We have been working with IBM for a decade. They came to us at a point where growth had brought huge complexity. They needed to re-architect for the 21st Century. Our first task was to bring this vision to life: to align a very large group of stakeholders, re-architect their offerings with a clear go-to-market portfolio strategy, and create new, iconic brands to populate it.
Over our long partnership, we have strategized, designed, and launched more than a dozen IBM sub-brands, including Watson, Security, Storage, Blockchain, Consulting, Developer, PartnerPlus, Z, and Think. Recently we have helped define IBM’s AI narrative and internal and external evolution.
IBM’s z17 — the latest version of their iconic mainframe — was set to launch, and we were asked to develop the positioning and story platform. This was a pivotal launch for IBM, as the Z Series remains a foundational source of IBM’s cash flow and client relationships.
Our strategy revealed a truth: the only way to maximize the value of AI in mission-critical workloads is to bring AI directly to the data. Directly to the core of the enterprise. Directly to Z.
We then repositioned Z from mainframe as a category — putting IBM in a position to prove that mainframe remains a relevant technology — to AI as the context, proving that Z is essential to a complete AI strategy. Developing a clear positioning, story platform and messaging about Z making more possible, and creative campaigns that brought it to life, providing more value from AI to Z.
We developed a simple, powerful story platform: “Z makes more possible.” This human-centric idea transcended technical specifications to become the foundation for a comprehensive messaging framework, designed to create genuine excitement around tangible business outcomes — more accuracy, more security, and more productivity.
