1. Introduction: This case study showcases the successful communication strategy employed by a global company for its rebranding initiative and how the same preparedness led to mitigating a company-wide leak just days before the planned product launch. The comprehensive communication plan covered executive, employee, and sales communications, along with social, customer, and media relations. The strategy resulted in a significant positive impact on employee understanding and activation during the rebrand and enabled communication leaders to handle the crisis efficiently and maintain control of the narrative.

2. Background: The company, a prominent player in the technology industry, decided to undergo a strategic rebrand to reposition itself in the market and align its brand identity with its evolving vision. However, three business days before the planned launch, a company-wide leak threatened to disrupt the launch of the new brand and damage the company's reputation. This leak also posed a SEC violation risk.

3. Objectives: The communication strategy had the following key objectives:

a. Global Rebranding Communication Objectives:

• Ensure clear and consistent messaging about the rebrand to all stakeholders, including executives, people leaders, employees, sales teams, customers, partners and investors.

• Build a deep understanding of the new brand identity and values among employees and create excitement for the new identity.

• Engage customers and external stakeholders positively during the rebranding process.

b. Crisis Mitigation Objectives:

• Contain the impact of the leak and prevent misinformation from spreading both internally and externally.

• Maintain control of the narrative surrounding the leak and the rebrand.

• Reassure employees and stakeholders about the company's commitment to transparency and preparedness.

4. Strategies Implemented: The company executed the following strategies to achieve the stated objectives:

a. Global Rebranding Communication Strategies:

• Prepared comprehensive communication plans tailored for executives, people leaders, employees, sales teams, customers and partners outlining key messages, reasoning behind the rebrand and benefits of the change.

• Organized a leadership, sales and global all-hands meeting to unveil the rebranding to employees, explain the rationale behind the change and generate excitement.

• Created a refreshed digital employee experience with rebranded intranet, robust online resources, rebranded digital signage and e-newsletters, screen savers and more.

• Execute on a media blitz to gain earned media attention.

• Deliver a customer communications “waterfall” customized by region and product.

• Created online toolkits for sales, employees, people leaders and executives containing guidelines for incorporating the new brand messaging into their interactions.

b. Crisis Mitigation Strategies:

• Acted proactively by issuing prepared communications addressing the leak three days early to maintain control of the narrative.

• Quickly organized an emergency global all-hands meeting to address concerns, provide accurate information, and rally the team together.

• Swiftly migrated intranet pages to ensure that employees had access to accurate information about the leak and its impact.

• Launched various toolkits for employees, customers, and media, containing accurate messaging to minimize misinformation.

5. Results: The effective communication strategies yielded the following outcomes:

a. Global Rebranding Results:

• Employee understanding and activation saw a remarkable 73% positive increase, indicating a successful internal adoption of the rebrand.

• The launch event received enthusiastic participation from employees and sales teams, fostering excitement around the new brand identity.

b. Crisis Mitigation Results:

• The company effectively responded to the leak and prevented the spread of misinformation both internally and externally.

• By issuing prepared communications early and standing up a global all-hands meeting promptly, the company regained control of the narrative.

6. Conclusion: This case study demonstrates the importance of a well-executed communication strategy in both proactive and crisis situations. The company's effective communication approach for the global rebranding initiative significantly increased employee understanding and activation. Furthermore, the same preparedness allowed the company to mitigate the company-wide leak, enabling them to maintain control of the narrative and proceed with the planned product launch without major disruptions. The case study underscores the significance of communication as a powerful tool for managing corporate transformations and crisis situations effectively.

Introduction: Effective executive communications play a pivotal role in fostering employee engagement, driving culture and building a sense of unity within an organization. This white paper delves into the experiences of leveraging executive communications to enhance employee engagement, build employee connection to the company and inspire teams to extraordinary efforts on behalf of organizations. This paper highlights the crucial role that executive communications play in creating a cohesive and engaged workforce through consistent and authentic messaging, creative delivery methods, rapid response during crisis and impactful external communication opportunities.

1. Consistent and Authentic Messaging: Identifying key messages and supporting proof points can pull those messages through multiple storylines, resulting in effective and organic repetition. Communication professionals can advise executives on messaging, tone, cadence, and communication methods to effectively convey the company's vision, goals, and values to employees. Executives benefit from supporting corporate communications, creating a unified narrative that becomes familiar to employees. By aligning critical messages with executive communications, organizations can build trust, promote transparency and foster a shared sense of purpose, resulting in less turnover and higher retention rates.

