INvolve

INvolve is a global network and consultancy championing diversity and inclusion in business. Under the leadership of their charismatic CEO, Suki Sandhu OBE, INvolve works with global brands to help steer them along their D&I journey.

Why did they hire us?

Clearly PR has specialised in the Recruitment and HR sector since 2014. During this time, we had worked with Audeliss – an executive search firm and sister company of INvolve – for two years. When INvolve were seeking a new PR partner, Clearly PR was a natural fit.

The brief

Increase awareness of INvolve’s mission to increase diversity at Boardroom level.
Raise the profile of INvolve as a consultancy able to help organisational leaders to challenge their own biases in the workplace, breakdown barriers at work, and empower them by providing the solutions to overcome them.
Educate and inform opinion and encourage positive change in attitudes and executive hiring practices.
Build INvolve’s brand and their CEO’s executive profile to attract supporters who can help advance their cause.

INvolve publish role model lists, recognising and celebrating the people in business who are breaking down barriers at work and inspiring the next generation of diverse talent.

Our task was to launch their annual ethnic minority role model list to the media and support a call to action for positive Black and Ethnic Minority change within Boardrooms across the UK.

INvolve also wanted to get top business leaders to sign a pledge to take action for Black inclusion – an open letter.

What we did

Story development:

Developed human interest stories by interviewing senior Black and Ethnic minority senior executives who appeared in the list and represented some of the biggest companies in the UK. They included Mastercard, BUPA, American Express, and Deloitte.

Research:

Undertook extensive research to identify the journalists, editors, and producers within national media (newspapers, TV and radio) who have covered stories relating to equality, diversity and inclusion, business, workplace issues, employment, HR, and leadership. We conducted a media ‘outreach’ to them to ‘sell’ INvolve’s stories.

Tapped into trends:

Created a series of press releases. Some were focused on the latest announcements relating to the list, others piggybacked onto related and trending stories in the media. This provided us with more opportunities to get our client talking about the issues they cared about and promote the open letter (to pique interest from other potential signatories) in a wider range of media outlets and contexts, too.

Thought leadership content creation:

This was supported by a series of interviews and thought leadership articles with and featuring several role models which were then shared with the media, posted on both the INvolve and Audeliss websites, and distributed across Twitter and LinkedIn.

Created brand ambassadors:

Being featured in the list carried a lot of kudos. It became clear that those who featured on it would not only benefit from the PR that we were doing but that which their employing organisation was also doing. They in turn effectively acted as brand ambassadors for INvolve.

Results

Other outcomes

The open letter was published in The Times with 28 signatories. Within a few months, more than 80 leaders from several of the largest employers in the UK were on board including:

Carolyn McCall, CEO ITV

Kanya King, Founder & CEO MOBO

Penny James, CEO Direct Line

Richard Houston, CEO Deloitte

Simon Roberts, CEO Sainsbury’s

David Duffy, CEO Virgin Money

Mark Read, CEO WPP

Nathan Bostock, CEO Santander

Kevin Ellis, Chairman PwC

Mark Evans, CEO O2 Telefonica

Clare Barclay, CEO Microsoft (UK)

Steve Rowe, CEO Marks and Spencer

Bill Michael, Chair KPMG (UK)

Sharon White, Chair John Lewis Partnership

What made this campaign so great?

It captured the zeitgest in a way that few campaigns ever really do. This was the summer of Black Lives Matter, the timing was impeccable, and the passion and universal commitment to act and create positive change was truly extraordinary.

This campaign saw Clearly PR win the Best D&I PR Campaign of the Year at the PRCA awards in 2021.