The COLORFUL COMMUNITIES® projects in France and the collaboration with AFM-Téléthon have a history of 6 years at this point. Thanks to them, hundreds of volunteers have contributed to making a variety of institutions across all of France more beautiful. For the past three years, Colorful Communities have been led by Ahmed Hammami, customer relations key account manager, Architectural Coatings EMEA South, who partnered for this project with several of our customers, including the SOFREV organization.
Color for the Regions: How It Comes to Be
In 2023, three different Colorful Communities projects came to life: in Paris, Bordeaux and another one in Lille, all of them focusing on local hospitals. Altogether over 200 volunteers took part in revamping hospitals across these 3 locations, using 580 litres of SEIGNEURIE™ Evolutex Bas Carbone paint. Ahmed highlights how rewarding it is to make the hospital environment more beautiful for the employees who work all year long to help others.
"Whenever we come to paint for a Colorful Communities project, we get a lot of attention from families, children and employees passing by. The 'thank yous' we get when they realize what we're creating make us realize it is worth it."
Coordinating this type of projects involves a collaboration of many individuals, and according to Ahmed, that's not always an easy goal to achieve. Each of France's regions has its regional director. Ahmed takes charge of communicating with them about potential sites for a Colorful Communities event. Of course, encountering minor administrative hiccups upon organizing such large events has become nearly a habit for Ahmed. Occasionally, someone might not get informed early enough. As a result, they are not as proactive or open to help.
On the brighter side, Colorful Communities is an excellent way to support local artists. Ahmed and his team have developed a selection process based on what kind of institution is in play.
"A children's hospital will require a different style than a sports venue, for example. That is why we examine the artist's style and history before inviting them to be part of one of our projects."
Beyond the Paint: Bonding with Customers
The 2023 Colorful Communities projects witnessed active participation from SOFREV, which is a leading network of painting and finishing companies in France, and also several of PPG's customers who joined in volunteering.
This year's collaboration didn't focus solely on Colorful Communities, but also on promoting a sales campaign of our Seigneurie paint. This campaign was in fact also a fundraiser, as a significant part of the profit was donated to AFM-Téléthon afterwards.
Ahmed explains that Colorful Communities are a unique way of developing bonds with customers who usually only see PPG in the business sphere.
"It allows PPG to showcase a bit of what we do for the community, and it also allows us to engage our customers in it. It makes them very happy that we have offered them this opportunity to participate in the project."
Running Across All of France to Color a Smile
Ahmed joined our company in April 2021, right amid a lockdown. Since then, he's taken on the role of customer relations key account manager for the Architectural Coatings EMEA South division.
"I handle various key partnership contracts with companies. My goal is to not only maintain these partnerships, but also to develop new ones."
Ahmed's customer relations role spans the national level, involving travel across France and meetings with customers. This holds true also for the Colorful Communities projects, which are held in collaboration with Téléthon.
"I've got appointments all over France, taking the chance to visit potential sites offered by Téléthon for repainting. It's about understanding the need and discussing with on-site staff everything we could do."
With a dynamic and diverse role, Ahmed is constantly on the move. Apart from organizing Colorful Communities projects, he engages in creating fundraisers and participating in runs for good causes.