Planning
‘If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter much how you go about getting there.'
It’s really quite surprising how much is spent on ‘communications projects’ without a precise idea of what the money is meant to achieve. People too often define their objectives as tangible products ('produce a campaign'), rather than focus on the change they want as a result of their efforts.
Review of communications aims and objectives
We help make specific the general ideas of our clients. As part of familiarising ourselves with your project, we’ll ask the questions you mightn’t have thought of. What are you aiming to achieve? Precisely? What constitutes success? What constitutes excellence?
The point, for us, is accountability. We want to achieve results for the money that clients pay us. We want our clients to look good, to win hearts and minds, to achieve their objectives. That’s what we’re being paid to do.
Development of communications aims and objectives
With more than thirty years experience on more than one thousand projects, we don’t just ask the questions: we help provide the answers as well. We can tell you how communications activities can advance your broader goals, and how different programs will have different types of effects.
If you can get clear, at the start, the focus on what exactly is going to be achieved, you can better target scarce resources toward addressing issues and solving problems.
Strategic communications planning
Some people think that any old plan is a good enough strategy. Our idea of strategy is the ‘plan behind the plan’, a small number of breakthrough ideas that characterise a program and elevate the excellent above the mediocre. Good strategy is the right approach for the right situation.
Clever. Creative. Thorough. Efficient. Elegant. This is how we like our strategic approaches to be thought of.
Clever, because they look at traditional communications issues in new ways, often building in successful approaches from other subject areas. We thrive on the challenge of finding fresher, better ways of doing things.
Creative, because our strategies provide interesting and often novel courses of action that will win the interest, enthusiasm and involvement of audiences. Thorough, because we provide workable solutions that comprehensively address client needs and provide results, on time and within budget.
Efficient, because our strategies are solidly based on available research and provide maximum impact with fewer resources.
Software engineers describe really good code as ‘elegant’: clever, creative and efficient work that does what it’s meant to do with a maximum of style and a minimum of fuss. In other words, smart solutions to defined tasks – as our name suggests.