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Creative internal communication ideas and 8 steps to the planning behind them!
Internal Communications jobs can look enticing: exciting, creative, working with the leadership team…the list goes on. But of course while all that’s true, Internal Brand Engagement Managers will tell you that even the simplest brand engagement ideas take a huge amount of planning and work behind the scenes to really succeed. Here’s are 8 steps to achieve great results from every internal communications campaign.
1. Decide what you ultimately want to achieve
This will shape your campaign, shape your brand engagement model and help you sell the concept to leaders and managers. It must line up with the company strategy. What results are you ultimately looking for?
2. Create a strong creative theme and key messaging
Your employee engagement concept should reflect your company values and strategy but also feel fresh, fun and full of life. We like to say that it needs to have ‘legs’ and be strong enough that a range of varied activity can hang underneath. A clear set of 2-3 key top level messages must be available, then messages tailored to different internal audiences can sit under this.
3. Plan your activity
The best internal comms examples are always tightly linked to company strategy. Look at the calendar and plan for maximum impact. What else is going on in the organisation – do you need total focus or can you tie in with something else for more impact?
4. Brand engagement for key groups
Start with your leaders, then move on to your managers. If your campaign includes lots of activities and feedback, you could think about appointing brand champions to breath more life and energy into it.
5. Develop your channels
As well as using your usual internal comms channels, look at other ways to make your messages stand out. Ideas range from popular audio/film and animations, screen savers, apps and plasma screens to posters, desk drops, launch packs, toolkits, guides, magazines, stickers, floor and interior wall graphics. But remember – the theme and message is key – get that right first, know your audience and the channel will come after.
6. Get active
Brand engagement in the participation age focuses on helping people to engage through doing, with activities. Competitions, making movies, writing raps, picture competitions, recording booths, live Q&As, webinars, online quizzes and games, individual pledges and trialing new ideas are all popular.
7. Implement your internal comms plan
In all likelihood you’ll be relying on managers and champions to run events around the company, so a campaign toolkit could be important. Make sure the different countries and teams can tailor content/activities to make it relevant.
8. Evaluate and celebrate
Before you get sucked into that next big employee engagement campaign, make sure you evaluate what worked/what didn’t previously and, perhaps most importantly, the impact of your campaign. And don’t forget to celebrate with all those managers, leaders and champions who helped along the way. Top tip: Looking for internal comms best practice? Then take a look at some of our employee engagement case studies for inspiration. Gemma McGrattan- https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmamcgrattan Synergy Creative’s Director, has worked on employee engagement campaigns for Ladbrokes, ODEON/UCI Cinema Group, Clarks shoes, Western Power Distribution and Morrisons. If you’re looking for internal communications examples, take a look at our case studies.
