A little bit of change for Impact

Today marks a significant change day in Impact’s history as we are changing – but just a little bit. From today, we’re dropping two words from our name (‘employee communications’) and becoming ‘Ogilvy Impact’ to reflect the ever-broadening scope of our work.

Over the last 17 years we’ve been engaging and driving action not only with employees, but franchisees, members and sales channels as well. We’re still the same strategic thinkers, playful creatives, compelling storytellers and fearless doers we’ve always been helping Australia’s leading companies achieve great business results.

Being the change experts – everyone in our team has raced through the change curve, is on board with our new name and are now even more passionate about driving creativity and delivering even more award-winning work for our clients. Work that truly makes a business difference.

In the spirit of simple, clear, concise communication, that’s all we wanted to say. Happy Thursday all.

Don’t reach for the stars

The goal was simple. Spell the words correctly and the gold star was mine. Get it right the next week and I’d be looking at two stars.

Being slightly competitive I underwent a strict training regime. Work was taken home for evening review. Flash cards were created and poured over in alphabetical order. Invitations were repeatedly offered to test my spelling prowess.

You may think this rather excessive behaviour all for a simple sticker. But a recent HBR study reported in this week’s New York Times made me reflect on whether the goal of my primary school spelling bees was really a star or something more.

Research conducted by Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, authors of “The Progress Principle”, asked 669 managers from companies around the world to rank five employee motivators in terms of importance. They ranked “supporting progress” last. But recognising progress in meaningful work was identified in the study as the primary motivator amongst employees. Even more than incentives like raises and bonuses.

In working with organisations on their Employee Value Propositions (EVPs), we often hear of new and improved formal recognition programs. Of course it’s critical to have the right processes in place to recognise employees going above and beyond. But it’s not awards or incentives that will mobilise the efforts of all employees in a sustainable way.

In the end it comes down to employee engagement and how good managers are at having the day-to-day conversations with their people. It’s about knowing the right questions to ask. It’s about listening, finding out what a person is working on and talking through any challenges. It’s sometimes as simple as saying hello and asking the person how they’re feeling.

Pretty simple stuff. But for many managers such behaviour may not come naturally. Or other things take priority and time becomes the excuse.

In my experience, there’s an opportunity for organisations to do more. It doesn’t have to be formal manager training as such. Highlight through your internal communication channels the business benefit of happy, motivated employees; reinforce their responsibilities in supporting their team and outline different things they can do to show their people they care.

In the end, no matter how old we are, we all want to be noticed for doing a good job. For me, as a ten year old there was nothing better than seeing my parents’ faces when I showed off my stars. That’s the driver. Not the stars.

Cannes Lion win for Impact

July, 4 – The team at Impact is very proud to announce the latest addition to our trophy cabinet with a Bronze PR Lion from the recent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Recognised for our work with Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts as part of a joint campaign with our Ogilvy & Mather colleagues in Hong Kong, the award is testament to the critical role of employee engagement as part of broader brand campaigns.

‘Inside out’ was the result of an integrated brand campaign that focused on building the brand from the inside out, ensuring employees had a genuine understanding of the values and behaviours needed to deliver the Shangri-La brand promise – treating guests not as king, but as kin.

In its 58th year, the Cannes Lions Festival is recognised as the most prestigious international awards celebrating creativity in communication, with more than 24,000 entries from across the globe.

Young professionals demand an internal change of focus

Like many employees in the communication industry, I undertook an internship while still at university. My four weeks with Impact proved to be invaluable as I gained contacts, advice and most importantly, my first real taste of the industry. However, as it was not covered in my bachelor of communication degree, it took me the longest time to completely understand what ‘internal communication’ was exactly, and I still don’t think I’ve nailed it!

As a public relations major I understood the part PR played in a company’s success, but didn’t see the reason for internal communication management – not because I disagreed with it, but because there simply wasn’t enough about it on my course.  I’m learning, this lack of understanding about just how powerful galvanising employee support through great internal communication can be, exists across many organisations.

It soon became clear as I better understood what Impact does, just how powerful what we do can be in driving organisational success. Companies who invest in employee engagement are shown to have a higher rate of productivity and lower turnover. Employee communication ensures that the correct messages flow between all levels of management and that two way communication is facilitated. In short, it is crucial!

More and more companies are discovering the advantages of internal communication and it is becoming a growing industry in Australia. I really feel that it is time for all Australian universities to include an internal communication unit in their core communication degree requirements. By skimming the surface it is impossible to understand the significance of employee communication and the influence it can have on the smooth internal and external operations of an organisation.

