by James Morton and Darren Caveney

First up, Darren…

One of the things I love most about working for myself is the opportunity to collaborate. Either when it’s something I’m not the best in the world at, or to share the workload with other trusted advisors on big projects, or just for the sheer hell of doing fun things with people I like and on work which might be useful to someone somewhere. This new resource fits into that last category.

My comms2point0 essential comms planning guide has been around for five years now and is what marketing people would call ‘evergreen content’. It’s had well over 5k downloads and is still being used by comms teams today, which fills my heart with glee to think that it may have helped someone crafting a comms strategy or plan. It’s still my own go-to template for pulling together a new plan. I used it just this week in a training workshop.

So, what is this new resource and set of templates, you might ask? Well it’s an add-on to the original resource but one which also taps into some other important considerations.

It was sparked by the brilliant Donna Jordan, strategic head of comms and engagement at Derbyshire Constabulary.

Donna asked us if there was a campaign planner which also allowed some extra functionality, such as the ability to monitor and mark progress and to update the ongoing evaluation results.

Other asks were a tab to capture content by channel and audience, links to the corporate priority being targeted (vital to monitor if we’re to keep on the straight and narrow and avoid that demand ‘side-wash’ which continually hits teams) and a RAG rated tab to help keep an eye on progress.

It was a great list and may well exist somewhere else in the paid-for world. But we wanted to create a £free resource and something accessible to anyone.

The other element we felt was crucial to embrace was creativity. We’ve heard a lot about how difficult it can be for comms teams to find the time to be creative, so we wanted to put some useful pointers and nudges at the heart of the resources too.

And when it comes to creativity, there’s no-one better to turn to than Alive With Ideas. They’ve given the resources their usual distinctive visual twist and passed on some of their wisdom on sparking creativity.

Over to James…

So, what have we got for you? Well, there’s only one appropriate way to talk you through them and that’s with a properly-structured plan, of course…

Context

The demand for ‘comms magic’ seems as high as ever, despite so many competing pulls on your time and resources.

These new templates are here to give you the confidence and content to wield your comms magic wand whenever you need to.

Objectives

We want to give every comms team the tools with which to build award-winning creative campaigns. (Did we mention the UnAwards are live and open for entries, folks?)

The resources recognise the need to have all the necessary building blocks for campaigns in place, but also to put creativity and ideas at their heart. That’s the fun bit, right?

Audiences

All of you!

All the hard-working but hard-pressed comms teams, who don’t always have the time or resources at their disposal.

They’re for all teams of all sizes, in all sectors

Messaging

“Creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye”, said American poet and writer Dorothy Parker.

That’s what we’re aiming at - providing the foundations for the discipline, while encouraging creativity to flourish.

Content

There are three resources, designed to work together:

An infographic guide to creative campaign planning and ideas generation
A campaign planner to walk you and your team through the stages of building a campaign
A campaign tracker to allow you to plot the progress and essentials of your campaigns

Channels

You can download them straight away - either on the comms2point0 website or on Alive’s site.

We’ve also had a special A1-sized batch printed up for walls, which we’ll be sharing with people on our travels (we’ve handed out two just this week and keen to hear the feedback)

And we’re also offering a few copies as prizes if you’d like one on your office wall.

Evaluation

"What everyone needs to plan their campaigns, align with their priorities and target different audiences - comms2point0 and Alive with Ideas have pulled together everything a girl could need for campaign planning!"

Donna Jordan

And as for our final outcomes, well it’s over to you for those, folks.

To win one of 10 free print sets tell us why you’d really like one?
Email both darrencaveney@gmail.com and james@alivewithideas.com

*Sign up for the comms2point0 eMag*

The comms2point0 eMag features exclusive new content, free give-aways, special offers, first dibs on new events and much, much more.

Sound good? Join over 3k other comms people who have subscribed. You can sign up to it right here