Technology plays an increasingly important role in today’s business, blurring the lines between marketing, technology and customer experience. However, most organisations are still organised in silos, relegating technology as a support function under the responsibility of the Information Technology department (IT). This is why our client, a FMCG giant created a special team of IT experts to explore new ways to help the business and IT departments collaborate in a cross-disciplinary way. The ultimate goal was to bring technology closer to the business side of the company, spreading technological literacy across the organisation.
Shifting the perception of IT
Although IT employees offered critical skills that improved the customer experience, they were consistently perceived as a support sector for more customer-facing departments. Creative Supply was brought in to help the special IT team establish its role in the organisation and develop a compelling story that focused on the team’s value to other departments.
A collaboration across time zones
This ambitious task was even more difficult due to the logistics of the project. The team was spread across 12 different locations in five timezones. To get started, we conducted phone interviews with key representatives of the team. With these interviews, Creative Supply was able to document the unique challenges and identify the prime opportunities for internal branding.
With these powerful findings, we prepared a remote workshop with the team members at all 12 locations. We used Stormboard, a software which allowed all team members to interact and share ideas in real time around the world.
| Before | After |
| Elitist lab | Approachable partner |
| Technical vocabulary and jargon | Simple sentences and jargon-free language |
| Team only known within the organisation | Internal and external awareness of the team |
| Innovation focused | Client focused |
| Knowledge holder | Knowledge distributor |
Results
We collected then the information and analysed it, sorting through the massive amount of raw data to come to critical conclusions. Ultimately, the concept of harnessing technology became the central idea represented by the IT team. We crafted a compelling narrative about the changing nature of the business, emphasising that the IT team had the skills and knowledge to understand the best times and ways to integrate technology to yield commercial results. Finally, we crystallised this internal brand in an illustrated reference guide.
This internal branding was received positively by all stakeholders and effectively held the attention of the executive team. Now, the organisation is testing the refreshed branding of the team to see how this approach could be rolled-out throughout the company.