2. Creative Delivery Methods: With so many competing information sources, winning employees' attention can be challenging. Considering any organization's unique qualities, communication professionals can recommend techniques beyond an email message. Methods could range from videos to radio shows, podcasts to coffee chats, pizza parties to rapid-fire Q and A town halls. Assessing the audience, the corporate culture and the executive's personality and preferences are all part of good communication advising.

3. Rapid Response During Crisis: Employees want to hear from their leaders during challenging times. Effective executive communication can instill confidence and reassure employees. Finding an authentic balance between emotion, practicality and the company's best interests can be difficult. Preparing for these situations ahead of time is the job of a communications professional. That preparation can assist executives in a swift response that has been thought through in advance – taking the heat out of the moment and resulting in thoughtful, genuine messaging that resonates with employees.

4. Impactful External Opportunities: When communication professionals identify impactful speaking opportunities, relevant social media and media relations chances - and executives actively participate in these events - employees take notice. Further, amplifying these opportunities internally can result in a proud employee base. External communications further enhance employee pride and motivation by showcasing the company's achievements and positive impact on society as well as their leaders' thought leadership in public forums.

6. Conclusion: The importance of executive communications in driving employee engagement cannot be overstated. Effective executive messaging, guidance, and involvement in internal and external communications positively impact organizational culture, employee motivation, retention and overall business success. When executives actively engage with employees through various communication channels and are advised by their communication staff, the organization benefits from increased employee satisfaction, productivity and loyalty. Organizations that understand executive communications as a strategic priority are better positioned to foster a strong culture, retain talent and achieve long-term growth and prosperity.

Introduction: Corporate cultural transformation can be challenging. Leadership buy-in is critical to success, as is a strategic communication plan that spans the long term. Establishing or transforming programs that embrace cultural priorities puts action in place to support the words and creates opportunities for organizations to align their values, behaviors, and communications with their strategic objectives. This white paper highlights a highly acquisitive company's successful cultural transformation journey, driven by behavior-based values and a comprehensive communication strategy. By interlacing key cultural concepts into critical communications and programs, the company achieved remarkable cultural integration and employee engagement results. This paper delves into the strategy employed and the impact of these initiatives on organizational success.

1. Rewriting the Values: To initiate cultural transformation, the company looked hard at its existing values. The communications team was tasked with keeping the values in place while identifying what those values would look like in action. Authenticity and relatability were vital to creating language to bring the values to life. Once the new behaviors were introduced, the communications team crafted a comprehensive communication strategy to embed these values throughout the organization, fostering a cohesive identity and reinforcing the desired behaviors.

2. Culture Communications for Acquisitions: During three significant acquisitions and numerous smaller deals, the communications team created effective launch and integration communications woven through with key messages that underscored the acquiring company's values and vision as well as the shared qualities of both the acquired and acquiring organizations. Careful consideration was given to cultural differences in international regions to ensure seamless messaging, including bringing communications employees from those regions onto the integration team. This approach led to smoother integrations and minimized cultural friction, creating a more harmonious post-acquisition environment.

3. Recognizing the Significance of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Programs: DEIB played a critical role in evolving the company culture. The company bolstered existing programs and asked the communications team to develop a strategic plan to amplify these cultural transformation efforts. The communications team delivered dozens of stories, executive messages, speaking events and employee programs across multiple channels to highlight DEIB initiatives, creating a drumbeat of authentic voices from inside and outside the organization. The team wove value-based key messages throughout the narratives. These efforts fostered a sense of belonging among employees and promoted a diverse and inclusive work environment.

4. Emphasis on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Programs: Incorporating ESG and CSR programs into the cultural transformation was crucial. Employees want to work for organizations they feel are doing good in the community and right by the environment. While the comms team regularly communicated the company's commitment to sustainability, social responsibility, and ethical governance, these efforts needed a boost to increase readership. Through compelling headlines, measurable outcomes and creative delivery, these efforts were bolstered and amplified effectively through various channels, inspiring employees to engage more meaningfully with the content and volunteer and contribute to meaningful causes.

5. Impact and Employee Engagement: The cultural transformation initiatives had a significant impact on the organization:

• Meaningful and Recognizable Values: Identifying relatable behaviors that exemplified each value made the concepts come to life. Employees could more readily remember and incorporate the values into their day-to-day activities.

