaign on the official PresidencyZA twitter account.