Published by Sue Johns-Chapman
Published Date 23.10.2024 
The Fortune 500™ list is the gold standard of corporate rankings. Each year, everyone from executives to researchers visits the list for insight into the best in U.S. business. As the list reached its 70th annual edition, Fortune saw an opportunity to invent a new, AI-driven interface for the data underlying the iconic ranking. With longtime partner and AI leader Accenture, the teams worked to develop a unique digital experience that could harness AI to bring rich data and insights to users. Together, they developed a prototype for the Fortune Analytics™ Language Model, trained on decades of articles, video transcripts, and Fortune data designed to enable users to interact with the data in a whole new way.
As part of the project, the 150-plus global award–winning Fortune Brand Studio (FBS) was asked to produce a documentary-style brand film that would take the Fortune audience of C-suite executives and business and tech decision-makers inside the process of building this enterprising entry point to Fortune data and reporting and see firsthand the vision and ambition driving it. The video features 20 key voices and showcases the vision, expertise, and collaboration needed across teams to transform the way people interact with business’s most iconic list while also shining a light on how Accenture reinvents business.
A complex high-profile production
With such an ambitious vision for the film and the involvement of C-suite and other senior leadership at both organizations—including Accenture’s Jill Kramer, chief marketing and communications officer, and David Droga, CEO of Accenture Song—we knew we had a complex shoot on our hands.
B-roll footage and interviews were captured during multiple shoots at the New York City–based Fortune and Accenture offices. Video shoots required down-to-the-minute scheduling of both companies’ top executives in New York and London to capture not just the progress of the product but also the key milestones, such as the partnership announcement at Fortune Brainstorm AI in London in April 2024. At an exclusive event announcing the partnership at the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), we took cameras onto the trading room floor, following with a post-event party to capture the collaboration and milestone moment for both Fortune and Accenture.
Working through Fortune’s internal PR and executive support systems as well as Accenture’s, we faced challenges in scheduling and had to beg, borrow, and (literally) steal time with C-suite leaders so that we could capture the story from all sides.
We worked with an incredibly talented filmmaker, Richard Butterworth, and his production company, Little Crush Films, to elevate the brand film well above today’s standard of a B2B story, creating a stunning and moving portrayal of real people under real pressure.
“Every week brought new challenges and pivots that our team had to maneuver to capture the right stories at the right time, with our key talent in both New York City and London,” says David Lennon, senior vice president and head of Fortune Brand Studio.
A coordinated effort
To bring the brand film to life, FBS created an integrated promotional strategy across Fortune and Accenture social and native channels, including YouTube. Unique video trailers and cutdowns were created in a variety of formats to ensure placements across all social channels and Fortune and Accenture owned & operated sites.
Organic promotion from Fortune’s main handle also drove to the final brand film. Fifteen- and 30-second social trailers for the film were utilized across all channels to promote the content, driving our highly engaged audience to watch the full-length video and engage with the additional content.
After the launch and events, we also produced a director’s cut of the film, in which we brought in the NYSE footage as well as news footage of Fortune editor in chief Alyson Shontell on Yahoo Finance discussing the history of the Fortune 500 list, the launch, and the future of Fortune.
A launch into the stratosphere
With a film and digital content hub due to launch in tandem with the AI product, we shouldered immense pressure to ensure all deadlines were hit and that we had the most complete and compelling story to put out into the world on the morning of the 2024 Fortune 500 list reveal.
Within the first month of launch, our brand film and related content surpassed all benchmarks, showing true resonation with the business leaders and tech decision-makers our teams are targeting. During that month, our team saw 4.1 million impressions delivered and more than 18,000 page views for the landing page alone. Time spent on page and overall engagement rate have exceeded Fortune’s benchmarks, with an outstanding 92.92% average scroll depth, far surpassing benchmarks (22.6%–34%).
“A key part of the campaign that launched alongside the film was our custom digital content hub that kept readers engaged,” says Megan Gilbert, vice president and executive editorial director of Fortune Brand Studio. “Our goal is to delight our audience with smart, beautiful storytelling and keep them within the Fortune ecosystem. Our Accenture hub did just that.”
Few organizations have told the story of an AI partnership, due to project complexity and lengthy production cycles. The technical story can be incredibly difficult to visualize in a way that captivates an audience, but the story we were able to tell was, at its heart, the story of talented humans coming together to solve a problem in a way that’s never been done before.
The film continues to be a showpiece across Accenture and Fortune, with a great deal of organic promotion still being utilized to engage our audiences and drive them to action. In the month since launch, individuals from 2,200 business domains viewed the content, with 20% of this audience within companies of 10,000-plus employees and 42% in management roles (7% C-suite).
“This brand film exceeded our wildest expectations,” says Lennon. “It captures all the excitement, deadline pressure, and creative ingenuity involved in developing an AI tool. That’s a story few companies are trying to tell. The passion that the Fortune and Accenture teams brought to this project was matched by our good mates at Little Crush Films, and that’s why it’s such an outstanding film and content campaign.”
