navy command headquarters a new communications strategy for the naval service captain mike beardall...
TRANSCRIPT
Navy Command Headquarters
A New Communications Strategy for the Naval Service
Captain Mike Beardall Royal Navy
Navy Command Headquarters
“If the character of the last military era was defined by the West’s ability to conduct precision strikes on enemy platforms and command nodes, the conflicts of the future are likely to be defined more by the centrality of influence…This battle of the narratives… will take place in a decentralised, networked free-market of ideas, opinions and even raw data, which will weaken the immediacy and influence ofmainstream news providers.”
DCDC ‘Future Character of Conflict’ 2010
“Overall, there is a new capacity for scrutiny and accountability way beyond the assumed power and influence of the traditional media… hundreds of millions of ‘information do-ers’… shed light where it is often assumed there will be darkness.”
Nik Gowing ‘Skyful of Lies and Black Swans’, RISJ, 2009
Navy Command Headquarters
The next 30 minutes in brief…
• Legacy communications structures• Obstacles to progress• A new strategic approach• Key messages: Key publics• Measurement and evaluation• Future plans
Navy Command Headquarters
Legacy issues…
The Marketing Department
Who: ‘Captain Naval Recruiting’ (CNR)
What: Responsible for Above-the Line recruitment marketing, TV advertising, recruitment ads etc
Where: Naval Base, Portsmouth
Which 2*: Flag Officer, Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland (Rear Admiral, Based in Scotland)
The Non-News Department
Who: ‘Assistant Head, Directorate Media & Communications, PR (Navy)’ (DMC Op Comms)
What: Responsible for Branding, Events, Licensing, TV documentaries, magazine spreads etc
Where: MOD Main Building, London
Which 2*: Director MOD Media & Communication (Civil Servant based in London)
The News Department
Who: ‘Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff (Media)’ (NCHQ Media)
What: Responsible for news operations, mobile teams, internal communications
Where: Command HQ, Portsmouth
Which 2*: Command Secretary (Civil Servant based in Portsmouth)
The Regional News Department
Who: ‘FOSNNI Media & Communications
What: Responsible for regional news activities in the UK
Where: Naval Base, Clyde
Which 2*: Flag Officer, Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland (Rear Admiral, Based in Scotland)
Navy Command Headquarters
Obstacles to progress•Fun
ctional geographical and hierarchical separation
•Limited resources spread too thinly
Structures
•Messages over complicated and inconsistently delivered
•No resonance with publics’ concerns and priorities
Messaging
•Despite consistently high favorability towards and familiarity with the RN, it remains poorly understood.
Understanding
•A capacity to measure the penetration of our messaging and its effect on understanding is not employed
MoE
•Many of our own people cannot instinctively ariculare our core messages
Familiarity
Navy Command Headquarters
Reform in progress…•Move
s to end functional geographical and hierarchical separation, and to co-locate resources and personnel
Structures
•Development, approval and sole-use of the Navy Strategic Message House, Advocate Ambassadors and Spokespeople
Messaging
•All ‘Levers of Influence’ to use the SMH as a baseline
•Requirement for training organisations to use SMH product
Understanding
•The development of an integrated output-outtake-outcome monitoring and analysis unit to drive future strategy
MoE
Navy Command Headquarters 7
Getting ahead of the curveCommunications Strategy•Based on Scenario Planning
Monitoring•Media Mapping•Media Analysis•Quotes of Note
Planning•Event horizon 1-12 months
News Operations•Event horizon 0-1 month
Navy Command Headquarters
A new strategic approach
Identify key audiences• Those with the greatest
potential to affect future strategic success
Establish core messages• The ‘big six’ that define
the raison d’etre of the service
Gauge publics’ understanding• Gain an empirical
uptake ‘fix’
Apply communications ‘in grid’• Message house
messages become the basis for all comms
Re-measure and re-evaluate• Monitor, analyse an
evaluate to determine future policy
Navy Command Headquarters
Key messages: Key publics1. Decision Makers
2. Opinion Leaders
3. Service Personnel
4. Service Diaspora
5. Media Advocates
6. Youth
Those groups that have the greatest potential to influence our future strategic success
1. Preventing Conflict
2. Providing Security at Sea
3. Promoting Partnerships
4. Providing Humanitarian Asst.
5. Protecting our Economy
6. Ready to fight
The six key messages that we want our publics to remember when they think ‘Why Navy?’
Navy Command Headquarters
Operating ‘In Grid’Whenever conducting influence activity, instructing outstations to focus effort on delivering key all messages to all key publics, in priority order.
Navy Command Headquarters
What do we want?When our communications output reaches our target publics, what outcome do we want it to have?
Differentiate We want our messages to be recognisably different
Reinforce Our messages can reinforce existing beliefs
Inform Where no previous knowledge exists, we can help
Persuade Our messages are a call to action!
Fill (2002, 2011) Essentials of Marketing Communications
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Navy Command Headquarters
What do we want?
Awareness Comprehension Conviction Action
What do we expect of publics at this stage?
Audience are aware of the brand and some ‘boilerplate details’
Audience develop greater understanding of the ‘big six’ messages
Audience begin to advocate Naval messaging – naval messages incorporated into own
Audience take positive personal steps to further Naval aims
How might we measure this?
Would need to recall (prompted or unprompted) basic details
Unprompted recall of central tenets of the six messages
Evidence of personal adherence to Naval aims (membership, votes, lobbying as appropriate)
Post-conviction behaviour. Regular re-broadcast of Naval messages. Advocacy.
Adapted from: The ‘Hierarchy of Communications’, after Colley (1961)
We want our publics to move through a journey from awareness to action…
Navy Command Headquarters
Why? - A quicker route to market…
Based on Schramm (1955), Hall (1974) and Jenkins (2007)
Navy Command Headquarters
Why? - The Zone of Effective Communication
Adapted from Lengel and Daft (1988, 227) and Balogun and Hope-Hailey (2008,195)
Navy Command Headquarters
• MINI is a Royal Navy initiative to keep Ships and Units better informed of RN coverage in the worldwide media
• Distributed daily and compiled from several open-source outlets
• It also forms the Press Office’s historical archive and weekly briefs
• Statistical analysis allows‘at a glance’ evaluation of news stories
Organic Monitoring
Navy Command Headquarters
Organic Monitoring
Consistent outtake monitoring and analysis requires a baseline…
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Outlets range in significance
Articles range in tone
0 100
-2 +2
Groups of articles on the same subject make a story
Tone x Significance = Impact
Navy Command Headquarters
Long-term trends tell their own story
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60 m
onth
tot
al o
f to
ned
artic
les
Percentage of toned articles with a positive tone
Making the transit from data to knowledge – just some of the information we can deduce…
Navy Command Headquarters
What do we want to achieve?• A system in which limited resources are used to maximum capacity• A system in which all the ‘levers of influence’ are centrally guided
and where the most effective is used when required• A system in which departmental output is linked to audience
outcome through evidence-based monitoring and analysis
By understanding where deficiencies of knowledge exist amongst our key publics, the strategic application of communications will allow us to improve understanding of our key messages amongst those that have the greatest potential to influence the future strategic success of the Naval Service.
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