#nhs4xmasno1: a powerful message is not just for christmas

December 22, 2015 Darren Caveney

An NHS choir are making themselves heard through song. It's a campaign to show timely support. There's plenty to learn from this.

by Sally-Anne Watts

Over recent weeks I’ve been watching as word has spread about the campaign to make ‘Bridge Over You’ sung by the choir from Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust the Christmas number 1.

It’s a simple enough message – show your support for something you believe in and help others by downloading the song. It doesn’t cost much and you will feel good afterwards. What’s not to like?

star wars: content, brand re-boot and how to recover $4.1 billion

December 22, 2015 Darren Caveney

It's been hard to avoid it online, on TV, on the radio or in the school yard... there's a new Star Wars film. But this buzz isn't an accident and there's a lesson to learn.

by Julie Waddicor

A word of warning before we begin: if you haven’t seen ‘The Force Awakens’ and intend to, stop reading now. I am probably going to ruin it for you. These aren’t the droids you are looking for.

If you are still with me, you’ve either already seen it or aren’t going to, either of which is fine for our purposes. I saw it recently, and enjoyed it. I wouldn’t describe myself as a Star Wars fan, but I’ve seen all of the films, appreciated the original three and hated the more recent trilogy. I have bought a range of merchandise over the last month for the man of the house who is a fan (more of his opinion later). So, I went to see ‘The Force Awakens’ with no particular axe to grind nor any desperate need for it to be brilliant.

how shooting your own star wars video delivered a safety message

December 21, 2015 Darren Caveney

There are huge numbers of people who like Star Wars as the launch of a new film in the franchise shows. So how would they react if a fire and rescue service used the force to deliver some safety messages? Rather well, it would appear.

by Mark Roberts

Kent Fire and Rescue Service is rethinking its approach to digital communications, with a new strategy already being worked on to coincide with the launch of a new campaign calendar for 2016/17.

As the resident sci-fi nerd in the Comms team, I managed to persuade the powers-that-be a Star Wars parody would be an interesting and fun way to do a smoke alarm safety message - which is often a hard sell due to audience complacency - capitalising on the huge exposure generated by the release of the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

united we stand

December 14, 2015 Darren Caveney

Managing a team can be a tricky business. Balancing egos, personalities, ideas, grafters, blockers and dodgers. The best teams usually boast a natural leader. Or two.

by Phil Jewitt

There’s a film called The Damned United which tells the story of the managerial partnership of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor. Together, they successfully led Derby County and Nottingham Forest to football glory in the 1970s but not so successfully* after they went their separate ways. For those too young to remember or not remotely interested in football, you can replace Brian and Peter with Ant and Dec, The Hairy Bikers or any other successful partners.

It’s probably fair to say none of them would have achieved the success they jointly have without the relationship they created and maintained and their understanding of each other and their teams.

Recent posts by Darren, Paul and Simon explained similar experiences of being a Head of Comms. Relevantly, they all talk about relationships, supporting and being supported by their teams.

the periodic table of internal communication

December 13, 2015 Darren Caveney

The periodic table was created in 1869 to bring together all the known chemical elements under one roof enabling them to be studied, discussed and understood. Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev also predicted the discovery of other elements, and he purposely left spaces open for them.

by Caroline Roodhouse

We’ve recently worked with Chuck Gose, Corporate Communications VP, speaker & host of the internal comms podcast, ICology to replicate this original idea for internal communicators. And with hundreds of downloads from comms pros worldwide, it’s already proving to be very popular…

The Idea

The idea was to create a table of terms that would bring together all the elements of internal communication under one roof. We split the table across seven categories: Strategy, Objectives, Themes, Audiences, Formats, Channels and Metrics and populated each category with a number of common comms terms. From there, we’ve built the Periodic Table of Internal Communication, which you can download here.

A cracking response

The feedback so far has been fantastic. We’ve been overwhelmed with the positive responses…

so, what can the communications industry learn from jamie vardy?

December 8, 2015 Darren Caveney

Ah, the Premier League. It's all about the top four and the £50 million signing, isn't it? Actually, no. Unglamorous Leicester City's striker Jamie Vardy scored in 11 consecutive matches to equal a top flight record that had stood since the 1930s. And he can teach comms people lots.

by Eva Duffy

Leicester City footballer Jamie Vardy ends 2015 having made history by becoming the first Premier League player to score in 11 consecutive games.

The 28-year-old striker’s backstory is one of slowburning graft from non-league football to the Premier League and his first England cap at an age when most professionals in the beautiful game are planning their exit strategy via a coaching qualification, semi-retirement in America or a career in televised banter. So what can we in the communication sector learn from the Foxes’ record-breaking golden boy?

it’s the most wonderful time of the year: unawards 2015

December 7, 2015 Darren Caveney

There was real celebratory feel about the UnAwards15, which we’re pretty pleased about because that’s exactly what we hoped to achieve.

By Darren Caveney

The UnAwards15 saw 140 colleagues from across the industry descend on the very cool Everyman Cinema in Birmingham last Thursday. The mood was one of big event excitement - Christmas party meets trip to a posh cinema mixed with lashing of great communicators celebrating one another’s work.

Holding the UnAwards at Christmas is deliberate too – we wanted to add a little festive sparkle to the proceedings.

We’re a tad biased but we felt the whole day was a little bit special.

Sitting watching the fabulous Planes, Trains and Automobiles with what felt like a great big group of pals was pretty amazing. The film had a whole bunch of relevant messages and takeaways (and if you have ever watched the movie remember – ‘never assume you are cuddling a pillow’)

it's time to talk about email: great new guidance launched

December 2, 2015 Darren Caveney

If email isn’t part of your communications strategy then now is the time to factor it in. The Local Government Association have drawn-up some excellent guidance right here - and we've contributed.

by David Holdstock

Emails may have been around for a long time but this technology is seeing a revival among council communicators across the country. And it’s easy to see why. With budget pressures and demands on local services continuing to rise, communications budgets are being stretched – so savvy comms professionals are turning their hands to this cost-effective tool.

There’s a strong business case for using email: research from GovDelivery shows that email is a useful way to increase your online audience, reduce call volumes and increase online transactions. So if email isn’t currently part of your wider communications strategy, then it is definitely time to re-think this.

another nail in the coffin

December 1, 2015 Darren Caveney

The public sector has seen huge budget cuts over the past five years with local government cut more than most. One communications head ponders on what the latest cuts mean for those in local government communications.

by Paul Morris

The Chancellor’s spending review hammered another nail in the coffin of local government. As one commentator predicted, several councils will go bust in the next year because there are no more buildings left to sell, services to close, savings to capture or staff to slash.

Our resilience has been stretched to breaking point; enough is enough, was the tone of his message.

This paints both a worrying and confusing picture for our residents, many of whom depend on their local council in one way or another.

As leisure centres, children’s centres, libraries, museums, day centres and other community essentials shrink their offer, or stop completely, where does that leave those people who rely upon them?

There was a time when we offered so many services it was recommended we produced ‘A-Z of services’ guides to help our citizens navigate through them. Now we face the opposite challenge. How do we explain what’s left?

Our challenge as communicators in the coming year is four-fold, in my view...