19 January 2024

Building better business engagement through storytelling

We worked with Business West to build a campaign strategy that would engage local business and training centres with their work, as part of the West of England’s Local Skills Improvement Plan.

Business West supports start-ups and growing businesses across the South West. It plays a key role in helping the region to be the best place to live and work – a mission which we support whole-heartedly.

The challenge

The Local Skills Improvement Plan team at Business West is supporting a government led programme in the region, which aims to identify gaps in workforce training and find local solutions to support skills. Their focus areas are the West of England, Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire.

This work comes at a challenging time for businesses. It is a tough economic climate and skills shortages are near the top of the list of issues.

After months of work during the first phase, the team prepared a report which brought together several skills development plans from across the focus areas. This created a huge amount of complex information that needed summarising in a clear and engaging way for businesses.

So, the team called on our support to:
• Create a clear narrative that explains the LSIP offer.
• Devise a plan to encourage employers and businesses to engage.

We led a workshop with the team to create a campaign plan and a message strategy for them to put into action.

The campaign sprint

We met the LSIP team for a workshop morning to generate discussion and a 360 understanding of the project, which we could then use to distill into the core campaign messaging and strategy.

With wide-reaching and ambitious projects, as is the case with this work, we use the CHATS method to focus discussions. We find that this formula supports the identification of the best stories and helps to effectively build a narrative and campaign plan.

We identified three core areas of focus and group discussions elaborated on the audiences and messaging bespoke to each area.

A roadmap to campaign success

Following a fruitful discussion, we consolidated thoughts and learnings from the workshop into a clear, actionable report. This advised on the best next steps and how to successfully implement these stories in great campaigns.

To ensure clarity and consistency across communications, we outlined:
• Core messages, call-to-actions, and elevator pitches.
• Priority audiences.
• Key milestones – providing a steady drum beat of communications.
• Target media channels.
• Internal comms for Business West colleagues operating across the region.
• Thoughts on measuring the campaign’s success.

What the client said

“We really enjoyed working together with Ben and Jasmine at Distinctive, using their expertise in storytelling and strategic planning to help shape how we communicate our project. From the first conversations through to the structured and interactive workshops, we’ve developed a clear strategy with common aims and messages, which can be used by all teams when talking about what we do.”

Matt Tudge, Head of Skills Planning at Business West

Do you have a story that needs telling?

We love helping organsiations to take a step back and identify the best messaging and strategies for their success.
Get in touch to see how we can support your next campaign.

Image by Brands&People on Unsplash

Written by

Jasmine Gordon