Spotlighting your employees as brand ambassadors

Insights from Ragan’s Employee Communications and Culture Conference.

If you’ve got a robust culture within your organization, you probably won’t have to go far to find people who can represent your company to the world.

At Ragan’s Employee Communications and Culture Conference earlier this year, Greg Artkop, director of public affairs, communications and sustainability at Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages told the gathered crowd that in the wake of the COVID pandemic, workforce retention at his organization took a slide. To increase morale and foster a sense of engagement among employees, Artkop and his team planned a campaign to showcase the organization’s culture to the world.

Artkop called the decision an “inside-out” strategy and featured employees in a Super Bowl-style ad campaign which proved beneficial for both employees and the organization.

“Everyone you see in our billboards and ads works for us,” Artkop said, “They’re not models. They’re proud to be there.”

In addition to the ad campaign, Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages initiated a docuseries called “Under the Cap,” which took the form of unscripted videos showcasing everyday employees and their job activities.

“We went to every facility looking for real stories and we found them,” Artkop said. “We wanted our communities to know the names and faces behind the brand.”

Artkop shared that both storytelling pushes put the organization’s employee engagement rate with the content at 85%, and a lot of that engagement came from the video campaigns.

​​“Don’t be afraid to share your culture externally,” he said. “We share a lot outside the walls.”

“Embrace authenticity,” he added. “If you do that, your work will resonate more.”

Artkop capped off his presentation with a simple takeaway for internal comms pros seeking to tell their employee stories.

“If my employees don’t want to see it, I don’t want to do it,” he said.”

Check out Artkop’s presentation in full below.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.

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