The challenge

Caburn Hope is a smart specialist internal employee comms agency. It’s a really interesting niche. Clients include the world’s largest financial services and pharma companies. They wanted ideas for an FS client to communicate the importance of the Annual Bonus Plan to Managers who have to administer it. 

The solution

Managers tend to see this work as a chore that takes up a time as they have to review each team member’s progress and assign bonuses designed to encourage better performance. So I spent time thinking about typical objections and how we might come up with ideas to counter them.

The creative

I devised three concepts aimed at overcoming typical objections. For each I provided a theme, a narrative and a creative idea. Here’s one example.

Objection: My input isn’t that important

Countering this objection is all about making Managers feel valued and showing them that their role is crucial to the business. Their skills and experience are essential for crafting careful, precise Bonus plans that accurately reflect each person’s contribution and motivate them to perform to their maximum capabilities.

The creative concept I developed was:

The finer details

The idea was to challenge Managers to craft the very best Bonus Plans. It encouraged them to seek perfection and find satisfaction in creating something polished. The messaging here from the company was “we value your unique skills and intuition and we want you to excel – even when doing internal tasks that might seem a little dull or mundane”.

The visual theme I suggested to illustrate this idea was:

Expert hands

I used images that demonstrated craftsmanship. Hands of experts adding precise detail using unique skills learned on the job. The theme suggested Managers are seen as master craftsmen, using their talents to nurture people and drive innovation. 

The other objections were: I don’t feel prepared and I’m too busy. I came up with narrative, concept and visual approach for each of these too. Drop me a line if you’d like to see what I came up with.