Creating experiences that inspire lasting change

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The Creative Engagement Group (Courtesy of The Creative Engagement Group)

The Creative Engagement Group is a Business Reporter client

Russ Lidstone, Group CEO of The Creative Engagement Group

Businesses are increasingly defined not just by their balance sheet but also by the way that their stakeholders experience them. And by stakeholders we mean almost everyone: employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, partners, special interest groups and the wider community. With such a wide range of interested (and influential) parties to engage with, big business must deliver against three key objectives to be truly successful:

Firstly, articulate a compelling narrative about the company’s purpose, ambition and strategy.

Secondly, ensure internal and external stakeholders are engaged in and aligned to the strategy and objectives.

Finally, ensure that internal teams have the training and capabilities to produce solutions that deliver against the objectives and achieve commercial success.

It all seems clear, yet many organisations find it hard to engage stakeholders across all areas of the business in a consistent, creative and compelling way. Why is that?

Today’s world is faster, more complex and more connected, where many of the old assumptions no longer apply and no two challenges are alike. Senior leadership, marketing, learning and development, brand, comms and HR teams all need to navigate a rapidly evolving communications landscape. Working out which channels to use is also a real challenge, especially when you have omni-channel communication ambitions.

It’s true that large corporate structures can make it difficult to create synergies, efficiencies and effectiveness. The quest for simplicity is not just a communications challenge; it affects all areas of your business. It’s no wonder 70 per cent of complex change programmes don’t achieve their goals because of a lack of engagement, poor collaboration and bad management. Likewise, only 15 per cent of employees consider themselves to be engaged in their work.

That’s why many organisations need a trusted partner that can combine different skillsets to unite everyone behind a shared vision, understand strategic objectives and collectively commit to making them happen. In other words, a partner who can provide the strategy, creativity and delivery, and effectively engage with all stakeholders. This is why The Creative Engagement Group exists and why we’re different to our competitors.

Some agency networks say they are an integrated team, but if you dig a bit deeper you frequently find that the production, development and even the strategic expertise are outsourced. And even if they do have some of these capabilities, it’s likely that the agencies within the group are still “competing” for revenue. So, there is no single team.

(Courtesy of The Creative Engagement Group)

The Creative Engagement Group is united by our promise to create experiences that inspire lasting change through the combination of our consulting services (employee engagement, scientific engagement, brand engagement, learning and development and capability development) and our creative and production expertise in experiential, digital, film and content creation.

Our integrated teams create real behaviour change programmes that engage in a consistent and seamless way. These programmes are informed by an insights and behavioural science team who apply psychology to identify barriers which may prevent stakeholders from changing perceptions and attitudes, alongside the triggers that will motivate them to think, feel or act differently.

But it’s more than just having strategic, creative and production services under one roof that differentiates us. We know that it’s not just the output that earns us the next job. It’s the experience of working with us too. The Creative Engagement Group has a one profit and loss philosophy, where all the capabilities of our business operate as part of the same team, without the inevitable haggling over divisional revenues and profit. This means that we operate in a consistent, unified and non-siloed way, no matter which combination of our offer we deliver. There are efficiencies for our clients here of course, but in addition, our ability to combine skillsets in this “one P&L” way allows us to create truly unique solutions. We often say that the magic is in the mortar.

We provide consistency when it comes to project management, client leads and creative oversight. With a single view across all our disciplines, our clients do not have to coordinate multiple agencies at the same time.

It’s perhaps fitting that The Creative Engagement Group is proud to have received accolades for being one of the best British companies to work for, its workplace wellbeing and for our approach to safety and risk. As a people-based business, our team is at the heart of everything we do and our culture is key to how we engage.

We know that in these tough times, creating lasting change for businesses has never been more critical. Or as challenging. But getting it right is truly inspiring… for everyone. That’s ultimately why we are here and also why we are equally proud of the experiences that we create and the business success they bring.

Learn more about our services at tceg.com/services

Originally published on Business Reporter