Unlocking Human Potential
The Brief
Make a global workforce care about six leadership traits they’ve never heard of
Deloitte had invested in researching six traits critical to professional growth — adaptability, trust, care, curiosity, inspiration, and focus. They’d built resources around each one. But resources without an audience are just documents. Engagement with the existing materials was low, and the traits risked disappearing into the noise of a firm that produces thousands of pieces of internal content every year.
The Solution
Forget corporate speak. Let the animals do the talking
A six-part animated series using animal stories to bring each Human Potential trait to life. A dodo that failed to adapt. A meerkat that embodies trust. A honeybee that teaches care. Striking motion graphics with a playfully imperfect visual style — designed to be shared, remembered, and talked about long after viewing.
There’s a story behind the story
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Six traits. Thousands of internal messages to compete with. The hook had to be unforgettable.
Deloitte has a strong internal culture of people development. But in a firm of hundreds of thousands of professionals, every initiative competes for attention with every other initiative. The Human Potential programme had identified genuine insight — six traits that research showed were often overlooked in conventional leadership training.
The resources existed. The research was robust. What was missing was a creative hook compelling enough to make people stop scrolling and start watching. The brief was deliberately open: make it engaging. Format was ours to decide.
The audience was global, which created an additional constraint. Whatever creative approach we chose had to resonate across cultures, languages, and markets without requiring localisation of the core content.
The Stories
Our Approach
Find a cast of characters the whole world recognises
We explored historical figures and celebrities first. Neither worked — no human figure is universally recognisable without cultural bias. Animals, on the other hand, are understood everywhere. A meerkat means trust whether you’re in London, Mumbai, or São Paulo.
Each of the six films starred a different animal, chosen to embody — or warn against the absence of — one Human Potential trait. The dodo’s failure to adapt. The penguin’s curiosity. The elephant’s ability to inspire. The goldfish’s surprising connection to focus.
The animation style was deliberately imperfect — textured, playful, and full of character. We wanted the films to feel like stories worth sharing, not corporate content worth enduring. Wit and warmth did the heavy lifting.
Key Project Assets
Six-Part Animated Animal Series
Six motion-graphic films, each starring a different animal embodying a Human Potential trait — designed for a global audience without cultural bias or localisation requirements.
Playfully Imperfect Visual Identity
A distinctive animation style that broke from corporate convention — textured, witty, and memorable enough to be shared organically across the firm.
Global Content Hook Framework
A creative approach designed to drive traffic from the films to the deeper Human Potential resources — turning a moment of entertainment into a gateway for genuine development.
Impact
The series gave Deloitte’s Human Potential programme the creative identity it needed to stand out in a crowded internal landscape, with initial reception described as overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
Project Insights
From resources to stories
The problem was never the content. Deloitte had done the research and built the resources. The problem was attention. In a firm that produces thousands of pieces of internal content, the only way to be heard is to be genuinely worth watching.
A dodo, a meerkat, and a goldfish. That’s what it took to make six leadership traits memorable. Sometimes the most effective way to talk about human potential is to let the animals go first.
We knew straight away we’d want to move away from conventional corporate speak, into a more human, more accessible kind of storytelling. The animal kingdom gave us a universally understood cast of characters.
Paul Mallaghan, Director of Creative Strategy & Content — We Are Tilt
