IT & Communications

Solving Business Problems Together

Chris Demery, Bloomin’ Brands, GVP and General Manager

OFF PREMISES DININGRagan Communications | Digital Communications Conference | Las Vegas 2016

Have you ever heard this?

“Can you just ‘pretty this up’ for us?

“Why does it take you so long?”

“We need it by tomorrow.”

“I wrote a term paper once—I could do it myself if I had a couple of days.”

• More CIOs are hiring dedicated IT communications specialists to help build and nurture the IT brand.

• IT teams lack the talent to communicate.

• Storytelling trend in corporations.

I’m Not Alone

• “Having and telling a compelling story is the most important thing you can do as a leader.”

Who Am I?

Data

Data

Data

DataData

Data

DataData

IT & Communications Teams Need Each Other

This is a Technical Product

My Domino’s Pizza® Story(How a skunk works project changed

the nature of internal communications)

I Had a Problem

• New computer system

• 10,000 stores worldwide

• Major shift in Operations

• Step 1: IT & Comms parternship

• Step 2: Better Content

• Step 3: Better Content Delivery

Much of Our Content Looked Like This

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Better Storytelling

Better Storytelling

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Better Storytelling

We Needed a Better Way to Deliver Better Content

We Needed a Better Way to Deliver Better Content

Humble Beginnings

Domino’s LIVE!

A better communications platformmeant we needed more content. Quickly.

3 Sources for Content

1. Subject-matter experts from IT & Ops

2. The Community of End-users

Handled more “polished” content: videos, docs, contests, knowledge checks, site curating.

Video blogs, Khan-academy lessons, live discussion.

Posted to forums, questions/answers, shared how-to’s, participated in contests, wrote and edited wiki articles.

3. Our IT Communications Team (of 2)

Subject Matter Experts as Content Developers

Sample of Community-generated Content

The Evolution of Content

Community/SME content

Better Communication

Results

• Lowered Help Desk Calls Significantly.

• Created a culture of knowledge-sharing.

• Helped to launch new products.

• Ushered in a new way of communicating.

• Better content.

• Awards.

Results

Results

• Lowered Help Desk Calls Significantly.

• Created a culture of knowledge-sharing.

• Helped to launch new products.

• Ushered in a new way of communicating.

• Better content.

• Awards.

• Record donations for St. Jude.

Results

Record breaking$2.4 Million Raised

My Bloomin’ Brands® Story(Storytelling to Manage Change &

Explain Complex Ideas)

My Bloomin’ Brands Story

Déjà vu all over again: organizational change

Best way to communicate this?

Fast Draw Animated Video: Demo

Training

Documentation

Central Role in an Entire Campaign

But, not the only piece.

The Centerpiece

Social/Word of Mouth

Digital Signage

Email Communication

E-learning

Regional Meetings

• Quickly told the entire story (benefits and issues).

Results

• Grabbed attention and spurred discussion.

• Our employees felt more prepared for the coming change.

• Won 4 Awards in 2014 for excellence in employee communications.

• We used similar approaches to communicate other topics.

Additional Challenges for IT

• Growing number of “business projects” driven by IT. Managing restaurant inventory.

Customer loyalty program.

The Digital Customer Experience.

• Needed: a variety of internal Communications

Explainer videos.

Digital Signage.

Intranet and learning content.

• Animation hijacks the brain to hold attention and increase the ability to recall.

• Increase comprehension and retention by using visual metaphors.

• The animation plays a supporting role; it’s about context and story: the script.

www.neurosciencemarketing.com

The collaborative process can be messy.

• Don’t get caught up in the “Millennial” hype—EVERYONE likes a engaging content vs. boring documentation.

What I’ve Learned.

• Animation engages the audience. It’s conceptual. It allows us to tell stories that defy physical limitations.

• Crowdsourcing content makes it better. Are you using social enterprise tools to allow your audience to shape the content?

• Keep it short. Got more to say? Say it in a series.

• Be mindful of file types! Large files, bit rates, bandwidth, etc.

Internal Communications professionals need to sit at the grownups’ table.

You’re too critical to company growth to be relegated to “window dressing” or an afterthought.

Your roles are BUSINESS roles.

Key Takeaway

QUESTIONS?