A powerful new engagement programme to stimulate market growth

Anglo American, the British multinational mining company based in London and Johannesburg, is the world’s largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, nickel, iron ore and coal. Platinum and its associated metals, known as Platinum Group Metals (or PGMs) is the most active market development area within the company. They called Philip in to help them with a range of opportunities that were presenting themselves. These opportunities required a more cohesive approach to communications and engagement than they had previously had. They needed a number of new or refreshed tools to help them on their journey – both strategic and tactical.

In the series of rapidly changing markets in which they operated, they first needed a very clear and relevant updating of their customer proposition and their market positioning. Next, they wanted to create more unified mechanisms that would involve and excite their three key business partners. Associated with both of these elements, they needed to define their desired tone of voice better. Looking to the mid-to-long term, they needed to get a very detailed handle on their full stakeholder base, both internal and external, and to develop a comprehensive engagement plan to address the very broad range of internal and external customers they had.

Philip first showed them how all of their needs could be met by developing a single plan – United in One Direction. This mapped out a mutually reinforcing series of steps that would create the sort of clarity, consistency and unity that they needed. Philip first conducted desk research and interviewed a wide range of people – internal, partners and agencies – to help in the development of a new ‘PGM Market Development story’. This laid the territory out clearly around a core idea – ‘touching people’s lives’. It reflected the large and impressive number of uses of PGMs from catalytic convertors to power generation, and jewellery to life-changing medical applications.

The second key step was to help develop a new Communications Forum designed to encourage greater cross-fertilisation of ideas and initiatives between them and their partners, especially in the areas of jewellery, pioneering technologies and promoting platinum as an investment opportunity. Linked to this was the creation of a new e-newsletter, ‘On The Pulse’, which pulls together key developments in the marketplace and highlights areas in which Anglo and its partners are having a significant influence. Having established these solid building blocks, Philip then went on to extend his research and senior interviewing programme so he could develop a comprehensive long-term Stakeholder Map and Communications & Engagement Plan.

The new ‘PGM Market Development story’ has given both clarity and direction to all internal audiences and partners, and now acts as the basis for all communications, whether internal or external. The Communications Forum is regarded as a highly successful mechanism for key Anglo American people and their partners. Meeting virtually, every six weeks or so, information is shared openly and opportunities to collaborate are developed and pursued. This has given everyone involved a renewed sense of commitment to the long-term growth of the PGM market. It was accepted that a virtual PGM Resources Centre would have great value and this is currently being pursued internally. Philip then developed ‘On The Pulse’, their new e-newsletter, from scratch, working closely with their design agency. This has further increased levels of engagement and cooperation between Anglo American and its partners, and now acts as a regular way of both disseminating information on market developments and promoting significant up-and-coming business events.

Building on the PGM Story and On the Pulse, Philip developed a set of Tone of Voice Guidelines to ensure consistency in how employees speak and write about PGM Market Development. A new Stakeholder Plan was created in meticulous detail, covering all internal and external stakeholders, including partners. It employs a traffic-light system to indicate the relative importance of the different audiences and also specifies communication/engagement objectives, from Awareness to Understanding through Belief to Support and Advocacy. Finally, Philip created a comprehensive Communications & Engagement Plan. This offered a series of options for how to move forward – from basic activities where immediate improvements could be made – to longer term activities that would build an even stronger presence for Anglo American in the PGM market. We were retained for a number of months after the main programme to ensure key processes bedded down well.