Best internal communications campaign 2024

As the world started to reopen after lockdown, British Airways anticipated a record number of travellers keen to rediscover the world in summer 2023.

The challenge for the airline, however, was that, having been forced to lay off colleagues during lockdown, it now had to ensure that more than 5,000 new employees had the requisite customer service skills to cope.

Its Bring the Warmth campaign was designed to re-energise colleagues, taking them through the customer service journey – from booking to check-in, departure to arrival – to emphasise what ‘excellent’ looked like and to remind them that every customer interaction needed to be extraordinary.

But it had an important goal: to contribute to a five-point increase in British Airways’ Net Promoter Score (NPS).

The campaign started with some basic research to identify the customer touchpoints, such as boarding planes or interacting with cabin crew, that needed most improvement, and designing communications around these.

British Airways also spoke to cabin crew to understand what they were most proud of, what felt special about giving great service and also what touches they felt could make a journey special.

Launching in June 2023, the Bring the Warmth campaign ran across 16 weeks, focusing on a different theme every two weeks.

For example, one focus was on family travel, and understanding how to make each journey seamless and magical for parents and their children. Another focused on catering, offering advice on how customers could pre-order meals, providing information on the quality and provenance of the food, and insights into the differences between dietary and religious requirements.

Similarly, the focus on first contact resolution offered tips and tools on how to take the heat out of a situation.

The campaign was brought to life in an immersive way with videos, social content, shareable posts, user-generated tips and other assets around British Airways’ locations.

Television presenter Alison Hammond starred in a series of eight videos – alongside a British Airways’ host – designed to bring to life each theme, with humour, special guests and advice.

Colleagues were also given on-the-spot recognition postcards, saying Glad you were there, which they could present to co-workers to celebrate their service.

Story display points around British Airways’ headquarters and operational areas brought to life real examples of excellent customer service, with props, such as a teddy bear to illustrate the story of a colleague reuniting a lost teddy bear with its owner, while photo walls across the world allowed colleagues to pose to create a spirit of togetherness and selfie spots encouraged individuals to upload their pictures while sharing their best tips.

A digital scrapbook was created on the company’s intranet, allowing colleagues to share their ideas for bringing the warmth, while a dedicated page offered hosted all the campaign’s content and tips to deliver excellent customer service.

Hanging banners in operational areas, such as contact centres, particularly those based overseas, reminded and encouraged colleagues to deliver extraordinary customer service, from the smile in their voice to the way in which they gave customers all the time they needed on a call.

While British Airways had been hoping for a five-point increase in its Net Promoter Score, the campaign actually led to a 6.6-point increase. But more importantly, perhaps, the campaign resonated with colleagues.

Prior to the launch of Bring the Warmth, an employee pulse survey gave a 4.3 out of 5 response to the statement: I understand that every customer is unique and why it’s important to bring the warmth; by the end of the campaign, this had risen to 4.94 out of 5.

Similarly, the statement: I understand my individual role in bringing the warmth to our unique BA customers, which initially was scored 4.1 out of 5, received a 4.9 out of 5 score in September 2023.

The judges said: ‘A strategically important campaign for the airline at a critical time, excellent use of insights, creative and well executed so that it permeated the entire organisation with its call to action Bring the Warmth.’