Here in the comms team we use this information to encourage employees to think differently about the benefits on offer to them, and focus on inspiring new behaviours when it comes to selecting benefits. A great example from 2018, is the work we have completed with Rolls Royce.

From the outset, Rolls Royce made it clear to the team that their employees were at the forefront of their brand with a strong EVP (employee value proposition). The goal was to transform their benefits portal with a total rebrand to mirror their employee driven culture. We focused the new brand around employee submitted photos across the site, digital and printed collateral. This added a really personal touch, to help employees feel connected to the brand and to the organisation.

Another way we implemented this ideology was through the tone of voice within the deliverables. Each benefit has a tagline that helps the employee understand the offerings with a warm and thought provoking tone: ‘Employee Assistance Programme – Because you don’t always have the all answers.’ The ‘Because’ statement describes benefit, and acts as an emotional hook encouraging the employee to think about their relationship with that particular benefit.

By taking influence from Christmas advertising and applying the same theory to our own work, we move progressively towards changing people’s attitude to their benefits, for good.

The use of idioms can present a challenge, especially when we are targeting an audience whose primary language may not be English, or the phrase itself isn’t relatable to all. The meaning could be completely lost, rendering the message unclear. While Brits tend to be au fait with taking the biscuit, beating around the bush and being absolutely Hank Marvin, we shouldn’t assume that our audience will have a dictionary of British idioms mentally stored. Unfamiliar idioms can result in the wrong understanding of the metaphorical meaning and ultimately undermine the effectiveness of the message.

So we find ourselves in a balancing act. Some briefs simply don’t call for the over-use of idioms and slang phrases i.e. “simple, friendly and plain English”. But when we’re asked to be “funny, witty and fresh”, idioms are a first port of call.

When writing this article, it became clear that colloquial phrases naturally slip into almost every sentence. While this might be the right tone for us, it won’t be for every client. We flex our tone to suit the brief, the audience and the company culture at hand. These elements will always differ from client to client, and so will the copy we write. In doing this, we hit the nail on the head and create great, individual comms.

Combining art and science to create truly great marketing experiences – By Luke Judge, CEO of NMPi

Darwin^TM gives us access to a wealth of data. This talk gave some great pointers on how to use data to tap into the psychology of our audiences. Luke led us on a journey from ‘I wonder?’ to ‘I do!’ in these 6 simple steps:

1 – Use data in digital marketing to make an emotional connection. We can do this by reading what benefits are engaging people the most and drawn on ideas from there.

2 – Create a feeling of excitement and tell a story that stirs emotion – #FOMO

3 – Dating – the search. Here we can use the plethora of data available to establish how to target our comms for specific audiences.

4 – Sizzle – First date. This is where we start putting our ideas into practice and showing our offers in their natural environment, ensuring they appeal to the right audience and convert their interest.

5 – Engaged – While our comms are designed with data in mind, we still need to ensure the message is reliable, trustworthy and honest.

6 – “I do!” – Finally, we need to be sure to keep the employee and benefit offering relationship strong and committed.

Using the data from Darwin^TM we have developed an emotive and well-thought out campaign that employees can have confidence in.

From a communications perspective, in both copy and design, attending the event proved to be fruitful in changing the way we think about our strategy and brainstorming technique going into the New Year, leaving us loaded with key knowledge for 2019 trends.