‍Aligning teams for successful strategic communications

The challenge

The catalyst was launching a new customer community at a high-profile international stakeholders summit. The executive envisioned a keynote speech merging technology trends—specifically generative AI—with industry and stakeholder concerns and opportunities. Weaving stories of organizations using the technology and her team's role in supporting these customers today and in the future would be a highlight.

The objective was to ensure three different teams could clearly articulate challenges and opportunities addressed by their diverse programs within the narrative of the executive’s organization, which in turn supported the business priorities of the overarching division.

The plan

While the summit was a single event, creating a strategic communications plan that clarified and unified messaging would carry the team through the ensuing year into a high-profile tentpole moment at the United Nations General Assembly.

Our strategic communications plan focused on four tasks:

• Streamline the narrative to meet the business priorities and expectations of the organization and also the division chief.
• Build an organizational-wide content calendar that includes curated social posts and a global case storytelling campaign with a cohesive narrative.
• Integrate amplification of the content and monitor content engagement.
• Monitor the impact of generative AI on business priorities and ensure the narrative adjusts to reflect changes while still adhering to the overall messaging.

Define a crisp narrative with a North Star and supporting priorities

The executive's organization, while quite diverse, focused on a single purpose—to expand economic opportunity around the world through the power of AI. With this as the organization's North Star, we crafted messages that highlighted how each team’s programs empowered opportunity.

We opted to build a short slide deck. Each team had three slides to state its individual mission, how it supports customers, and how the programs address economic opportunity. We curbed the age-old habit of ‘slide stuffing’ and put simple rules in place. The smallest font the teams could use was 14 points, and the statement around economic impact had to use a 42-point font.

Why? When was the last time a 75-slide strategy deck landed in your inbox? How many times have you actually used it, or for that matter, read it?

Craft an organization-wide editorial calendar

One of the most important elements of a successful amplification strategy, an editorial calendar plans and executes a content strategy that ensures the right messages reach the right audiences at the right time. This executive oversees teams supporting programs in both rural and urban communities worldwide. Our team built a global story library highlighting programs and their economic impact across the Americas, the UK, and the Global South.

• By scheduling content in advance, the team had a consistent flow of high-quality, relevant content timed to support events and program announcements.
• Key voices within the organization knew when stories were happening and could further amplify the content on social or in speaking engagements.

Our team’s first four stories achieved 120,000 impressions and almost 800 engagements. An announcement about a new social handle related to the executive’s team launched with over eleven thousand followers. While this is great visibility, one article single-handedly tripled this team’s partnership scope and relevane with an international labor organization.

The outcome

The final phase of the strategic plan was building a unified narrative and cross-organization editorial calendar to coordinate and amplify the efforts of key leaders attending the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Each of the executive’s team leaders had talking points to link their program, the overarching program, and the company’s four UNGA business priorities with the key themes of UNGA. The communications team coordinated LinkedIn updates during UNGA week, which led to further amplification from key global executives and websites showcasing programs driving global economic impact.

The team’s senior business manager shared this success with other internal teams, saying, “Over the past six months, Delightful has been instrumental in helping us craft a unified story that aligns with our broader objectives, ensuring consistency across all communications. Their ability to connect the dots across our team has allowed us to tell our story in a way that feels both cohesive and impactful … They don't just deliver content; they bring strategic insights and creative solutions that resonate with our audience and advance our goals.

The power of the red thread

For this client, economic impact is the red thread that runs through every piece of content—stories, social posts, keynotes, and program announcements. Stakeholders know that any content from this executive and organization provides trends, insights, and ideas on building economic opportunity through the power of AI. This is who they can follow for the information that matters. It might sound cheesy, but the value of such a strong brand is truly invaluable.

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