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We had a wonderful time this year at the European Communication Summit in Berlin with over 500 delegates discussing the latest trends and transformations happening in corporate communication.

From the challenges of disinformation and fake news to corporate strategies that build trust and transparency, we dive into some of the most interesting topics from the summit for communication professionals today.

An era of mistrust

One topic of discussion that kept popping up was the challenge of building trust in today’s era of mistrust. Trust in mass media and journalism is falling, political instability is on the rise and businesses need to find a way to stay ahead and adapt to these fast-changing requirements.

Speaking out from within

The VP of Employer Branding and Social Innovation at Siemens held an interesting discussion on building trust through unlocking the power of employees and the future of employer brand strategy through storytelling.

Employees are often some of the most influential and overlooked spokespeople for a company. Developing a strategy to enable employees to share their voice drives relevant content to help spark authentic communication – and, in turn, attract quality talent.

It can be said that corporate communications matter both inside and outside the company and increasingly more corporations are realizing the importance of internal communication to help build a strong corporate culture.

The head of Search and Community at SAP discussed how fostering corporate culture can build loyalty and advocacy to contribute to corporate success and the future sustainability of a company.

Future-Proofing

However, employees are only part of a wider stakeholder approach to ‘future-proof your brand’. Consumer and stakeholder expectations are continuously evolving, and the societal role of brands, as well as their authenticity and transparency are under a microscope.

One panel discussion dove into the importance of developing a strong corporate character that can walk the fine line between being a corporation that is ‘woke’ versus an inauthentic ‘joke’.

Measurement evolution

One of the best ways to navigate this fine line is through analytics. The Chief Operations Officer for Europe and North America at CARMA discussed the importance of measurement in today’s rapidly changing media environment or better said, measurement evolution in a media revolution.

In other words, one of the most prominent topics emphasized by several speakers was that a strong evaluation program is no longer optional but essential for corporate strategy.

VP and Head of Global Communications at Tieto Corporation came up with an interesting case study on how to bring your performance analytics to the next level.

Today, too many brands focus on measuring quantity, but this speaker emphasized the importance of quality as well. Identifying key reputation spearheads while looking across the entire stakeholder universe allows corporations to ensure desired themes are resonating to support corporate strategy and drive engagement.

Above all, it’s about recognizing the impact of corporate activities to leverage results and build a strong corporate reputation. In summary, today’s radical disruption requires an analytics solution that delivers actionable insights on a real-time basis to embed corporate purpose into the dialog of the business.

Humanizing AI

Other interesting topics revolved around the growing role of AI in communications to drive engagement, culture, and ethics. We look forward to seeing the evolution of technology in communications over the coming year!

Interested to hear more about ECS19, read more in this post by the Communication Director.

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