National Grid comms project, ‘Best Campaign’ Award of Excellence winner - IoIC Awards 2018

In previous years, National Grid's SO (System Operator) division hosted an annual conference to communicate important issues across its colleague community. The SO employee communications team were tasked with finding a more cost-effective approach.

It was agreed that a month-long series of comms pieces, including podcasts, animations, videos, and articles, would prove an effective way to convey National Grid’s key messaging, helping colleagues to connect with the bigger picture whilst understanding the company’s new Purpose, Vision and Values.

The theme for all this was Back to School, a light-hearted brand that stems from a blend of doodle designs, elements of the National Grid, iconic school imagery, and leadership team caricatures.

An internal microsite served as an easy to access 'knowledge-base' for all of the material produced to assist colleague’s learning.

An introductory animation was created, which was based on a podcast by the Director of SO. We created an animated character to deliver the messaging from the podcast in a graphical style, giving the animation a warm, natural tone (think 'Creature Comforts’) to help maximise viewer engagement.

Results

The campaign has been a huge success. Firstly, in terms of budget, it was achieved at a fraction of the cost of the previous year’s conferences. Secondly, in terms of engagement, it has received extremely positive feedback from colleagues with

• 97% of attendees finding their ‘classes’ useful; and,

• 100% agreeing they had learnt something new.

The feedback comments from colleagues included:

“Very interesting”

“Presented clearly with an enthusiastic presenter”

“Informal, opportunity to hear directly from a senior member of staff”

“Please run this every year and more often if possible!”