An award-winning thought leadership campaign from Simmons & Simmons explores the dystopian and utopian futures businesses might face. Alice Nutbrown explains why the firm looked to science fiction and Hollywood for inspiration.
In a world where the lines between reality and science fiction blur more each day, we took an unexpected cue from Hollywood to reimagine how the legal industry approaches thought leadership. The result? A bold, cinematic campaign that not only captured the imagination of clients but also positioned the firm as a forward-thinking leader in the legal sector.
Shortlisted for a B2B marketing Drum Award, The Year Ahead 2025: Fantastical Futures campaign was far from a typical industry forecast.
Instead of static reports and lengthy white papers, we delivered an immersive experience inspired by the storytelling techniques of blockbuster films. By blending Hollywood-style narratives with legal expertise, we created a campaign that grabbed attention and resonated with our internal and external audiences, sparking conversations about the future of business and law.
A cinematic vision for the legal industry
Tasked by senior leadership to elevate our annual Year Ahead predictions campaign, we were challenged to be bolder and to stand out in a crowded market.
Inspiration struck during a general counsel dinner hosted last year by the firm, where legal leaders reflected on how elements of sci-fi movies – AI dominance, environmental crises and financial revolutions – were beginning to creep into real life. This sparked a creative idea within our marketing team: what if, rather than approaching these scenarios with fear, we embraced them and used them as a framework to explore the future of business and law?
Using the Hollywood concept of utopian and dystopian worlds, we created a safe space for our teams to stretch their imaginations and develop a campaign through four key storylines:
1. The high-stakes drama of finance and political systems.
2. The environmental thriller of climate change and sustainability.
3. The evolving narrative of health and wellbeing.
4. The sci-fi spectacle of technology, including AI regulation and digital transformation.
To bring these themes to life and validate our thinking, we conducted a global survey of 500 senior in-house lawyers across five regions. The findings were combined with our expertise to explore how these trends might shape the future. The results were presented on a digital platform designed to resemble a movie streaming site, complete with AI-generated visuals and ‘series-style’ articles. This innovative approach ensured the content was both engaging and accessible to busy executives.
The cinematic theme extended to the campaign’s execution, featuring ‘talking heads’ video content with sector leaders, teaser trailers for social media and even a film clapperboard used in promotional materials.
By embracing creativity and storytelling, we transformed complex legal trends into a compelling narrative that clients could easily connect with.
Disrupting tradition with bold ideas
The legal industry is often characterised by its reliance on precedent and tradition. But we recognised that in an unpredictable world, a bold approach was needed. The campaign challenged conventional thinking and encouraged us and our clients to look beyond the immediate future.
By framing the discussion around Hollywood-inspired scenarios, we considered both utopian and dystopian possibilities for the decades ahead while grounding the insights in actionable steps for today.
Strategically, the campaign positioned us as bold thinkers and innovators. By offering data-driven insights to support these thought-provoking scenarios, we added credibility to the concept and added practical advice to anticipate and address the challenges ahead. This led to inspiring new client conversations, training sessions and business opportunities.
Engagement and recognition
Our campaign set new benchmarks for engagement and impact. The campaign hub, hosted on the Foleon platform, saw the average dwell time double. On LinkedIn, the campaign’s impressions increased by over 50% from the previous year, with the click-through rate also doubling. This surge in performance not only drove traffic to the campaign hub but also sparked enthusiasm and meaningful conversations with clients.
The campaign’s success extended beyond digital metrics, generating media coverage in prominent outlets such as Law.com, Financial Times and Artificial Lawyer.
Internally, the campaign became a collaborative force, creating engagement across global teams, unifying litigators, deal makers, legal engineers, marketing and business development professionals, secretaries, board members and many more.
The power of collaboration
Behind the scenes, the campaign’s success was driven by our in-house marketing and business development team, from campaign ideation and management to creative outputs and press coverage. However, it would not have been possible without also collaborating with external experts.
We partnered with Momentum ITSMA to conduct the global survey and worked with a skilled copywriter to distil complex legal language into engaging narratives.
It was a huge team effort that brought a variety of skills and perspectives together, elevating the campaign in ways that we couldn’t have achieved alone.
Why awards matter
Recognition through awards is more than just a badge of honour – it’s a validation of the hard work, creativity and innovation that go into a campaign. For us, being shortlisted for The Drum Awards shows that taking that leap of faith to be truly bold and try something new was worth it.
Regardless of being a finalist or a winner, this recognition will be a powerful motivator to keep trying new approaches, building confidence and enthusiasm for future projects.
Words of encouragement
From the success of this campaign, we’ve learnt so much and are excited to carry these key lessons into our future campaigns. I encourage you to do the same:
• Let creativity shine: Don’t be afraid to think differently and trust your instincts. Bold ideas can help you stand out.
• Lean on others: Collaboration is a real strength. Working with external experts can take your work to the next level.
• Celebrate wins: It’s not just about awards – it’s about taking a moment to acknowledge your achievements, building confidence and inspiring enthusiasm for future projects.
• Make it meaningful: The best campaigns create real impact – whether that’s connecting with clients, sparking new opportunities or bringing your team closer together. Focus on what truly matters, and the rest will follow.
What’s to come
As the campaign continues to evolve with a sequel focusing on the future of work due in mid-June, it serves as a reminder that the future of law isn’t just a script to follow – it’s a narrative to direct.
Alice Nutbrown is the Brand and Campaigns Manager at Simmons & Simmons.