Luckily I have an entire team of internal comms professionals surrounding me at Impact who are helping me to work out my EVPs from my ELTs. It may take me a while, but slowly I’m piecing everything together. Ask me again in another few months and hopefully I’ll be better able to explain ‘what is internal communication’.

But then again, don’t be surprised if I’m still completely overwhelmed!

IABC World Conference 2010 – Day Three

So to the last day.

But before I get to that, I must make mention of the very enjoyable gathering that happened last night. About 18 like-minded communications folk from Australia and NZ gathered for a quick bite and a few drinks. This posse included one lady from NZ who’d won a Gold Quill of Excellence for her media relations work with the NZ potato industry. In a clear, but unintentional bid to damage international affairs, I managed to call her Potato Woman as I was trying to introduce myself. Good work Tam.  At which point, to negate any damage to Aussie/NZ relations, I tell her I’m actually British as a reason for my bumbling. She’s happy.  We move on.

Potatoes aside, the chatter round the table did lead us all to one important conclusion.  From all the sessions/idea jams/keynotes we’d attended, and content we’d absorbed, we know our work is up there with the best strategic and creative campaigns we’d seen. Something not recognised enough by our industry. With Australia taking 15 Gold Quill awards of this year’s 103 awards  – that’s just shy of 15% of the total award haul of all international markets – it’s clear, we’re delivering the best there is to deliver.

So… back to the final day, well it was half a half day, but it did not disappoint.

I first attended a session entitled Pirates of the Intranet (Arrrr Jim Lad) led by UK publisher Marc Wright (he of www.simply-communicate.com fame – a useful case study resource for internal communicators).

We explored the challenge organisations face with the internet opening up opportunities for what he called ‘pirate sites’, as employees set up websites for employees. Marc’s most pertinent point being if you don’t invest in your own intranet, make sure your own internal communications are working, these pirate sites can become the source of truth, or ‘untruth’ for employees.

He also emphasised the vital and rising importance of developing and embedding guidelines around social media behaviour, something many of our Impact clients are investing in at the moment.

Conversely, he talked about the challenge brands face when passionate consumers start to ‘take over’ your brand online. Do you leave it, or do you do something about it? Case in point. Michael Werch, formerly known as @HJ_HEINZ on Twitter, was a big fan of Heinz Tomato Ketchup and was tweeting many sweet nothings about ketchup. However, the company decided he was violating their trademark policy.  They took a heavy handed approach and successfully had his Twitter feed changed to @notHJ-HEINZ. This back-fired for Heinz.

He was not harming the brand, but is no longer tweeting about the product.  Were they right or wrong to do this? Food for thought. For more – see http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Being-HJ-Heinz-Lessons-Learned-from-Brand-Squatting-2522.html

The conference closed with incoming IABC chair, Shelley Bird, committing to raising the visibility of the association to its 15,000 members worldwide and to ensuring it moved ahead of what is now a rapidly changing profession.

She introduced a great keynote speaker, entrepreneur and venture capitalist – Guy Kawasaki. Guy is ex-Apple, dynamic, engaging and presented his 11 points to innovation.

He emphasises something we in the internal communications world already know. Mission statements are too long and cited the following ‘mantras’ as strong, memorable and clear for employees – Nike – ‘Authentic athletic performance’; Wendys – ‘Healthy fast food’; Fedex – ‘Peace of mind’; Ebay – ‘Democratise commerce’.  This is not new, but important to remember.

Before I close, it’s also worth noting, particularly in light of our own passion for this space through our work with our OgilvyEarth brand, the IABC has done a really good job this year of expanding its environmentally and socially responsible practices. So, it warmed the cockles of my green heart that I did not see reams of paper everywhere. Participants were encouraged to download only the information they needed, recycling bins were prominent and most marketing materials from exhibitors were online. There was also the opportunity to take part in a local community program with the Evergreen Bricks Works.

And so I now head to New York for a few days to join other Ogilvy Impact colleagues.  I leave the conference with even more confidence (if that were possible) in the bottom line value our work brings to organisations, large and small.

Good work IABC.

Ogilvy PR Announced as Finalists in the APAC Sabre Awards

The Asia Pacific Sabre Awards has announced its finalists with 16 coming from Ogilvy Public Relations, 13 of these finalists come from Ogilvy PR Australia.

