TelecomsGen Z0-to-1Incubation2022

Launching a two-sided platform for a sceptical audience

How I shaped the product behind Deutsche Telekom's "What We Value" campaign, connecting Gen Z activists with real support across 12 European markets.

Campaign visuals and app screens for #WhatWeValue.

12
European markets: ~100
projects from 12 countries: 2023
World Media Awards, Social Good (campaign)

My role

At Publicis Sapient, I owned the product side: experience strategy through to the development handover. I worked with the Experience Director, Publicis Sapient's development team in Germany, and Saatchi & Saatchi London, who owned the creative campaign. I guided two designers and four engineers and managed the Deutsche Telekom stakeholders.

Context

Deutsche Telekom wanted genuine relevance with Gen Z, backed by real budget for organisations young people lead themselves. The vehicle: a platform where activist organisations register, visitors vote for them, and Telekom provides financial, organisational and mentoring support. The campaign idea was to turn the NFT from something you buy for personal gain into something you earn for collective good.

The challenge

Two sides had to work at once. Organisations had to register — and at launch there were none. Visitors had to vote, which decided who got support. Neither moves without the other. And the audience was sceptical: Gen Z activists have good reasons to distrust corporate involvement, and in 2022 an NFT carried its own credibility problem. Participation was a product question, not just a marketing one.

What I did

Made the reward unsellable. The NFT was a symbolic, deliberately humorous proof of attendance with no resale value. Anything tradeable would have undermined the campaign's own premise.
Tested the mechanics before build. Simple wireframes and journey maps validated the flows before design or engineering committed, with results shared with the client and the creative team.
Protected the mechanics through delivery. I prepared and supervised the design-to-development handover, so the product wasn't reinterpreted downstream.

A physical whiteboard headed 'Product Vision Board', filled with sticky notes under columns for target group, need, product and business goals. — Product vision board from the discovery workshop, before design or engineering committed.

Key decision

Choose credibility over promotability. A reward with financial value would have been easier to market — and would have destroyed the very thing being marketed.

Outcome

Launched across 12 European markets.
Nearly 100 projects from 12 countries signed up, solving the cold start on the supply side.
The campaign won the World Media Awards 2023 in the Social Good category.