A colleague of mine at a previous agency spent three months working ‘client-side’ at one of our major clients to try to get a better perspective of the pressures and priorities which occupied the people we worked with. His major finding was that ‘selling’ work internally was a much bigger challenge than taking it to the public.

Navigating one’s way through the machine of internal politics and stakeholder agendas was trickier than convincing the target market to invest in a brand. This stayed with me as a very valuable lesson.

How an idea will be received inside a company

As a result, we place equal, if not more, emphasis on how an idea or campaign is going to be received inside a company as it is in the ‘outside world’. Sometimes, brands can take it for granted that their people know what that brand is all about. Quite simply, they don’t.

They haven’t read the Brand Bible or the Brand Guidelines and if they have, they won’t necessarily understand what they mean. It’s important for everyone, regardless of their role, to know what the brand is on the planet for. This creates a much healthier sense of purpose - the most abused word in our industry, and unity.

Fostering a sense of community through a manifesto

Human beings like a flag to rally around to foster a sense of community. I was once shown the manifesto which was on the wall of the Sony headquarters. It was a compelling piece of writing, totally inspirational, and viewed by everyone who went to work there every morning. If you read that on your way to your desk or workspace, you knew exactly why you were doing what you were doing. This was the beginning of my interest and belief in manifestos.

We now create manifestos for every client we work with. They serve a multitude of purposes. They articulate what a brand is, what it stands for and how it talks. It is amazing how many people within an organisation have different and sometimes divisive views on what their brand is, whether they are an FMCG name, a service provider, or an institution. The manifesto defines the key points.

A manifesto is also fantastic for morale. As it is a more emotional expression of what a brand or company does or believes in, it can help people ‘feel’ more about what they do. Employees don’t often have the chance or inclination to use emotional language to describe those who pay their wages. A manifesto builds that bridge.

Finally, we’ve found that, in some cases, a manifesto which captures the soul and spirit of a brand can become worthy of sharing with a wider audience. In a world of short attention spans, one would think that this is unwise. But the opposite appears to be the case. Several of the manifestos we have created have gone to become short films or print and digital executions because they were seen to be the best expressions of what a company or brand was all about.

Navigating change through internal comms

Ultimately, it’s about the internal audience. There is as much of a creative art to winning this crowd over as there is to push the right buttons with the demographic. And that demographic will never see all your wonderful work, unless the internal stakeholders buy into it.

Possibly the most crucial use of powerful internal comms is during a period of change. The typical scenario is the arrival of a new CEO or CMO with a remit and desire to re-energise and refocus the company or institution. ‘Change’ is the most challenging process to pilot. Resistance is at its strongest. Existing values need to be respected. And the bigger the ship, the harder it is to steer in a new direction.

To stretch the metaphor even further, getting everyone on board can be a long and sensitive process. We have been involved in many such exercises from old family run companies adopting more modern marketing approaches to educational establishments with long histories adapting to more competitive landscapes.

In both cases, a manifesto was at the heart of change. The new vision embracing old values was set down in language which could ‘rally the troops’ and point them towards a new future. But additionally, we set out what this new world could look like by bringing it to life in the kind of touchpoints which everyone could relate to and which they may see every day.

Understand the internal culture

In our work with the Girl’s Day School Trust (GDST), understanding the culture within the organisation was crucial to achieving success. In order to do this, I travelled around the country meeting headmistresses of the different schools and listening to their issues.

All of them were very independent and were keen that their identities wouldn’t be lost in a unified message. At the time, the organisation was quite disparate. The manifesto formed a major part of our pitch to the GDST. It wasn’t asked for, but it undoubtedly played a large part in the decision to appoint us as it proved we ‘got them’.

It became so pivotal to the push by the CEO to unify the 25-school organisation that we made a film ‘Spirit’, involving girls representing all the schools saying a line each from the manifesto. This was then shared with every teacher, pupil, and support staff member from every school. It proved to be the ultimate ‘glue’ and is still used to this day, some four/five years later. It was even edited and put out on Sky to advertise the school network.

The second film, ‘Me is made by We’, was again produced to unify and energise the teachers and support staff who worked in GDST schools. It served to remind the staff that they were valued in the highest way by the organisation they worked for therefore building on the work done by the original manifesto film. Again, it lifted morale.

The signs on the doors, the badges on the blazers, the desk in reception, the welcome area at events. The biggest anxiety about change is ‘how will it affect me?’. The manifesto talked to them. The envisioned world showed them. Obviously, this was achieved by very careful management of key meetings and presentations (timing is everything, as usual), an ability to understand and articulate the vision of the person driving the change and ultimately framing something in words and pictures which makes change seem like an exciting prospect.

‘Change’ is the most brutal battleground of internal comms. But a successful transition can be the testament to the power of speaking to the people.