Working alongside Oscar-winning director Ben Proudfoot, we were on a mission to highlight the impact of our work through a documentary film style, bringing our purpose to life in a radically different way with what we called the Impact Film series. Instead of touting impressive-sounding numbers or even our own brand name, these stories are told through the lens of one person, bringing humanity to our work and a face to our impact.

This is not CSR or social purpose marketing. It’s an honest portrayal of the power of digital as a force for good in people's lives.

We wanted to zoom into a first-person story that would help contextualize the importance of digital business transformation for real people, reinforcing our role leveraging digital to drive meaningful human impact.

To start the process, we combed through our client work and found that, among many relatable stories, one simply needed to be told: our work helping to drive equity within the justice system.

This initiative used digital business transformation to provide legal support for most under-represented and underserved populations—helping to keep developmentally disabled and mentally ill defendants out of the cycle of incarceration through access to alternative programs.

We uncovered remarkable details about our material impact on criminal justice reform, including one special story that showed the promise of the justice system, a family, and a community—appealing to our collective sense of hope. That’s how “Forgiving Johnny” was born.

This moving Impact Film about forgiveness has helped us to garner incredible industry recognitions and secure unprecedented opportunities across a variety of events, industry forums and senior leadership networks.

The National Association of Public Defenders and social justice advocate (and NBA All Star) Karl Anthony-Towns joined with us to get this story in front of as many people as possible. We received international coverage in outlets such as NBC News, Mashable, Variety, Deadline, and Complex. And our film was even purchased by TIME magazine for distribution on their channels.

“Forgiving Johnny” has also been accepted and screened at several Oscar-qualifying film festivals, including the esteemed LA Shorts International Film Festival, Indy Shorts International Film Festival, and HollyShorts Film Festival. Additionally, it has sparked a ripple effect by enabling us to partner with and inspire other organizations, industries and sectors, encouraging them to adopt a people-first approach to digital business transformation, further amplifying the positive and systemic impact of our efforts.

Seeing the positive impact of digital on people's lives is now opening up several conversations and prompting a range of C-suite leaders across organizations within various industries, such as Automotive, Retail and Financial Services, to leverage digital as a force for good. Our brand campaign gathered over 1.5 million impressions among key business decision-makers, reaching 236,764 individuals - positioning Publicis Sapient as a champion of human-centric impact through digital business transformation.

With a remarkable 33% higher performance than our CTR benchmark, our campaign drove over 10,000 visits to our website, 88% being first-time visitors, showcasing how emotionally connecting with audiences through human-centric stories allows our brand to successfully reach new people in new ways, spreading our vision of digital for good.

Finally the film has also resonated with our 20k+ people globally by drawing a direct connection between our purpose and our daily work—elevating our sense of pride, loyalty and motivation to drive even greater impact. Through humanizing digital business transformation – and putting real people at the front and centre of our purpose - we’re redefining what it means to work with, and for, Publicis Sapient.

Cultural context that may help the Jury understand the cultural & national/regional nuances applicable to this work: "Forgiving Johnny" offers an honest look into the criminal justice system, showcasing tenacity, public services, and hope.

Many public defenders offices across the nation still rely on antiquated analogue systems to guarantee legal representation for every citizen, handling hundreds of millions of court documents. This makes it challenging for public defenders to obtain crucial paperwork for their clients, hindering their ability to provide effective representation, especially when documents go missing or are delayed.

In criminal trials, judges often favor diversion to treatment over imprisonment for those with documented medical issues. However, presenting these documents in court is costly and time-intensive, posing significant hurdles for public defenders.

Even if a public defender suspected that the files existed, the time and expense to track these files were daunting hurdles to overcome.

Our mission to harness digital as a powerful, transformative force of change has enabled us to deliver a solution that drives meaningful human impact. Through custom tech solutions, over 160 million court records have been digitized, revolutionizing legal processes and enabling public defenders to better serve their clients.

This technological leap has not only benefited society but also transformed lives, giving individuals like Johnny access to diversion and treatment instead of incarceration. Digital business transformation has made compassion accessible with just a few clicks, a far cry from the previous paperwork labyrinth.

By putting the right technology in the right hands at the right time, public defenders now make justice work better for those that need help the most.

Case Dismissed Letter: https://lion.app.box.com/file/1502718930772?s=3b3e7z12hlk0qhqv05sy6f6be6yc7aba