Pulse Communications BlueScope Steel Tank a Day Challenge is the finalist in the Australia and Industrial/Manufacturing categories.  The PR and Rosemount O campaign for Foster’s Group is also a finalist for the Australia category.  Pulse is also a finalist in the Marketing To Consumers category with its Milo B-Smart campaign, and in the Consumer Products/Services category with Vodafone’s Decisive Moments campaign.  The Cascade Green Launch is announced finalist in the Food and Beverage category, Flora Pro-Active- Lowering The Nation’s Cholesterol in the Healthcare category, and Tourism Australia in the Travel and Leisure category for the See The Movie: See The Country campaign.

Impact Employee Communications has been announced the finalist in the Australia category for its work with Nestlé, Personal Best: Achieving an Olympic Sized Sales Effort.  Impact’s Woolworth’s Eco Ambassador Program is the finalist in the Employee Communications category, and also in the Digital & Social Media category with Ernst & Young’s New Face of Graduate Recruitment.

Howorth’s work with Microsoft has been announced as best program in the technology sector in the Technology category.  Ogilvy PR Australia is the finalist in the Business-To-Business Marketing category for Hudson’s 20:20 Vision: Identifying Key Motivators Of Australian Job Seekers.

Congratulations to Ogilvy PR China for its three finalist entries in the Greater China, and Employee Communications categories.

The winners of the APAC Sabre Awards will be announced in two week’s time and the awards dinner will be held in 2010.

Commendations for Ogilvy PR at this year’s PRIA Awards

Howorth’s campaigns for Telstra and Livewire and Impact’s campaign for Coca-Cola received commendations at this year’s NSW PRIA Awards held in Sydney in September.

The Howorth campaign for Telstra Enterprise & Government, Identifying Australia’s Productivity Gap, positioned Telstra as a thought leader in the area of business challenges and the supporting role of IT and telecommunications.  The PR driven idea led to an integrated campaign for the Telstra including events, above the line advertising and direct mail.

For Livewire, Howorth was engaged under a part-paid, part-pro bono contract to officially launch and drive awareness for a new online and social network for young Australians aged between 10 and 21 currently living with a serious illness, chronic health condition or disability.

With just three weeks to deliver the entire campaign and create talkability, Howorth created a launch campaign, which saw Livewire rated as the ‘most searched’ topic on Google. More than 50 media interviews were conducted with key Livewire spokespeople, resulting in 250 radio, print and online stories touching every state within the country. These stories created more than 37 million opportunities for Australians to see, read or hear about Livewire via online, newspapers, magazines and radio media coverage, effectively reaching all Australians over the age of ten at least twice.

Impact Employee Communications/OgilvyEarth was engaged to develop and implement a communication strategy to launch Live Positively within Coca-Cola South Pacific.  The strategy needed to kick-start the Live Positively journey by educating, inspiring and uniting associates.  The Coca-Cola community locally and globally has heralded this communication campaign as a great success.  Within Ogilvy PR Worldwide the event has also been recognised, with Ogilvy Earth’s global network requesting knowledge sharing to drive further work with Coca-Cola globally as Live Positively is rolled out.

Nestlé Australia: Achieving Olympic sized sales effort

Challenge

With growing consumer demand for low pricing, greater competition from supermarket ‘own brand’ products and a massive rise in cost base, 2008 would bring a number of challenges to the Nestlé Sales team. The employee engagement challenge was significant. How to drive greater effort from an already stretched and high-performing team with the ultimate aim of maximising sales.

Insight

Insights gain from the merchandiser research revealed head office was seen as an ‘ivory tower’ which lacked understanding of the needs and challenges merchandisers faced in their roles.

Campaign

Impact’s strategy included research, a series of engagement events and ongoing momentum activities whilst capitalising on Nestlé’s sponsorship of the Australian Olympic Swim Team. Strong messaging encouraged employees to challenge their own limits, resulting in the creation of the ‘Personal Best’ (PB) brand. The PB brand was launched via an Olympic-themed roadshow. To ensure message retention, divisional messages were delivered via interactive team games with a quiz element to test recall and create a sense of competition.

Outcome

As described by Nestlé’s National Sales Director, “The Roadshow and comms strategy more than delivered what it set out to achieve…some say this is one of the hardest challenges to overcome, motivating a team who are already at the top of their game. The balance of strong message direction, creativity and experiential communication has meant our team is motivated and inspired to step up their pace and deliver an even higher performance in 2008.”

http://www.impact.com.au