Whether you’re looking to improve internal communication or build a company's employer brand, your communication must be human. Castorama’s Employer Brand Manager, Valentine Dumont, and Internal Communication Manager, Margaux Boet, understand this.
Although they do not share the same objectives within the company, their daily challenge is the same: to create content that generates their target market’s commitment by conveying strong messages in dynamic and authentic ways.
The challenge: Create a real connection between Castorama's internal and external target audiences
The employer brand side must: Establish audience connection and humanize the brand's messages
When Valentine arrived at Castorama France, she and her team wanted to establish a warm, fun and friendly tone in their communications, truly reflecting Castorama France’s image.
Through her previous professional experiences, Valentine understood the benefits of using videos as a communication tool. She knows how much it humanizes and embodies the company’s words when generating engagement on social media.
Internal communication must: Capture employee’s attention with simple and impactful content
Margaux and her internal communication team broadcast messages on multiple channels, including:
- Yammer, a corporate social network
- An intranet, updated with company news
- An internal newsletter, published monthly digitally and by print
- In-store displays, that use QR Codes for displaying additional employee-focused content when required
In addition to these channels, the human touch is essential to communicate Margaux's key messages. She relies as much on in-store ambassadors as she does on the store manager during monthly meetings.
In this context, Margaux is looking for the best way to spread the company's messages. Her big challenge? Capturing the attention of employees whose #1 priority is to accompany their customers, most of whom don't have an email account, and have little time to check the company’s internal communications.
Another challenge is the popularization of the subjects addressed, which can be very technical. They must become understandable and engaging for all.
There is a large variety of internal communication topics. We have to be able to juggle from one subject to another and be agile too.
Margaux Boet, Internal Communication Manager
The solution: Use video as a communication tool for engaging human messages
The employee branding team must: Develop a strategy that makes employees feel valued at Castorama
The solution to this challenge came to Valentine when she filmed Margaux as part of an internal task. When she started to manually edit the video on her phone, Margaux suggested a "great tool" she uses to create professional videos with ease, called PlayPlay.
A couple of minutes of demonstration were enough to convince Valentine that she should get a PlayPlay license for her Employer Branding department.
When I found out about PlayPlay, I realized it was just what I needed. The speed of set up, and the numerous charted templates are a huge time saver.
Valentine Dumont, Employer Brand Manager
Valentine then immersed herself in the platform, and took it in hand very quickly. After several days of use, she particularly appreciates:
- The ease of use of the tool. In just a few minutes, she can create a quality video, locked in with full Castorama France branding.
- The wide variety of ready-to-use templates, which help her find inspiration. Using these templates is a huge time saver for her, as she only has to fill the screens with her content, and the videos are ready to go.
I used to spend hours and hours on editing a single video. I would do my edits at night so I could get them out the next day because I didn't have time to do that during the day. Now, with PlayPlay, I can get my video out in 15 minutes.
Valentine Dumont, Employer Brand Manager
PlayPlay quickly became Valentine's key solution. She uses it to communicate various themes and topics, such as:
- The brand's events and projects, such as showcasing the hiring initiatives that support people with disabilities and their CSR projects.
- Recruitment, including their use of dynamic videos in job offers and student programs.
- Castorama France's internal life, on all subjects related to the company's events and their employee’s careers.
- Corporate news, from all brands that are part of the Kingfisher group, including Castorama France.
The Internal communication team must: Implement human communication to build loyalty and commitment
Margaux relies on PlayPlay to help her convey her messages into dynamic formats. Her videos are broadcasted on the company's social network as well as installed TV displays in the staff areas in stores and at their headquarters. They use videos to communicate about new project launches and spotlight their employees through interviews.
Videos help internal communications become meaningful, and popularize subjects that may be technical at first. The result: employees can understand the overall meaning of our messages in seconds.
Margaux Boet, Internal Communications Manager
This video format is very much appreciated by her colleagues in stores and in the headquarters.
Thanks to the videos I create with PlayPlay, I manage to reach our objective: to highlight our colleagues in their daily lives, but also to promote launches and events. A video interview is much more valuable than written content! For example, we were able to interview a deaf and mute colleague who speaks in sign language: this was a real plus when communicating about the diversity at Castorama.
Margaux Boet, Internal Communications Manager
The results: Easy, fast and quality videos that guarantee engagement
Since Valentine started using PlayPlay, she's seen clear results in improving the employer brand:
- She's creating more videos. In just 2 months, 11 employer brand videos have been published.
- She spends less time on video creation and editing. On average, it takes her 15 minutes to edit her content, compared to entire evenings she used to spend on her phone.
- She generates more engagement internally and externally. Valentine regularly measures and compares the engagement of picture publications and videos. The result is clear: the video format generates far more comments than static posts.
- The HR department receives a higher number of applications when Valentine highlights open positions in video format.
If I had to sum up my use of PlayPlay, it's really easy, fast, and top quality. The tool won't let me create 'quick but poor quality videos', but 'quick and professional videos’.
Valentine Dumont, Employer Brand Manager
PlayPlay is also all the rage in the internal communication team! Margaux and her colleagues appreciate the intuitiveness of the platform, which saves them a lot of time on a daily basis.
The choice of various templates, which are regularly updated, allows them to communicate messages in no time. And the ease of video customization helps them create professional quality videos, quickly and at lower cost in a couple of clicks.
One of the things we love about PlayPlay is the support we get when we encounter a problem. The support team is very responsive and answers within a minute, with concrete solutions. And to add: our customer success managers are very nice!
Margaux Boet, Internal Communication Manager
Conclusion
Given the internal and external success of the videos Castorama’s team created with PlayPlay, Valentine and Margaux will continue to use this format to help their employees feel valued and engaged, while increasing brand loyalty and attracting new talent. We look forward to seeing them reach their goals with more engaging and quality video content!
