One size fits none.

Time is the greatest luxury. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most wasted resources. No, I’m not talking about lazy Sunday afternoons with your friends, but about the time you are supposed to spend in the most efficient way possible; at work.

While you are reading this, people in big offices dig their way through fact sheets, corporate mailings and well-meant business initiatives, bound to fail. They are trying to find that one piece of information that they need, or that is relevant to them, while skilfully ignoring the rest. Sounds familiar?

The truth seems to be that Corporate communication is often, well… just boring.

There, I said it.

It can be done. We have been lucky enough to help top clients achieve a state-of-the-art internal communication strategy. But we also realise there’s still a long way to go in terms of corporate communication — worldwide. Too often, internal messages are being dismissed as relatively unimportant or treated as an afterthought. There’s no budget, and sometimes there’s not even a team dedicated to it. This is at odds with the big role that effective communication can play in the success of a company. Can we really be surprised to read that just 25% of all company changes succeed?

We believe we can start this change. With our first ten years under our wings, we refreshed our company name, visual identity and defined a clear mission with a focus on corporate communication. Along the way, we’ve found that a strategy can be felt. A leadership event can be the talk of the town. Or at least the talk of the coffee corner. We’ll keep doing this project by project. But I’d also like to invite you to join us in our quest. And to help you, I’m happy to share with you our secret sauce.

Before we get to that, let’s assess the time we live in. Since our start, phones have been reinvented from bulky bricks to highly personal devices. Netflix has reinvented its core business from mailing dvd’s in red envelopes to an on-demand video platform. Marketing is reinvented from full-page ads in newspapers to ultra-relevant online content. It’s hard to imagine how much has changed in the way we spend our time, and how content is tailored towards us nowadays. We truly seem to be in customer-journey-heaven. So, wouldn’t it be great if corporate environments treated their internal audiences the same way?

I promised you our secret sauce. The list of ingredients that make it all work. All the important factors to consider in your corporate communication, to directly and successfully increase business success. Well here it comes, the list:

And that’s it. I’m not even kidding. End. Of. List. The success and future of your company is determined by your people. They are expected to be ambassadors of your company to the external world. To live and breathe your strategy, your story. But please don’t forget: they get to decide whether to join you or not. You get to help them make that decision. If you look at it like that, it makes a lot of sense to convince the group, in stead of talking to the group. In our experience, there are a few more things to take into consideration though. And we’ve also sorted those out for you.

Talk to people like they are…people. Directing your communication to your intended receiver, with a personal and specific approach, greatly increases the chances of them actually spending time on your message. Personalising can be small (think simple personal salutation in a text, small AB-tests with videos) or not-so-small (think fully variable messaging, interactive video’s per persona, or even on-demand corporate content). It can be directed at different target groups, persona’s, interest groups. How or what doesn’t mean as much here as the fact that you took the effort to make it personal. It’s no holy grail, but the response will always be better than with a quick shout out to the lot.

Filters play a big role in modern platforms. Similar to the famous left swipe, we can dismiss information that we don’t find relevant. Skip ads on YouTube, unfollow someone we don’t like. At work, we don’t have the luxury of a well developed AI assisting us. Meanwhile, we’re being overrun by both internal and external communication. The average corporate employee faces on the north side of 150 emails a day. Now — brace yourself — a lot a people don’t read most of those. I know, it’s harsh, but also a very effective way of saving time. And can you blame them? With the lack of some smart AI filter helping out, people developed their own filters. Filters that help them to get shit done. Unfortunately, they did miss that one piece of information from you, that might have been of relevance.

To escape the filter you have to know the filter. And the filter you’re facing is based on the culture of your company. So who better than you, to break away from habits in your companies communication. To do a newsletter in a podcast. Do an unveiling in augmented reality. There are several ways to escape the filter, but let’s highlight the two most important ones:

Imagine your board carefully crafting its 5-year strategy, after which the people further down the line dismiss the feat as ‘just another piece of corporate bullshit bingo’ (we actually saw this reaction in a survey about internal communication within a big corporate). Is the board wrong? No. But their story is a result of many opinions and oftentimes internal politics. And that’s fine. But the people down the line often don’t like politics. They like to know where they stand. What to expect. And what is expected of them. If you don’t provide them with that information, they will seek it elsewhere.

Now don’t get me wrong, important messages need nuance. But don’t let nuance make your message into one grey blur. It’s simply more effective to be clear, than to be perfect. How would you bring the message while talking over a cup of coffee? What would be the main take-away for them? What would they be talking about afterwards? Think of your message as a growing conversation. When they truly talk about the subject, chances are it will be in simpler terms. It’s up to you to decide if you want to be a part of that.

Showing your vulnerable side invokes empathy and understanding with your audience. Don’t be afraid to say ‘hey, we are trying this podcast for the first time because we think it will fit your daily schedule better’. Or better yet, walk on a stage saying ‘hi everybody, glad to be here. Well, actually, I’m pretty nervous standing here, but I will do everything I can to make this presentation worth your time.’ Show that you are trying to think along with your audience, rather than discharge information on them. People really respect people making an effort. It goes for anything you want to share with your colleagues. If you believe in something enough to go for it, it will inspire others. Clearly, there are risks involved. You might fall flat on your face. Your idea might fail and blow up in your face. In short; there’s a fair chance your face will suffer. But there’s also the chance people see your face next to a success. They see the result of somebody that took a chance, for them, and it worked. And that’s all there is to it. Good storytellers now we define our heroes in how they deal with challenges. Please don’t walk away from challenges. Charge at them and allow your idea to become the hero.

Thank you for reading this. I truly hope this was of use to you. And that we’ve convinced you to make an effort in reinventing corporate communication with us. We promise to be bold and smart, to speak the language, to escape the filters, but we would love for more people to be on board with this. After 10 years in the field, we’re proud to say we’ve changed corporate communication on many occasions. And we’re happy to support you with reinventing corporate communication for your company as well. And, who knows, help save some of that valuable time along the way.

Strategy | Niels Janssen, Peter Zijlstra, John vd Vorstenbosch, Floor Willems, Jeroen Flink

Concept | Iris Holtkuile, Anne Merel Verleun, Sem Chouikha, Luuk van Liere, Niels Janssen, John vd Vorstenbosch

Art Direction | Luuk van Liere

Graphic Design | Jelle Clignet, Nick Kuijpers, Lotte Kemper, Pieter Sijtsma

Camera, Edit, Direction | Koen Koster, Wouter Kuin

3D, Compositing, VFX | Nils Bakker, Monica Pranoto, Tim Dokter

Development | Jeffrey von Grumbkow, Willem-Jan Straver, Daan Weustenraad

Project Management | Floor Willems, Micky Jansen, Mathilde Kamp, Marloes Mittendorff, Jedidja Louman, Rogier Soetekouw, Tijs Moormann, Anouk Vlasman, Boy Sheikkariem

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