HeidelbergCement

One of our multinational clients, HeidelbergCement is amongst the world’s largest building materials companies. With more than 60,000 employees working at more than 3,000 production sites in around 60 countries on five continents, it is the leader in aggregates production, cement and ready-mixed concrete.

Our regular work with the European institutions, our communication expertise, our understanding of the environment in which multinationals evolve and our analytical spirit that allows us to efficiently improve the communication created the opportunity for a successful cooperation.

Mission

Our mission was to enhance the ecological profile of HeidelbergCement and promote its activities in relation to biodiversity management and sustainability. Its recognised status of an economically-successful company comes with the responsibility of taking care of the environment. Committed to minimising environmental impact, HeidelbergCement set up and implemented a comprehensive and intensive programme for environmental protection and rehabilitation.

A primary objective of our mission was to expand the internal and external visibility of the company’s efforts to promote the high biological value of the quarries and to facilitate dialogue with environmental protection authorities and the local communities. Another objective was to increase the internal penetration and recognition of the first-ever group-wide guidelines for species protection as well as of their concrete implementation actions in the field.

Approach

We developed a flexible modular communication strategy that allowed us to enhance the company’s ecological profile with originality, lightness and excitement while respecting the company’s well-established corporate identity and style guidelines.

We targeted internal and external audiences through dedicated communication campaigns in video and print. We designed them with a particular attention to the clarity and attractiveness of the message and to graphic enhancement. Our strategy had the objective to create a communication “virtuous circle”: boosting the internal visibility on the company people’s work and commitment would generate more valorisation and more participation; more participation would create more visibility. The boost in external communication was also needed to generate more political and social awareness, to valorise the company’s efforts in biodiversity management and to promote its success stories externally and internally.

Results

We enhanced the visibility of the Quarry Life Award, a unique HeidelbergCement initiative supported by BirdLife International. We boosted its profile through the graphic design and the copywriting of a captivating brochure and print materials for events and exhibitions. We created a vibrant thrilling environment for the awards ceremonies through compelling videos and presentations. From one year to another, our campaign motivated an increased participation in the competition, stimulated new vocations and actions in the young generation and sparked political attention.

We succeeded to induce attractiveness, easiness of use and understanding into the HeidelbergCement’s Best Practice Guides. We designed them into practical and inviting multi-language tools for the company to guide its people in implementing its Corporate Social Responsibility approaches throughout the Group.

Conclusion

Our attention to message combined with our proficiency in developing tailor-made communication tools enabled us to successfully implement a modular communication approach. The campaigns responded at the same time to the needs for creativity in order to stand out and reach out to people and to the needs of corporate rigor.

It became an example of a trustworthy excellence-based relationship focussed on delivering impactful and useful communication materials that transformed field efforts and commitment into resounding achievements appreciated at the highest levels.