JANUARY MARKETINGMASTERS LUNCHEON SEMINAR

The Chemistry Behind Dow’s ‘Human Element’ Campaign

SPEAKER
Patti Temple Rocks
Vice President, Global Public Affairs
The Dow Chemical Company

INTRODUCING THE SPEAKER
Al Golin
Chairman
GolinHarris

“For my money, the best corporate campaign today.”

That’s how Rance Crain, editor-in-chief of Advertising Age, characterized The Dow Chemical Company’s “Human Element” campaign, in a column last August.

Hear the guiding force behind that campaign tell how it all came about when Dow’s Patti Temple Rocks keynotes the next BMA MarketingMasters luncheon seminar on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008, at the Fairmont Chicago Hotel. The Public Relations Society of America’s Chicago chapter is co-sponsoring this luncheon, and PRSA members can register at the BMA member rate ($45).
(Learn more about PRSA.)

Temple Rocks, vice president of global public affairs at Dow, will be introduced by Al Golin, chairman of GolinHarris, the public relations firm where Temple Rocks had been working when the Human Element campaign was being conceived.

As she’ll explain in her talk, Temple Rocks was in the right place at the right time as executive vice president of GolinHarris when Dow put its advertising and marketing account up for review in early 2006. She had begun her career at Dow in 1981, working in the communications department, so she was quite familiar with the company and its history.

When GolinHarris and fellow Interpublic Group agency Foote, Cone & Belding (now Draftfcb) began working on a pitch for the business, Temple Rocks was instrumental in ensuring that it resonated with Dow’s goal to become the largest, most profitable and most respected chemical company in the world.

What resulted was the Human Element campaign, and it resonated, all right. GolinHarris and FCB won the business, and by the time it was ready to launch in June 2006, Temple Rocks had rejoined Dow as vice president of global communications and reputation.

A year later, Crain’s BtoB magazine named Temple Rocks one of its marketers of the year in its 2007 “Best” issue. In an article for that issue, she told the magazine the campaign was having the desired effect. A study by Ketchum Research found that Dow’s overall reputation scores had jumped 10%, while awareness among its target audience had risen 100%, she said.

The Human Element campaign posits that while “life is elemental,” it is easy to overlook the element that’s missing from the Periodic Table: the human element. “And when we add it to the equation, the chemistry changes. Every reaction is different. Potassium looks to bond with potential. Metals behave with hardened resolve. And hydrogen and oxygen form desire. The human element is the element of change.”

The campaign’s creative featured real people rather than professional actors and included dramatic environmental and human imagery (a blacksmith in Mexico, children at an orphanage in Namibia, an artist at his studio in Prague) gathered on location on four continents.

The advertising and public relations efforts combined to reinforce Dow’s commitment to engage the challenges of global energy supply, climate change, affordable and adequate food supply, decent housing, sustainable water supplies, and improved personal health and safety.

“This is more than an ad campaign to our company. It is a statement to the world and, more importantly, to ourselves about the future direction of our business,” Temple Rocks said at the time of the launch. “It will be our calling card to people around the world who care about the future relationship between businesses, society and the environment. It reflects our intention as a company to prioritize the things we do to advance innovation and focus the people and resources of Dow on solving human problems.”

The campaign ran in U.S. broadcast, print and online media throughout 2006 and was extended to key international markets in 2007.

“This is a major investment by our company,” Temple Rocks said, “and we are mindful of the fact that its success will be measured by the extent to which that investment pays off in new sources of ideas and relationships, both inside and outside our company.”

To register for the luncheon, go here or email Marla Schrager.