Levee Company Case Studies

OPPORTUNITY: Business strategy profoundly influences the direction of any company. A compelling opportunity arises when companies connect their strategy to a higher purpose. By integrating these elements, communicators can harness a powerful content generator that constructs a strong narrative about the company’s mission and vision.  

ACTION: By collaborating with leadership during the development of the business strategy, communications teams segmented the strategy based on audience demographics. Once the audience segments were established, communicators identified and verified specific examples demonstrating how the company delivered on its strategy and purpose. With these proof points in hand, a global communication plan was crafted to convey a consistent message to consumers, customers, analysts, employees, and other stakeholders—across multiple time zones, with various executives and employees designated to speak publicly from different business units, in numerous languages, utilizing many platforms, events, and venues—all strategically sequenced for maximum impact.  

OUTCOME: The initiative to communicate a “business interests meets purpose” narrative, which began in the mid-2000s, garnered support from many internal and external stakeholders, resulted in significant company growth, and rewarded shareholders with a stock price that doubled over a decade, currently trading well above $120. As companies face increasing pressure to achieve financial growth, developing a long-term strategy that effectively engages stakeholders through a shared purpose can be woven into a compelling story. Subsequently, communications must sculpt and disseminate this narrative as broadly and deeply as time permits.

OPPORTUNITY: As a company’s strategy continues to evolve and grow, the comms team must adapt to remain a strategically integrated partner within the business. For a global transportation company, a reorganization presented an opportunity to reevaluate all management roles and responsibilities to enhance performance and eliminate inefficiencies. The Comms team needed to realign with the new business priorities, organizational structure, and leadership team. Some team members had roles that were too narrowly defined, which led to increased outsourcing of work and elevated costs.

ACTION: Through a comprehensive cascade redesign program, the organization underwent transformation by broadening the roles and responsibilities of experienced managers. The number of senior individual roles was reduced, while additional junior roles were established to insource work and foster the development of future talent. Furthermore, responsibilities were reoriented to align closely with the company’s business priorities, leading to significant targeted cost reductions, primarily achieved through attrition or by consolidating unfilled organizational positions.

OUTCOME: A slightly smaller but more focused comms team emerged, closely aligned with the company’s new business priorities, and struck a better balance between insourcing and outsourcing work. The share-of-voice in earned media results remained robust in key areas important to the business, such as products and services, despite media and influencer scrutiny related to the restructuring, M&A activity, and labor contract changes.

ISSUE: A global energy operations company must effectively navigate business risks, which include critical health, safety, and environmental incidents, as well as various reputation challenges. Without a proactive strategy and robust plan to prepare the company for crisis communication with its stakeholders, its reputation and credibility face significant risk. An ineffective response during a crisis could lead to substantial losses in customers and revenue, along with a severe decline in trust.

ACTION: To enhance the company's capacity for crisis communications, the communications team developed a comprehensive crisis communications plan and policy, outlining required content, messaging, and training protocols. The team collaborated with legal experts to identify probable risk scenarios and created specific internal and external communications resources, which included press releases, reactive statements, and a “dark” crisis website tailored to identified situations. An on-call communications notification process for after-hours and weekends was established, along with a well-defined phone tree, flow chart, and designated crisis roles and responsibilities. The Comms team received targeted training for specific crisis response roles and participated in a table-top drill exercise. The company’s senior leadership team was engaged and informed throughout the process.

OUTCOME: Within nine months, the crisis communications plan, policies, and training materials were fully developed, reviewed, and implemented. Additionally, operations leaders globally received media training through a webinar. Upon discovering an environmental risk in a community, the communications team seamlessly integrated into the company’s emergency response plans by providing support to operations and government affairs with essential messages, FAQs, media relations strategies, training, and relevant website content. By the conclusion of the project, the company's proactive actions to safeguard the community and its supporting communications strategy significantly bolstered its reputation among residents, elected officials, and regulators, providing a permanent solution to effectively address potential crises.

OPPORTUNITY: Launch a new "fine-casual" restaurant concept that seamlessly blends fast-casual dining with chef-forward cuisine. This innovative concept is backed by a leading restaurant architect, brand designer, experienced chef, and a prominent restaurant chain investment group.

Introduce the new restaurant concept with an integrated marketing component that operates independently of Levee during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

ACTION: Developed a comprehensive communications plan featuring multiple "introductions" to the concept among beat reporters and influencers leading up to the restaurant's opening. Leveraged the unique aspects of the revitalized community location to create additional storylines that enhance anticipation for the restaurant opening. Phase two began following the opening.