• Enhanced Employee Engagement: The comprehensive communication strategy and focus on DEIB, ESG, and CSR programs reached 28,580 participants and readers and resulted in a growth of 18% in Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Additionally, according to the annual engagement survey, these communications efforts contributed to a 5% increase in employee engagement YOY, with a 7% increase in participation. Employees felt more engaged, connected and committed to the organization's values and vision.

• Cohesive Integration: The communication efforts before, during and after acquisitions facilitated a more rapid integration of new teams and helped to foster a more positive work environment with more meaningful collaboration.

Conclusion: Cultural transformation is a challenging journey that can empower organizations to align their values and behaviors with their strategic objectives if backed by a robust and strategic communications plan. Behavior-based values and a comprehensive communication strategy drove the success of this highly acquisitive company in achieving cultural transformation. In addition, by skillfully communicating during acquisitions, amplifying DEIB initiatives, ESG and CSR programs, the communications function contributed meaningfully to creating an inclusive and values-based culture, accelerating post-acquisition integration and increasing employee engagement.

1. Introduction: This case study explores how a senior communications professional of the management team at a prominent media company successfully addressed and revitalized a neglected communications department. The communications leadership team transformed the communications department into a best-in-class function by creating an overall communications and channel strategy, defining efficient processes and metrics, and recruiting top talent.

2. Background: Although widely recognized in the industry, the media company faced challenges with its communications department. The department had been neglected over time, resulting in inconsistent messaging, disjointed communication channels and high attrition rates. The management team recognized the need for a strategic overhaul to harness the full potential of effective communications.

3. Objectives: The communications leadership team outlined the following key objectives for the transformation of the communications department:

a. Develop an Overall Communications Strategy:

• Define a clear and cohesive communications strategy aligned with the company's vision and goals.

• Ensure consistent messaging across all communication channels to strengthen the company's brand identity and reputation, both internally and externally.

b. Establish Efficient Processes and Metrics:

• Identify and optimize communication processes to enhance productivity and streamline workflows.

• Define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of communication efforts and set measurable targets.

c. Attract Top Talent:

• Recruit and onboard top-tier communications professionals with diverse skill sets and expertise to build a high-performing team.

• Foster a collaborative and innovative work culture to attract and retain the best talent in the industry.

4. Strategies Implemented: To achieve the outlined objectives, the communication leadership team implemented the following strategies:

a. Communications and Channel Strategy:

• Conducted a comprehensive analysis of the company's existing communication practices, identifying gaps, areas for improvement and opportunities for new and improved channels. This analysis identified the need for a centralized intranet to replace dozens of existing microsites.

• Developed a robust and comprehensive communications strategy encompassing internal and external communications, executive communications, public and media relations, social media, and crisis management to create consistency and cohesion in messaging.

• Defined key messaging pillars aligned with the company's strategy to ensure consistency in brand positioning across all communication channels, including proof points for each key message.

b. Process Optimization and Metrics:

• Collaborated with cross-functional teams to streamline communication workflows and enhance collaboration.

• Introduced regular performance evaluations and feedback loops to monitor the effectiveness of communication efforts, including an annual communications survey.

• Implemented data-driven metrics to measure the impact of communications on audience engagement and perception.

c. Talent Recruitment and Development:

• Conducted an extensive search for communications professionals with diverse backgrounds and experience.

• Implemented a rigorous hiring process to identify top talent aligned with the company's culture and vision.

• Brought 17 communication professionals to the team over the course of nine months.

• Created professional development and mentorship programs to nurture and grow the skills of the communications team.

5. Results: The implementation of the strategies led to the following outcomes:

a. Enhanced Brand Reputation:

• The cohesive and consistent messaging across all communication channels strengthened the company's brand reputation internally and in the market.

b. Improved Audience Engagement:

• Data-driven metrics indicated a significant increase in audience engagement, indicating the effectiveness of communication efforts.

c. Crisis Preparedness:

• The communications department was pivotal in successfully managing several crises, demonstrating its preparedness and agility.

d. High-Performing Team:

• Recruiting top talent and nurturing a collaborative work culture resulted in a high-performing communications function.

6. Conclusion: This case study illustrates the transformative power of strategic planning, process optimization, and top talent recruitment in revitalizing a neglected communications department. By creating an overall communications and channel strategy, defining efficient processes, and attracting top talent, the media company's communications function evolved into a best-in-class team. Proactive leadership and robust strategy is critical in driving positive changes and achieving organizational excellence for a communications department.