Winner: Honeywell
Last year Honeywell's community outreach and philanthropic efforts resulted in initiatives that focused on education, family safety and low-income housing. The campaign,
dubbed the Honeywell Hometown Solutions, boasted the involvement of more than 15,000 employees. Its objective was to create a world that's safer, more energy-efficient and
productive.
To promote HHS, the team developed programs that would directly connect employees, customers, politicians and communities with relevant social issues. Media was targeted
through high-profile local events, seasonal hooks, celebrity appearances and award programs, all designed to create story opportunities and a sense of urgency. Honeywell
leveraged the expertise of eminent partner organizations to help convey the importance of each program and add cachet to its outreach.
Among HHS's marquee programs are:
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FMA Live!, an award-winning hip-hop concert that tours the nation teaching middle high school students about Newton's Law of Motion. The program, which was created in
partnership with NASA in 2004, has reached more than 140,000 students in 38 states and Canada;
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Got 2B Safe!, an abduction prevention education program created in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to help young students learn
behaviors that will increase their personal safety. About 72,319 elementary schools have participated in this effort; and
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Rebuilding Together, a partnership that revitalizes homes for low-income homeowners across American. To date, more than 4,000 employees have helped repair more than 145
homes and community centers to enable low-income homeowners to live in safety and comfort.
The return-on-investment has been extensive. Honeywell has received more than 43 awards since 2004, including the 2005 Department of Justice Corporate Leadership Award. Also,
Got 2B Safe! Was named as the most effective Weekly Reader Program while FMA Live! was named the top community relations program.
Media coverage has resulted in more than 1,000 placements and 400 million impressions worldwide.
T I E WITH
Winner: Nike, Inc.
In 2006, Nike began to evolve the way it frames, defines and approaches corporate responsibility, viewing it as a catalyst for growth and innovation. It also shifted its
focus from defining problems to designing solutions. The communications team played an integral role, challenging the business to articulate and share goals; to build on clarity
and transparency; and to re-frame the company's position away from risk management and toward innovation.
The integrated communications strategy to meet this end included investor outreach, re-framed CSR reporting around key impact areas, an enhanced digital strategy and employee
engagement that empowered them to tell the CSR story.
"As we move closer to building a dialogue with our consumer rather than just a stakeholder audience, we must increasingly rely on digital as the primary form of
communication," says Erin Dobson, CSR communications director for Nike. "This requires that we build a unique model of communicating Nike's CSR initiatives in a form that the
majority of our consumers get their information."
Taking It to the Web
This digital approach is apparent in a number of the company's communications initiatives. For one, its most recent CSR report (see image) was completely Web-centric,
opening up Nike's achievements and goals to a wider audience of consumers, media and investors.
"For the first time, we released our report only in a digital format," Dobson says. "Transparency and business integration are the foundation for our reporting process."
Joint Efforts
Business integration is also key in other processes, such as the communications team's effort to design solutions for CR issues at investor meetings. These efforts
demonstrated a "whole business" approach to analyzing and resolving CR issues through the supply chain by focusing on root causes of noncompliance.
The team also visited key stakeholders around the world and engaged them during one-on-one meetings. In these meetings they highlighted CSR messaging.
Close to Home
Finally, the CSR strategy circled back to perhaps the most important stakeholder audience: Nike employees. Through a coordinated internal communications program, the team
empowered employees to integrate and share CSR messages in the context of their own professional responsibilities.