Sage puts the needs of today’s businesses at the heart of its new global marketing campaign

VCCP business needs at the heart of Sage's global campaign

Sage, the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses, unveils its first global marketing campaign from VCCP

By Creative Salon

11 May 2022

The campaign launches with two 30” hero films created by VCCP London featuring Sage customers Laura Rose, CEO, Equestrian Rose Ltd and Joanne Halsall, Head of Finance, Crow Wood Leisure.

Representing Sage’s new purpose - to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive – the campaign shows how this starts with customers. It focuses on real life customers and the confidence and control that Sage software can deliver through simplicity and insight with a human touch to help business flow.

Customer stories are elevated through playful character animation, set within a black and white world. The customer voices are connected using the iconic Sage green flow – a representation of how the Sage experience lifts customers to the next level of their business journey.

Laura Rose said, “For me, putting us - their customers - front and centre in a national campaign shows just how much Sage believes in SMBs. They understand how we love to talk about our business and hear from each other about the joy and hard work tied up in them. It’s motivating and reassuring in equal measure and it's nice that Sage gets that.”

To fuel the business confidence that the advertising focuses on, Sage today launches Sage Membership, giving customers and partners’ automatic access to exclusive benefits such as expert human advice, learning and community. This includes access to Member Masterclass, which offers exclusive talks and articles from the world’s leading experts and trailblazers on the challenges that are most important for businesses today—created exclusively for Sage customers and partners and available for a limited time to everyone. Season one will give expert human advice on how to find and keep great people such as featuring Michael Acton Smith, Co-founder of Calm, Khalilah Olokunola, VP of Human Resources at TRU Colors Brewery, and Charlie Gladstone, Entrepreneur and Co-found of Do.

Sage, a long time champion of small and medium businesses, worked with VCCP London, to create the campaign, and SomeOne to oversee the Brand and strategic development, alongside Interim EVP Brand Marketing for Sage, Susie Moore.

This is the first campaign VCCP, with its global content studio Girl&Bear and Product and Service Innovation company Bernadette, has produced for Sage. SomeOne will lead the roll-out of the refreshed brand and will continue to oversee its implementation.

The new campaign cements Sage’s reputation as the right partner for SMBs, globally. TV advertising will be

supported by an expansive out of home (OOH) campaign as well as digital and social. A sweeping digital activation of the Sage flow throughout the new Elizabeth Line tube stations will also bring the campaign to life.

With a fully integrated approach, the Sage campaign activity has been closely aligned with the roll out of the refreshed Sage brand, created by Wolff Olins in conjunction with Homebrew which debuts a modern look and feel across the company’s main touchpoints. Seed Animation Studio designed, directed and animated the moving image content for TV and online.

Cath Keers, Chief Marketing Officer, Sage: “It’s tough being in business right now. Our refreshed brand is about how we show up for customers globally - removing complexity, delivering insights and building human connections for them, for our colleagues and within society. We’ve been a trusted brand for SMBs since Sage was a start-up 40 years ago, but the way we support them has changed and the refresh will enable us to reflect that consistently across all our markets.”

Mark Orbine, Executive Creative Director at VCCP London added: “Sage represents all the proud, gritty and determined business owners in the world. From those businesses founded from side hustles and kitchen table start-ups all the way up to those more mature and established businesses, the brand refresh is all about putting those customers at the very heart of Sage as they continue to challenge the business world every day.”

The global brand platform by Sage is live from today and will run across multiple markets including the UK, US, Canada, South Africa, France, Spain and Germany. The integrated campaign will roll out across multiple formats including TV, OOH, social, radio, OLV and digital. Media has been planned and executed by Neo Media World.

Advertising Agency: VCCP

CEO: Michael Sugden

Executive Creative Director: Mark Orbine

Creative Director: Tony Hector

Associate Creative Directors: Tori Fannon & Jade Sturman

Creative: Teodora Nicolae & Malina Giurgea

Business Director: Alexandra Gluck

Senior Account Director: Harriet Guppy

Account Directors: Kate Jackson, David Jenkins, Theo Moran, Dylan Blakey-Milner

Senior Account Manager: Amy Kiff

Account executive: Lily Snow

Global Planning Director: Rachel Walker