The following has been provided by Crown, on how they helped the Transport for London (TfL) with their internal communication and engagement in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Understand
All of TfL’s 28,000 employees would be touched by the Games, and working together, they had the shared aim of delivering a world class transport system to directly contribute to the success of the Games, the first “public transport Games”.
Operational communications continued to be delivered but a few months out, there was the need to also build excitement, reinforce the key role the employees would directly or indirectly play in the Games, and for them to feel part of the momentous time for London, and be ready to go the extra mile to get things done.
For the first time, they had decided to embark on a pan-TfL campaign to reach all of their staff, both operational and office based, across in excess of 400 locations. In addition, a secondary objective was to increase involvement in the “Travel Ambassador” volunteer programme at Games time.
Create
In only four weeks, we designed, produced and executed a communications campaign that reached across all internal communications channels, and staff locations, and included a programme of innovative live events that built advocacy through shared experiences and generated content for the communications channels.
The campaign idea focused not on the employees themselves, but their customers, the spectators, and how TfL would bring, literally, the passion, excitement and noise to the Games by transporting those spectators to the events.
400 locations across the network were brought to life with print and ambient media using local staff champions to erect the collateral in high footfall staff locations.
A series of innovative live event experiences ran alongside the media campaign, generating content for other channels, reinforcing advocacy and creating champions, and increasing volunteer engagement.
A programme of “Games Experiences” combining informal interview style seminars with Olympian and Paralympian guests alongside a Goal ball session for delegates ran by members and coaches of Team GB’s Goal ball squad provided an informative and enjoyable platform for core messaging.
In addition, a series of guerrilla style “Station Addresses” toured various front line stations, depots and back offices where Olympians and TfL directors delivered short messages at the place of work to operational staff on shifts, reinforcing the key messages of the campaign and through the past Olympians, offering a perspective of what a host city feels like at Games time, and how important the transport system and the team that ran it were to the success of previous Games.
Deliver
The campaign generated some very positive metrics during its 10 week lifecycle:
92% of attendees rated the Games Experiences as “good or excellent“.
92% of attendees rated the presentation and interview content as “interesting / very interesting”.
94% of attendees were motivated / excited by the events ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
