“As a designer, it’s probably the coolest thing you could possibly ever work on,” stated Kathleen Corridor, Microsoft’s chief model officer. “Talk about a legacy—it’s not like an ad that’s going to disappear in 10 years from now.”
Round two years later, the consequence was ADLaM Show, a digital typeface that runs on all Microsoft 365 services and products. Microsoft additionally made the font open supply and shared it with Google, making it much more accessible and helpful in fashionable life.
The outcomes
If the purpose was to assist the Fulani individuals take part within the digital financial system with their native tongue whereas safeguarding their tradition for future generations—and it was—Microsoft achieved its mission. ADLaM Show is now accessible on Microsoft 365 purposes, akin to Phrase, Outlook, and PowerPoint. Entrepreneurs to educators use it day-after-day.
“Empowering people is what Microsoft has always been about,” stated Shayne Millington, chief inventive officer at McCann New York. Millington famous there’s no scarcity of tales concerning the tech firm tackling comparable issues, whether or not that’s preserving languages or buildings. “This is not a new space,” she added.
Microsoft didn’t want a large promoting marketing campaign to advertise its ADLaM mission; a video and weblog submit documenting the method was sufficient to get the phrase out. Surveys discovered American shoppers held a extra optimistic view of Microsoft following its work on ADLaM Show.
Microsoft’s Corridor described the publicity side as extra of a pull than a push. “We let it find its audience,” she stated.
In one other sense, Microsoft’s merchandise themselves acted as the absolute best medium to broadcast the ADLaM initiative to the individuals who may benefit essentially the most from listening to it.
As Millington put it: “The global impact of this far exceeds anything an ad could ever do.”
