REPORT: LONDON VISIT, TUESDAY 12 SEPTEMBER John Concannon and Andrea Pappin met with Alex Aiken and his team in GCS, meeting with both Alex directly and also his head of Digital, Campaigns, Insight, and Business Liaison. Also met with Conrad Bird of The GREAT Britain campaign, and two leading members of Government Digital Service (Trisha Doyle – Head of Content Design, and Clive Richardson – Head of Policy & Engagement, GOV.UK). Key insights      Everything is based on hard evidence and data Citizen needs are more important than government needs The audacity in simplicity Collaboration is key, as is the technology to support that Authority v central control Everything is based on hard evidence and data Every meeting, every initiative or campaign was grounded in data. Insight is constantly gleaned from own-commissioned market research, website and social media traffic and constant engagement with key sector. This grounds all of their thinking. It was noticeable how much time is spent listening to key audiences and reviewing the insight before campaigns were devised. Furthermore, evaluation of government work was highly prevalent. Evaluation principles had been adopted across the board to ascertain reach, savings, efficiencies. It was noticeable how many we met had crystallised this into two to three headline numbers that show the impact of their work. Citizen needs > government needs There was a strong awareness of the Government bubble and the difference between that and the ‘actual’ needs of citizens. Every time, the needs of the citizen (based on the evidential data mentioned above) was put ahead of the needs of Whitehall or the Parliamentary bubble. As Alex Aiken simply put it, "We are all about the public good." The audacity in simplicity It was very powerful to see at all levels - strategic priorities, campaign execution, digital platforms, templates, overall communications standards - are so clean, clear and understood by all. One page was delivered instead of 45 – and where possible it was visual. The GREAT Britain Campaign is the obvious example of this. The international branding has been developed and sustained for a number of years, with the audiences understood (C-Suite Executives, tourists, students, and those who buy British goods/services). The aim is to create jobs. It has been uncompromising in its standards. In fact all of this work had at its heart a simple aim - to be the best. According to UN rankings, they are. Collaboration is key, as is the technology to support that To work smart, teams work across Departments re communications as a professional service (~3,000), Department Heads of Communications (~20), and the Management Board for Strategic Communications cations (4 Perm Secs, 4 Heads of Communications, 2 Agency Communications people, 2 external people). 1 Authority v central control A number of simple rules have been implemented, which have helped keep standards high and bureaucracy low. It was stressed that this is not about ‘central control’, rather the work was deemed professional assurance for the Government communications industry. Examples of these simple and effective rules are:    Standards, templates, brand guidelines, user guides are applied across the board, and closely monitored All communications campaigns over €10,000 have to be run past Government Strategic Communications, working to a clear template (Objectives, Audiences, Strategy, Implementation, Statistics/Evaluation) before the campaigns progress. Incentives – For The GREAT Britain campaign, there is a pool of monies for which Ambassadors can apply for local events. Only the Ambassador can apply for the monies, and only after working with their fellow Agency teams on the ground. 13 September 2017 2 REPORT: THE HAGUE VISIT, TUESDAY 26 WEDNESDAY 27 SEPTEMBER John Concannon and Andrea Pappin travelled to The Hague to meet with a number of key officials involved in Government Communications, notably those working on the gov.nl website and the internationally recognized 200 to 1 campaign. Dinner was also convened with Irish officials working in the Netherlands, with representatives from the Irish Embassy, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia and Tourism Ireland all in attendance. Key insights Strikingly similar approach to 0 with our preposed ideas. 0 They are the definition of shared services. 0 The importance of research and buy?in. 0 Don?t underestimate the emotional journey that many need to go on 0 When it comes to design, it?s all about rigid flexibility. And family. 0 There's incredible Irish expertise in the field. Strikineg similar approach to It was notable how similar key aspects of their strategic plans mirrored the work that the UK had undertaken: All of their work is citizen/user led (they had a full time usability expert on their team) 0 The website rationalisation project was a citizen communications one, rather than an project 0 A lot of leadership?s time was spent ?campaigning the campaign? 0 All major media buying is done through a centralized service with our proposed ideas. It was also striking how many of their initial steps resonate with our plans: 0 They initially sought out ideas internationally, mainly from Canada and the UK 0 They built a committee of high-level officials to help drive results 0 Their initial plans focused on rationalizing logos and websites 0 Their overali structure for the communications team is very similar to our proposed structure (more information below) 0 Their overall structure to governance is similar to our proposed approach 0 Proposed approach of the Departments being the main to the structure is at the heart of their work They are the definition of shared services. Once a Government website rolled over to the new system (which they managed in batches), a number of the Departmental content team moved to a shared services team in the Department of General Affairs. They sit together, each as their own Department, and work together on devising and uploading content onto their respective Departmental pages. Furthermore, there are over 150 people in the shared services communications team within the Department of Generai Affairs. The teams are Campaigns, Online, Editorial, AV, Academy (for training), Research, Procurement and Call Centre (for their management). Notably, all media buying for integrated campaigns is done through this office. They are also asked for advice and expertise on a regular basis. Also useful to note is that Directors of Communications of all the Departments meet every two weeks to discuss upcoming campaigns, campaign evaluation and to share best practice. The importance of research and buy-in. When asked about where the impetus for this collaborative/streamlining work came from, all had a remarkably similar answer. two reports were published showing that there was a gap between the citizens and the siloed approach to Government communications, which was resulting in confusion regarding services available to citizens and the work of Government overall. Once the reports were released there was good agreement across Government Departments, and amongst Parliament, that work needed to be done to make Government communications more efficient. The team tasked with that role identified three main bodies of work single logo project, single website project and single mission statement. How they delivered the first two projects (the last fell due to language issues) was the extensive buy?in at highest levels of officialdom: 0 Leading Departments were at the forefront of change, leading from the front 0 Small group of leading senior officials to make some core decisions 0 Group of Assistant Secretaries from each Department met regularly to be kept informed of plans Research is a regular feature of their work (as with the UK), notably in their story was the buy-in secured at key levels in Government officialdom. Similar to our proposed approach, they had a small group of highly?invested Secretaries General, as well as an Assistant Secretary level group where each Department was represented. Don?t underestimate the emotional journey that many need to go on Rogier Van Tooren (lrish desk officer member of the Brexit Taskforce, Department of Foreign Affairs) noted that, "everyone cared about their logos, until they were gone.? Fiona Atighi, (lead project manager, One Logo Project) took this even further, and explained how she relied on the five stages of grief when handling the transition she commented that she could spot within a few sentences the ?stage? each person was at (shock, denial, anger, depression and acceptance) and adapted her approach to them accordingiy. When it comes to design, it?s all about rigid flexibility. And family. It was clear from a number of people that when it comes to the logo design project, there needs to be elements that are absolutely rigid (for them, it was height, placement and logo image itself) and elements that are flexible (the project supplied the logo in a range of colour options for a Department to choose from for their logo family.) When rolling out the logo, the language that the team used was that there was a ?design family?. All main Departments were the ?parents? and their agencies and offices were daughters, sons, cousins etc. the language seemed to resonate well with those they worked with. There?s incredible lrish expertise in the field. Meeting with the lrish team in the Netherlands was incredibly usefui. It is clear that there is a wealth of expertise of what works and what doesn?t, what is possible and what is realistic from the lrish team that We should draw from. 3 October 201 7