OUTCOME: Secured numerous interviews with local media and influencers, including the lead restaurant reporter from the market's major daily. With the restaurant now poised for a December opening, interviews continue, and on-site events are scheduled pre-and post-opening with all stakeholders.

OPPORTUNITY: For publicly traded companies, annual reports are a standard part of business operations. Beyond their legal obligations, these reports serve as effective communication tools to update both shareholders and stakeholders. For a B2B client, an opportunity arose to enhance the annual report by going beyond the legally required communications and telling a more comprehensive story that resonates with its audience.

ACTION: Initially, key project leads were identified within Finance, Investor Relations, and Communications. Each department was assigned specific responsibilities—Finance focused on the company strategy, Investor Relations addressed shareholder interests, and Communications took on the role of project manager and content developer. To create a more compelling annual report, sources for the information were identified, and responsible parties were assigned to verify the content. Alongside prior year financials, the annual report was transformed into a platform that illuminated the company’s strategy beyond mere year-over-year performance—utilizing words, visuals, and charts to illustrate recent successes and preview future goals. It became a roadmap of the future, serving as a rallying point for employees, analysts, and shareholders. The annual report laid the groundwork for subsequent presentations and announcements detailing the company’s growth agenda and strategic direction.

OUTCOME: By establishing a robust communications platform at the beginning of the year, exemplified by the annual report, it serves as an essential reference point for any company’s strategy throughout the year. This enables the consistency and clarity that both shareholders and stakeholders appreciate when evaluating the enterprise's value. A strong annual report allows leadership to reference its content when discussing performance with analysts during earnings calls, engaging with the board on capital investments, inspiring employees about the company’s future, and informing other stakeholders interested in understanding the company’s societal role.

ISSUE: A company with 40,000 employees struggled with internal communication control, as mass emails were frequently sent to group distribution lists. The challenge was amplified by the fact that 90 percent of employees worked remotely, while the majority of communications originated from headquarters functions. This lack of central management and effective communication coordination led to confusion among employees due to mixed messages and frustration among non-headquarters employees regarding the perceived over-communication of irrelevant information.  

ACTION: Comprehensive audits were performed on the emails dispatched to employee distribution lists, identifying which functions were responsible for the communication overload. With the data gathered, a persuasive case was presented to leadership advocating for the centralization of employee communication oversight, particularly between the company’s in-house public relations and human resource functions. The strategy outlined that the public relations team would handle communications aimed at raising awareness of the company’s strategic goals and key initiatives, while the human resources team would take on communications requiring employee action. Both departments collaborated to enhance the company culture and rolled out campaigns, along with new communication tools designed to consistently engage all employees.  

OUTCOME: The audit process took one month, followed by an additional month to obtain leadership approval. Developing the collaborative plan between public relations and human resources then took one more month. The implementation of the activation plan began with a comprehensive rollout that clarified the new processes and responsibilities to all employees. Despite initial pushback from some functions regarding the communication restrictions, the new plan gained momentum, particularly among non-headquarters employees, who welcomed the organized and pertinent company information they began to receive. To evaluate the effectiveness of the communication strategy, employee surveys and polls were conducted to gauge awareness and understanding of company priorities and other crucial updates.

OPPORTUNITY: With sales lagging for a flagship brand, a comprehensive analysis of its consumer base led to a revealing insight – the desire for control. According to research, younger consumers wanted a say in defining what the brand represented – rather than just what the company dictated. A creative solution was essential to reconnect with a brand cherished by many, but which had started to be overlooked by its followers.

ACTION: After deciding how to effectively reengage its core consumers, the responsibility – quite literally – was passed to the communications team to generate awareness and engagement through Public Relations. Given that the ads produced for the Super Bowl often made headlines, the team considered a bold idea: what if the ads were entirely crafted by consumers? Furthermore, what if the excitement typically generated in the week leading up to the big game was instead created during the final four months of the football season? By harnessing social media to spark interest and competition among filmmakers and fans for selecting the winning ad, the brand would be launching a PR campaign rich with elements designed to generate a steady flow of news, making a dwindling brand more relevant once again.

OUTCOME: The initial campaign exceeded expectations, achieving over one billion media impressions and tens of millions of dollars in advertising equivalency – becoming an annual highlight for nearly a decade. Through diligent research, critical analysis, and the courage to share control, while relying on communication strategies to engage with its consumers, this flagship brand transformed from a state of declining sales to consistently achieving success, time after time.

