Internal communicators adopt “scary” theme to reduce anxiety about new software

JDA Software’s internal communications team took a lighthearted approach to alleviating anxiety among its sales staff, which faced the introduction of a new tool for configuring and pricing products and tracking approval processes. The team’s video introduction of the tool has won first place in the “Internal Communications Design” category of PR Daily’s 2017 Video and Visual Awards.

Sales associates found the prospect of the new tool, called CPQ (for “Configure, Price, Quote”) scary, so communicators adopted the “scary” theme and deployed it across a microsite, internal emails, the organization’s Yammer groups, environmental design assets including posters, clings and cardboard cutouts, employee “survival packs” featuring t-shirts and temporary tattoos and more. 

The campaign kicked off with headlines and visuals that poked fun at the idea that CPQ was “Scary as #&%!” For the software’s global kickoff, the team created a video that emulated classic horror films, again playing on the “scary” theme, featuring actual sales associates and scenes from vintage horror movies. 

The team assessed the campaign’s effectiveness with two surveys, finding that 90 percent of respondents said they actually looked forward to the new tool, a 23 percent increase. Additionally, 95 percent said they understood the reasons for implementing CPQ (a 28 percent increase) and 83 percent said they were confident they could get the support they needed when adopting CPQ (a 30 percent increase). The 90 percent of employees who said they believed JDA Software was fully committed to keeping the change in place represented an amazing 80 percent increase.

Kudos to team members Ross West and Aaron Enright.