B2B Awards 44pp Brochure:12-22 B2BM Awards 07 44pp.qxd 30/10/08 11:42 Page 36
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Category 19:
Sponsored by
Newcomer of the year
Winner: Kim Bowman
Internal communications manager, American Express
H
aving been working in the B2B arena anonymously, while also conveying key
for only 10 months, Kim Bowman has facts from senior management to
made an outstanding contribution to employees. She created a channel for open
the Amex team and the Commercial Card and honest two-way communications and
business across EMEA. She has reinvented launched three animated characters to act
the way American Express communicates as ‘everyman’ or rather ‘every employee’.
to over 700 employees in 13 markets Again she built a strong relationship with
and influenced the executive team of 18 the agency, generating their excitement in
senior leaders. the project and negotiating preferential
The American Express Commercial rates and timescales.
Card division has historically been Hit rates showed that over 68 per cent
sales-led, with internal communications of employees viewed the video with many
given low priority. Bowman’s role of returning several times. The video also
internal communications manager was succeeded in creating the desirable viral
created to remedy that. The role is divided impact with SVP’s peers across the
into focusing on internal communications globe forwarding the video.
for 60 per cent and 40 per cent on
delivering external communications. Valuable team member
Before developing the internal Catherine Moore, vice president of
communications strategy, Bowman marketing, says, “American Express
benchmarked the current situation by is working to build a stronger, more
auditing existing EMEA communications. innovative B2B marketing practice in
The results revealed that employees were signing. Feedback was immediate and what has traditionally been a strong
receiving too many email communications, enthusiastic, especially as Bowman sales-led organisation. Since joining
and the variety of sources gave them no ensured the text showed Walsh was the American Express, Kim has been
clarity as to the strategic priority of sender. Not only were colleagues genuinely an integral part of building this
information received. Information was delighted the message had come personally competence and driving the change
being received multiple times, and there from the SVP, but the display also ensured through our Commercial Card
was a general antipathy towards internal they’d read it. business. She has partnered with
communications. Internal communications had never senior leaders across EMEA to
Based on these results, Bowman been officially benchmarked before, and develop their local communications
developed a strong communication strategy six months into her strategy, Bowman as a channel to drive results. She has
to combine five newsletters and wanted to confirm whether it had been championed the introduction of two
innumerable ad-hoc communications into effective. A wide-reaching survey showed new channels to engage employees
one monthly employee touchpoint, and that the previous antipathy towards through innovation using mobile and
reduce communications by 68 per cent. internal communication was replaced audio-visual technology.”
Bowman recognised that success would by an 85 per cent satisfaction rating. Bowman has also executed an
be limited without the support of senior external marketing campaign to
leaders, many of whom were the same Local communications programme administrators and a
people currently sending ad-hoc Bowman then focused her efforts on a follow-up communication to card
communications. Her persuasive skills market-specific internal communications members, which aimed to drive revenues
resulted in 100 per cent support for the audit. The results clearly showed that in new areas. Bowman has created
new strategy, which was then implemented. there was inconsistency in messaging, the means to allow the maximum
format and content. She has worked with amount of information to circulate
Innovation her counterparts in six countries and in the shortest period of time.
To give internal communications more three groups in the UK to standardise Repetition and lethargy has been
impact, Bowman introduced direct ways newsletters so that the right messages are eliminated and salespeople can now
for senior management to reach cascaded down through the corporation, focus on selling.
employees. while still allowing flexibility for local
She first identified that 583 employees market tailoring. In doing so, she has
across 13 markets have business phones, gained the respect and trust of her peers
presenting the opportunity for SMS to ensure a successful alignment project.
messaging. After research, she contacted a Most recently, Bowman called on her
number of vendors, challenging the background in advertising and consumer
preferred supplier list to work with one audience targeting to launch the most
who could deliver faster and cheaper and innovative internal communications
negotiated a trial at no cost. Senior vice channel within American Express. She
president, Brendan Walsh, used the new wanted to create a method for employees to
channel to announce a major new business ask questions of senior management
B2BM AWARDS 08 – www.b2bm.biz
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