The human eye can detect over 1 million colors. However, every person will see and experience color in different ways. For example, one individual could describe sunny yellow as the color of fresh egg yolk, while another could be thinking about rays of sunshine on a spring day. Finding the right color is imperative to world-class architects, those who design museums, skylines, and landmark buildings, which was the B2B audience our client, Sherwin-Williams Coil Coatings, sought to reach in order to shift perception of the brand as an innovative, modern partner that wants to help them change the world.
To do this, we built an online tool that uses voice-activated AI technology to create a customized color palette and enables architects to turn a memory or vision into their perfect color. The tool uses a search algorithm that analyzes thousands of images on Google using optical recognition technology and extracts a palette that users can fine-tune by speaking, “less citrusy”, more “traffic cone orange” until the color in the person’s memory matches the final paint chip, allowing them to speak color into existence for the first time ever.
Speaking in Color, which Jeff Beer wrote about in Fast Company in June (https://www.fastcompany.com/90761643/this-new-ai-powered-paint-tool-helps-you-create-custom-colors-with-your-voice) was entered into a brand-new category at Cannes Lions – Creative B2B – which saw 415 entries. From these entries, 18 were shortlisted and only 10 were awarded, with just one Grand Prix given out – to us. We won the first ever Creative B2B Grand Prix, beating specialist B2B agencies at their own game. While the accolade speaks for itself, Paul Hirsch, jury president of the Creative B2B Lions, called ‘Speaking in Color’ “an incredibly robust piece of technology”, and an “explosive” piece of B2B work that “could be adopted by B2C in a second”, given its ability to connect the world of color with human inspiration and make finding the perfect color as intuitive as possible.
Our work gave the client a groundbreaking way to advance their company mission of innovating in their industry and creating the largest color library in the world, and now, confidentially, the Sherwin-Williams consumer division is eyeing Speaking in Color for a potential broader rollout in the future.
The work (and subsequent win at Cannes Lions) received a lot of press attention with reporters from across disciplines reaching out to cover the work. It’s put us at the forefront of conversations about the emotional rise of B2B, a radical new way of approaching business customers. But most importantly, we’ve helped Sherwin-Williams unlock an opportunity to provide a unique, data-driven personalization approach to continue to build meaningful relationships with architects, and further demonstrate the brand’s obsession with color.