ISSUE: With increasing shareholder pressure to reduce costs and enhance profits, a manufacturing company faced a time-sensitive challenge to streamline operations and lower overhead to meet the quarter’s financial expectations. Company executives convened for two weeks to pinpoint areas of opportunity, leaving approximately 10 weeks to determine which manufacturing facilities and HQ staff would be affected. They also needed to plan for the new supply chain, transition employees into new roles or expand responsibilities, evaluate the financial upside, and consider community reactions across several locations in North America. After 10 weeks of thorough evaluation, the executives settled on a restructuring decision to be announced alongside its earnings release in two weeks.

ACTION: Maintaining confidentiality was crucial for this type of news, and the group of insiders remained limited. Communication efforts were fully engaged once a decision was made to proceed with the announcement linked to earnings. Planning commenced immediately, incorporating insights from HR, Investor Relations (IR), Operations, Finance, and Legal. Stakeholders were identified, messaging tailored for each audience was developed, and a comprehensive timeline for internal notifications and public announcements was established. To prevent disruptions within the investment community or among shareholders, the announcement could not be executed during NYSE trading hours – from 9:30 am ET to 4:00 pm ET. Given the company's multiple locations across three North American time zones, timing was critical; executives mandated that employees would hear about the restructuring from the company first, aligned with the press release's public release — through their supervisors, followed by notifications to broader internal and external audiences.

OUTCOME: After final restructuring and communication plans were reviewed and approved by functional leads, the announcement coincided with that quarter’s earnings, as planned. The earnings press release, which included restructuring news, was scheduled for release after 4 pm ET, with the analyst call set for the following morning. This strategic timing allowed employees on both the east and west coasts to receive notifications during their standard work hours. Concurrently with the press release, individual employee meetings and group forums had been pre-scheduled to ensure all internal stakeholders were informed about the impending changes and what they would mean moving forward. Internal communications were sent electronically to employees, board members, customers, and suppliers. Contact was also established with local officials, organizations, and community partners soon after the press release went public. Though news of restructuring is seldom welcomed, when the company prioritizes its people and crafts a thoughtful strategy to minimize the impact, the restructuring remains unwelcome but may be more readily understood.

OPPORTUNITY: A CPG company known for its superior processes aimed at reducing supply chain costs while maintaining high quality standards was generating consistent revenue and profit but received little recognition for its significant efforts in decreasing water, fuel, and energy consumption.  

ACTION: After conducting thorough measurements of its water, fuel, and energy usage and investing in 'green' facilities and vehicles to highlight the cost benefits, a persuasive business case emerged focusing on environmental sustainability and cost reduction. An integrated communications strategy was crafted to raise awareness of the company's sustainability initiatives among employees, elected officials, regulators, retail customers, and media outlets. This strategy evolved into a lasting communications campaign for an industry leader in environmental sustainability.  

OUTCOME: The company achieved substantial media coverage and public acknowledgment for its initiatives aimed at reducing its environmental footprint. Highlights included a front-page article in a national newspaper about its facility in Arizona, an Earth Day event with then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to unveil its solar field in California, and commendation from former Vice President Al Gore for successfully cutting greenhouse gases while showcasing a financial advantage to the company's bottom line.

ISSUE: A company undergoing a merger review must be prepared with a back-up plan at the appropriate time, especially if the transaction faces high regulatory risks. In striving for a successful deal closing and integration planning, a global company was required to develop an alternative, stand-alone business strategy. This included detailed internal and external communications plans to support the strategy when it appeared likely that a pending transaction, already challenged by regulators, might be terminated.

ACTION: A small subset of the communications team, collaborating discreetly with senior business leaders and investor relations, crafted an integrated communications plan based on the new business model and strategic direction. This involved expanding into new market opportunities, implementing debt and cost reduction actions, and outlining steps to return value to shareholders. The communications plan featured a comprehensive three-pronged business and financial strategy communicated through a press release, investor script, customer/sales communications, website content, and a full range of internal communications, including an employee letter and video message. For shareholders, the messaging highlighted the value proposition associated with the new strategy, while customer communications emphasized the benefits of improved products, services, and new technology. Internally, the plan included an engaging campaign aimed at rallying employees around the company’s new future and direction, generating enthusiasm about their roles in the company's ongoing success.

OUTCOME: After the transaction was terminated, the new business strategy and communications plan were launched before the stock market opened the following day. Employee engagement and excitement levels soared, evident from interactive employee posts and high readership of internal materials and content. The press release and subsequent media relations efforts resulted in expansive, balanced, and predominantly positive coverage. A well-attended investor relations conference call the following day reinforced the narrative among investors and sell-side equity analysts. The communications plan and robust strategic story instilled confidence among all of the company’s stakeholders, both internal and external, buying the company crucial time to execute its plans and demonstrate proof points of success.