Opinion: How to overcome comms silos
Barbara Watson, Launch’s director of brand and content, discusses the limitations of using silos and argues that training can overcome the difficulties associated with them.
The world of comms is increasingly becoming a tangled web of departments, titles and time pressed professionals – all with the same business and brand objectives. Yet, all too often it seems that the right hand simply doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
Head of marketing and brand, director of engagement, customer experience manager, digital director, development director – just a few of the titles sported by comms experts who are all looking to galvanise the same support across desks, departments and disciplines to get their 2018 comms plans delivered.
Yet, a real risk emerges when various departments and disciplines work in silo to deliver against briefs and then their communications get confused.
As deadlines for 2018 loom, it’s that time of year when marketing, comms, digital, sales and ops teams must make the time to agree the same agenda and align visions and views around their brand to ensure they are going in strong for the year ahead (with no mixed messaging). One team, one dream. When every department is looking to create and own content, speak ‘social’ and excite customers via engaging experiences, it’s imperative everyone understands and talks the same comms language.
With this in mind, we’ve said WTF?! (Want Training Focus?). Listening to the needs of comms professionals and the divisions that can arise when different departments aren’t talking the same talk, we’ve created a programme of perfectly formed, precise comms training sessions to help break down silos in planning.
From creative execution to content creation, best practice on social to staying cool in a crisis, we’ve harnessed our agency experience and expertise to deliver targeted training sessions that ensure everyone is singing from the same comms sheet.
And for us, time is always of the essence. Co-ordinating colleagues for a full day or even a half day training session is an Outlook nightmare. So every training session will be delivered as bite-sized two-hour programmes instead.
As the agency that launched The Creative Shootout – the industry’s first ‘done in a day’ creative awards format – we’ll make every second count.
