From Producer to Global Brand - The Bostik Brand Movie

Teamwork from A to Z

For the production of the Bostik Brand Movie, we worked together with Kaaps Film from Rotterdam. And that wasn't just a collaboration! We filmed scenes in the area (Rotterdam and Oosterhout), as well as in Paris and Wauwatosa (Milwaukee, USA).

"The complete relief, from A to Z, was very pleasing to me. With this team, I was able to have complete confidence that our brand story was being portrayed well; scene by scene, that confidence only increased." - Robert Louer, Head of Global Branding

"The collaboration between gr8 and Kaaps ensured that the entire process was completed qualitatively from A to Z. As a customer, I was completely relieved of this," says Robert Louer, Head of Global Branding at Bostik. "With each scene, my confidence grew and I knew I could let go: this film would be a success."

Strategic Storytelling

That whole journey began with a thoroughly thought-out strategy. After all, when building a strong brand story, the dot on the horizon is most important: as a brand, you want to be known (and trusted) around the world. That requires a long-term view. The new Brand Movie would play a big part in this.

With this in mind, we took the Touch-Tell-Sell model as our starting point. Production-oriented organizations often focus particularly on that last phase. Rock-hard sales, sales figures where every euro you put in produces immediate results.

However, to generate more results - and thus more sales - at the bottom of this "funnel," the first two phases are at least as important. Perhaps even more important.

For example, the Touch phase is crucial to telling your brand story internationally and increasing awareness. You don't want to talk too much about products here yet, but about the impact you are making as an organization. Who are your people and what impact are they making globally with their work?

Only in the next phase do the concrete solutions come into play. Within large production-oriented organizations like Bostik, it is very important that the organization is well included in this approach. By involving board members and sales staff in this process, you create more support among the most important stakeholders.

In this way, you slowly but surely transform your company from producer to global brand.

Global support

Creating support was therefore crucial within this project. Not only is Bostik located in more than 45 countries across 6 continents; the company also consists of 4 "Global Business Units" or GBUs, which offer different solutions. Each GBU makes an impact on the world in a different way with sustainable innovations; the story told in the Brand Movie.

To capture all these different cultures, solutions and stakeholders in one film, it was important that we sought cooperation early on.

We made a tour of all GBUs, HR and Bostik's parent company Arkema to get to know all their solutions and to discuss what "Attached To Your World" means to all those different employees. How does Bostik really make an impact on the world around us? And with what sustainable innovations are the GBUs contributing to that world?

The script: making the invisible visible

Like any movie, the foundation for the Bostik Brand Movie was laid in the script. After all, the story to be told was not just any old one. Bostik makes adhesive solutions - adhesives - that appear in a wide range of end products. Think electric vehicles, cereal packaging, building materials, and diapers, as well as adhesives for do-it-yourselfers, which are available in hardware stores.

The challenge: Those glue solutions are very important, but not seen in most final solutions. How do you tell a story about something that is not visible?

In the script, we therefore used a blue signature line, which would emphasize in the film where Bostik's adhesive solutions are all located. This way you do tell the story of Attached To Your World - you really do find the solutions all around you - without making the product too important at this branding stage. In addition, sustainability was an important guideline for the script.

The actors: "real" and authentic

Spread across more than 45 countries, more than 7,000 people work on Bostik's brand promise every day. Together they make the impact that the Brand Movie tells about. This led to the idea of not using actors or models, but having our own colleagues perform in the film.

The lack of acting experience is - if you ask us - at least not visible in the end result. And having colleagues appear in the film increased the fun and pride at the launch. The actors will be showered with compliments - and perhaps a joke here and there about Hollywood - at work for a long time to come.

"We have turned our employees into true ambassadors." - Robert Louer, Head of Global Branding

"The emotion we create in the Brand Movie with Attached To Your World carried through to the internal launch," adds Robert Louer, referring to the movie posters that were created (see below). "People are so proud of what we do at Bostik! For me as Head of Global Branding, that is huge win. With this story, we have turned our employees into true ambassadors."

In a world where there is an increasing need for "real" and authentic, this way the film shows all the more Bostik's uniqueness. People are at the heart of this manufacturing company. And by carefully including all stakeholders in its approach to branding, Bostik has taken a huge step in becoming a global brand.