Covestro honored for marketing campaign

Itasca, Ill. — Covestro LLC swept the Plastics News Marketing Summit Awards by winning the 2016 Campaign of the Year award in the materials category, as well as the Grand Prize and People's Choice awards.

Other winners included Maguire Products, which won 2016 Campaign of the Year in the equipment and services provider category; MTD Micromolding, which won in the processor category; and Society of Plastics Engineers' SPE is Me campaign, which won the wild card category.

Alice Sox, manager of external communications at Covestro, represented the company in accepting the awards and speaking about how the spin-off from Bayer MaterialScience built its brand recognition.

With a small team of about five employees, including Sox, Covestro re-branded itself and launched in September 2015, about a year after Bayer announced it was going to split its MaterialScience branch off from the rest of the group.

"If the company was to take on a new identity, [the communications team] would undoubtedly play a part in that — and this presented both challenges and opportunities for us," Sox said.

First, the challenges: Covestro was under a significant time crunch to name its new company and launch its brand. Just nine months after Bayer's initial MaterialScience announcement, the new name for the company was announced.

"It would be a name that obviously no one had ever heard of and half of our stakeholders couldn't even pronounce," said Sox.

The team had also enjoyed a certain level of brand recognition under the Bayer name, which was gone.

"There was a lot of history and pride and comfort attached to that Bayer name," Sox said.

Now, for the opportunities. Sox and the rest of the communications team previously didn't have much ownership over the Bayer MaterialScience brand, as it was tied to Bayer's corporate brand. With Covestro's spin-off, suddenly they were responsible for everything, at least in North America, and this was their chance to, as Sox said, "make a big impression."

As for the rest of the company, though feelings of fear and uncertainty still existed, there was a feeling among employees that something big was happening, and genuine excitement began to grow.

Covestro's brand launched in a 12-month window, and the first six were spent developing a brand identity: vision, values, mission and of course, a new name and logo.

"You don't actually realize how many things have your logo on them, until you have to swap out that logo," Sox said.

To establish the values for the company — curiosity, courageous and colorful — dozens of workshops were held with more than 150 people across three continents. The participants included a mix of employees and customers.

Covestro's communications team's goals were, first, to build awareness and, second, to reassure their facility communities — Pittsburgh; Baytown, Texas; and Mexico City — that they weren't going anywhere.

In order to liven up the facilities, the team helped re-design the interiors with bold, colorful walls, display cases and a 48-foot logo on the lawn of its Pittsburgh site, which is also the North American headquarters. These sunnier facility makeovers trickled down into employee culture, and many in the company began to embrace the new name and vibrant look.

Covestro also launched an advertising campaign that included print, digital, outdoor advertising and broadcast. It also targeted regional print publications for public relations outreach, such as inviting local Pittsburgh and Baytown journalists to the freshly livened up Covestro facilities.

In 2016, Covestro partnered in Solar Impulse, a global initiative to fly around the world without using any fossil fuel. Covestro provided materials and expertise to build the lightweight, solar-powered aircraft.

"It was a flying laboratory for our materials and technologies," Sox said. "But it also reinforced our passion for sustainability and innovation."

Through Covestro's partnership with this campaign, Sox and the rest of the communications team developed a rigorous public relationships outreach program, centered around Paige Kassalen, a Covestro electrical engineer who was on the Solar Impulse ground crew.

According to Sox, Kasslen's involvement allowed Covestro to break into mainstream media and reach a new demographic.

"Paige became an inspiring voice to show other young women what you can do with a STEM background," said Sox.

Sox said the most important lesson learned from this project was that "support from leadership is a must when trying to shape a new culture and build a new brand."

Sox also said the size and scope of the re-branding was underestimated, and having someone to shepherd all of the tasks would have helped greatly.

"We got there in the end, but I think our journey would have been a lot smoother had we had a strong project manager in the lead."

Lastly, Sox said, she and the rest of the Covestro communications team learned to be open to new ideas and take risks. "Because you only get one chance to make a first impression, so make it big."