How Social Media Fuels Digital Transformation at Shell
Royal Dutch Shell, quite literally, fuels the world.
What started out in 1907 as an antique store selling – you guessed it – shells, has become No. 5 on the Fortune 500, No. 20 on the Forbes 2000, and one of the most valuable brands in the world.
In recent years, Shell has become something else: a pioneer in digital transformation.
The company just pulled off a previously unimaginable feat in engineering – employees in Calgary, Canada used virtual mapping to drill a well 6,200 miles away in Vaca Muerta, Argentina. And 7,500 miles away, in another corner of the world, employees at Shell corporate headquarters are working to pull off another feat: demonstrating that a large global organization can still deliver personalized customer experiences, at scale.
A New Corporate Mindset and Mandate
“Our journey started with embracing the humanization of the Shell brand,” says Dean Aragon, Shell’s CEO of Shell Brands International and global VP of brand. “Shell is a large multinational organization, yes, but our customers are human, and we need to be able to connect to them on that level.”
The marketing strategy became less about “marketing” the brand. “We flipped the syntax and made everything about our customers,” Dean continues. "Shell is not the subject – our customers, our stakeholders, our target audiences are the subject and we are the predicate.”
"Once we embraced that mindset, we found the courage to pursue it.” Under Dean, Shell’s branding budget shifted from being primarily driven by traditional channels, to digital and social. “80% of our budget is now allocated to social and digital. The simple reason is because we know that through these channels, we can reach and engage with customers at scale," Dean says.
Embracing Social as the Key to Transformation
Americo Silva joined Dean’s team in 2015 to lead the company’s global social media efforts. In doing so, he would embrace all the opportunities and obstacles that came with it.
"There are endless possibilities with social,” Americo says. “It gives us the ability to create more personal, more genuine customer experiences. And ultimately, it can help us transform our brand in the eyes of our customers.”
But with abundant room for growth comes commensurate room for error. “Social is a difficult beast to tame, if you will. In a corporation like Shell, with multiple businesses and audiences all over the world, things get complex. The expectations are high and the challenges are unique,” he continues.
Overcoming Siloed Teams, Processes, and Tools
“I remember my first day on the job – I had a queue of people at my desk complaining about the technology that we were using for social media management at the time,” Americo reflects.
That was just the tip of the iceberg.
“There was very little measurement, campaign planning, or cross-team collaboration. The process was not at all streamlined and our team was struggling as a result,” explains Davey Strachan, digital operations manager.
Shell had a social media presence stretching across 100 accounts and dozens of social teams worldwide. So there was a social media strategy in place, and the right individuals to carry the torch, but too many silos stood in the way of progress.
“Every market and team was interacting with customers on social, but we couldn't really work together,” Americo adds. “We didn’t act like one brand and I think that was evident to the customer.”
Adopting a Unified Customer Experience Platform
“One of my most critical decisions was to identify the best-in-class social media platform in the market,” Americo says. “At the end, we selected Sprinklr. It was the only platform robust enough to serve our needs as a global organization and innovative enough to keep up with our aspirations for social.”
The benefits of having a unified customer experience platform were almost immediately obvious, Davey says.
There’s more collaboration across teams, and it happens in real time. “We have visibility every step of the way for every campaign – from content creation, to approvals, to publication, to amplification through paid. As a result, we can move through the content lifecycle much more efficiently than ever before, and with fewer errors,” he says.
There’s also greater visibility into the customer journey. “We can tie activities and outcomes from social to other parts of the customer journey – whether that’s a digital conversion on our site or a customer service question on Twitter,” he continues.
Empowered by a customer-first strategy, increased cross-team collaboration, and a platform that facilitates the former – the Shell social team is proving in more ways what’s possible with social. “We’ve been able to grow our audience by XX%; we have XXX engagements every month; and some of our most passionate advocates are our customers,” Americo says.
Delivering a More Unified Brand Experience
Shell has now unified social operations on Sprinklr across two key customer-facing functions: marketing and advertising.
“It really improves the experience internally, on the way people manage social, and it empowers a bigger group of people to have access to the information they need to do their jobs effectively,” Americo says. “You can detail by business, you can detail by geography, you can detail by particular pieces of work. This cuts down risk, cost, and time.”
While the internal benefits are noteworthy, it’s the external benefits that they’re most proud of.
Because multiple teams are working from the same platform, those teams can communicate in one brand voice. And because they’re engaging with customers in a consistent way, and adding value during every interaction, their customers want to continue the conversation.
Last, but not least, the customer’s experience is more meaningful. “We’re working together to provide a consistent experience for our customers, and proving to them – one interaction at a time – that we’re here to put them first.” says Americo.
