REA: a genius approach to promoting new employee benefits
REA Group, which operates leading property websites around the world wanted to promote their generous new benefits package for parents.
They approached us to help them get the word out about a policy that left many other companies behind.
We created a full communication campaign, including blog posts, digital posters and community discussions on Slack and Jive.
But the real genius was the creative talent behind the campaign’s visuals. A member of the project team had spotted the Instagram account 15 Minute Drawings, where artist Dougal MacPherson documents his family life through his own illustrations.
As it happened, Dougal was a web developer at REA. This was an opportunity not to be missed and when approached, Dougal agreed that his illustrations could be used for the campaign.
Using the illustrations was great but the real gold for employee engagement is always meeting the people behind the story. So we interviewed Dougal for a feature on the company intranet. In the interview, we uncovered that he had also recently illustrated a children’s book, Introducing Teddy, with a positive transgender character at its heart.
The book has since been published globally by Bloomsbury (the publishers of Harry Potter), and has been translated into nine other languages.
The solution
The outcome:
The campaign was a huge hit with both the Executive Leadership team and the wider employee base.
And the positive response to the campaign wasn’t limited to the new benefits. The feel-good factor extended to the creative way the campaign itself had showcased and promoted the talent of one of REA’s own.