Changing the Story

at Blue Cross

sameer.pathak@bluecross.org.uk

In the next 30 minutes

• About Blue Cross

• Media campaign and internal

campaign

• What we did … top tips

Clear internal message and identity

Communications champions team

Using technology that helps

• Questions

Lots of locations

12 rehoming centres

4 main offices

52 high street shops

4 hospitals

Dozens of remote teams

Our people

A team of almost 4,000!

• 762 employees

• 3,162 volunteers

• 8 directorates

Pets helped in 2014 …

35,326

Our challenge

• Every year it costs more to

do the work we are

currently doing

• The pet welfare sector is

becoming very competitive

• We need more supporters

If we stand still, over time we will

help fewer pets than we do now

Blue Cross Brand Awareness

• People who know about

us

• Nationally not enough people know about us …

Our media campaign 2015

There will be a lot going on!

Real concern for many …

What we want everyone to know

Showed an ambitious future

- was easy to remember

- made sense to all our people

- easy to explain

Help enable change effectively

Our goals …

Over the next five years we want to…

- Double the number of pets we help

- Treble the awareness of Blue Cross

- Double our income

It’s a very exciting time of change for our charity

Campaign within a campaign

Standout identity

• On brand – creative, fundraising and marketing input

• Allow people to work with templates easily

- PPT - posters

- word - newsletters

- video

Main identity

Newsletters

Our brilliant people!

Communication??

Our Champions – October 2014

Peer to peer

• 30 champions - one champ per large

team

• Retail had 2 champs -> 52 managers

• Chosen for their enthusiasm

• Signed up to a job spec

Manager and senior leadership

support agreed

Champions’ eventChamp kick-off event – Nov 2014

Champs kick off event

• Chief Executive & Deputy Chief Executive

• All 30 champions & their Catalysts

• Worked through the comms plan and first comms pack

• Q&A session – 14 page document

Ready to deliver before Xmas 2014

Support for our Champions

Champ tools

Clear timelines

Regular comms packs updates

Champ tools

Useful technology

Video

Short videos

• Already in use a lot

Monthly Chief Exec update:

• High views

• Good recall

• Mostly done in-house

Video

•

•

•

Sneak previews of our ads

• With a promise to share full ads before September

launch

How well do you understand the plans to

change the Story for our charity?

79% scored 5

17% scored 4

Do you feel ready to help Change the Story for

Blue Cross?

97% said ‘yes’

398 feedback forms

Conference feedback

Intranet – on premise

User Experience

• 10-15 minute clips

• Via Blue Cross

PC

• Good security

• Accessible to

most

• Not always fast

Video streaming service

User Experience

• Easy to use

Analytics:

• Excellent security

• User admin

• Usage by location,

device & browser

type

Pre-launch events

• Four weeks before launch

• Video streaming service

• Only managers had log-ins

• Very stable connections

• Remote team meetings

Launch Party

Sameer’s top tips

1. Senior support and priority commitment

2. Clear internal message / identity

2. Face to face comms network

3. Using technology that helps

Questions?

Visit the CharityComms website to

view slides from past events, see what

events we have coming up and to

check out what else we do:

www.charitycomms.org.uk

Changing the game: trends in internal

communications

Seminar

19 November 2015

London

#CCinternalcomms