IC Brilliance Awards Winners 2019

Awards
IC Brilliance Awards
IC Brilliance Awards Winners 2019

October 12, 2024

IC Brilliance Awards Winners 2019

2019 IC Brilliance Awards - Winners Announced!

The Brilliance Awards highlights a commitment to excellence among practitioners and consultants in a range of fields.

By entering these awards, organisations make a public statement that they are willing to stand up for best practice and be judged by their peers. Within their entries and out of their success, there are lessons from which we can all learn.

Yet again we are grateful to the organisations who have put themselves forwards but also to the judges who are leaders in their fields who have taken the time to review entries.

Consistently, simplicity emerged as a key theme in this year’s winning entries. Clear objectives and disciplined execution were the hallmarks of the submissions that caught the judge’s eyes in 2019.

Brilliance in Change Communications Campaign in IC

Brilliance Award Winner: Places for people (V)

Campaign: The People Deal

Property and homes group Places for People launched its ‘People Deal’ to explain to its staff its corporate objectives. The programme, launched in tandem with a new employer brand was praised by the judges for its simplicity and robust execution.

Particularly impressive was a well-developed manager guide. The Judges commented :“This is a great example of an organisation punching above its weight in delivering creative and well thought through communications to a diverse workforce.”

Gold Award Winner: O2

Campaign: Go the Extra Smile

A programme to engage staff in delivering growing customer satisfaction was commended by the judges for its simple approach to delivering clear targets.

Silver Award Winner: Westhill Communications

Campaign: Openreach

Openreach set out to build a sense of identity in a newly independent business. The judges were impressed by the clarity of communications objectives linked directly to corporate strategy.

Brilliance in IC Campaign

Brilliance Award Winner: ITV

Campaign: Corrupted: Cyber Escape Room

Faced with the need to retell the IT security story, ITV found a creative approach to deliver real behaviour change. It’s a message that most IC professionals have needed to tell at some stage and many have struggled to bring a fresh angle.

ITV’s in-house creative team developed an escape room game that brought home the message in a powerful and memorable way.

The judges loved the creative approach of using gamification and were impressed by the willingness not to use tired digital channels to get results.

Gold Award Winner: Virgin Media

Campaign: Our story is one story. Our play is team play

Refreshing a sense of identity and strategy calls for creativity and effective deliver; the judges commended Virgin Media’s programme based on clear objectives that delivered talkability, senior involvement and change.

Silver Award Winner: Dr. Martens / Founded

Campaign: The DOCtrine

In a business built on a core value of rebelliousness how do you start a conversation about compliance? The Judges were impressed by the on-brand messaging in a fun way – all done on a shoestring budget to boot.

Judges Choice Award: Brilliance in Social Awareness Campaign

Qatar Airways

Autism Awareness Campaign 2019

As a business that cares about its customers, Qatar Airways identified the particular needs of passengers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The experience of using airports and flying, presents particular challenges for people with the disorder; challenges which can be reduced if airline staff recognise it and are sensitive to the needs of affected customers.

The company has worked to build awareness among its 48,000 employees and set itself the goal of leading good practice in the Middle East and the wider aviation industry. Over the last three years Qatar Airways has worked hard both to explain ASD to its team and to reach out to children with ASD to help them develop social skills in a day to day environment.

The Judges were impressed with the quality of the execution of the programme that includes practical training and the active involvement of committed volunteers.

Brilliance in Innovative use of Technology in IC

Brilliance Award Winner: Mitchells & Butlers / spottydog communications

Hospitality specialists Mitchells & Butlers want employees to Love Every Moment at work. The updating of their intranet was therefore seen as an opportunity to generate buzz and enable colleagues to connect, collaborate and communicate.

The judges praised the effective, low budget approach applied to using the existing O365 toolset. The submission showed clear and measurable objectives, strong alignment with the company EVP and a user-centric approach.

Gold Award Winner: Santander / Digital Balance

Santander’s move to make it easier for colleagues to access learning and development opportunities was commended by the judges for providing a flexible and accessible platform.

Silver Award Winner: William Hill /Sequel Group

The Judges were impressed by how the William Hill group developed a bespoke app to help onboard colleagues from a new acquisition. The clarity of the objectives and the ability to provide tailored content were especially worthy of note.

Brilliance in Employee Engagement in IC

Brilliance Winner: AstraZeneca / Ruder Finn

AstraZeneca set out to harness the energy of its 64,000 employees to shape and drive its strategy. The AZ2025 programme centred around an online three-week online crowdsourcing event where colleages developed over 56,000 ideas resulting in a number of powerful initiatives that are transforming the company.

The Judges were excited by how AZ harnessed the brainpower of employees around the world to deliver real engagement. An ambitious programme with clear objectives, it created two-way dialogue and demonstrated senior commitment to involvement and listening.

Gold Award Winner: EUIPO

In response to staff research EUIPO relaunched its news channels to create an army of ‘citizen journalists’ to ensure that employees’ interests were reflected and that messages landed in an accessible an interesting way.

The judges commended this entry because of its innovative approach to involving colleagues directly in the communication process. The result is a genuine and sincere fresh channel.

Silver Award Winner: Nationwide /Sequel Group

Nationwide created a fun internal campaign to excite customer-facing colleagues about a new insurance product.

This entry stands out for its sense of fun, creativity and its direct impact on sales.

IC Consultancy of the Year

Brilliance Award Winner: Synergy Creative

The youngest of our entrants, Bristol-based Synergy has shown sustained growth in the UK and internationally and has a commitment to sharing good practice, to innovative thinking and to client education.

Synergy impressed the judges with its powerful creative approach to driving employee engagement. Their work for a growing range of clients is testament to their commitment to pushing boundaries and their campaigns are littered with innovative ideas and energy.

Gold Award Winner: Wilding McArdle Wilson

WMW are trusted by some of the most challenging clients in the world. Cisco and UBS, among others, have turned to them for important projects where insight and listening are key. The quality of their work stands out on many levels.

Silver Award Winner: Sequel Group

Sequel was commended by their judges for the relationship between their internal work and external reputation. Their work is of a consistently high standard and continues a commitment to developing the profession and professional practice.

IC Team of the Year

Brilliance Award Winner: Personal Banking Colleague Communications Team, RBS

The RBS Personal Banking colleague communications team are a small unit making a huge impact on their business. Supporting 28,000 employees based across the UK and India, Personal Banking's Colleague Communications team communicate business priorities and the strategic direction of RBS. It’s a broad remit.

Over the last 12 months, communication has been part of the reason for record levels of employee engagement and strong commitment to business success.

As well as finding fresh and creative ways to get messages over, the team places great emphasis on tracking and evaluation.

The Judges particularly liked that the team gets the message over to a large and diverse organisation. Always ready to innovate, they are having an impact

Gold Award Winner: Qatar Airways

The team at Qatar Airways have shown how to make a small resource go a long way in bringing together a diverse community which is scattered around the globe. Applying an audience-centric approach, the team has run some great campaigns and delivered a striking set of channels.

Silver Awards Winner: ITV

From a standing start, this team has burst into life, driving real benefits for their organisation at a time of change in their industry. Great production values and an approach that is appreciated by key stakeholders caught the judge’s attention.