A campaign to improve Scottish Power's health and
safety performance among its staff has helped the
energy company to reduce sickness absence by 22% and
lost time accidents by 60%
The 'It Matters' campaign, used
tongA campaign to improve Scottish Power's health and
safety performance among its staff has helped the
energy company to reduce sickness absence by 22% and
lost time accidents by 60%
The 'It Matters' campaign, used
tongue-in-cheek copy and light
hearted visuals to emphasise the
importance of health and safety
messages and also helped to save the
company ?2.5million.
According to HSE figures 96% of
accidents at work are due to unsafe
behaviours rather than unsafe
conditions. Companies now recognise
that educating and changing staff
behaviour is critical to tackling this.
However, like ScottishPower, many
companies try to save money by running
health and safety campaigns through
some level of internal function, resulting
in poor execution and messaging leading
to apathy and disinterest from staff.
Seen it all before
They've simply 'seen it all before,' they
don't want to be preached to and they
don't want to be patronised, as such,
they start to ignore campaign warnings
and advice with inevitable consequences.
That's why ScottishPower
commissioned Good Creative, a
Glasgow-based design agency, to develop
a single brand and an enduring
campaign that would deliver internal
health and safety messages across the
group. The company felt previous
campaigns had been inconsistent and
poorly executed and that staff had
become disengaged from internal
communications messages.
ScottishPower is one of the UK's
largest energy suppliers, comprising a
number of divisions ? including SP
Energy Retail, SP Energy Wholesale
and SP Energy Networks ? each of
which operates autonomously and had
created its own 'brand' to deliver health
and safety messages.
There was a lack of consistency and,
as a result, the group's health and safety
performance was good but static.
Recognising that the safety and wellbeing
of its staff was paramount, the group
asked Good to create a brand platform
that would work across all of its
divisions, to improve key health and
safety statistics, to improve brand
recollection and to create a cost-effective,
long lasting campaign.
The 'It Matters' campaign went
live in May 2009 with a budget of
?60,000. Using a series of simple
visuals, it emphasised the message
that health and safety issues affect
the lives of all employees at all
times, from making a cup to tea,
to walking to work, driving a car
or wiring a plug.
Doug Wilson, ScottishPower's
health & safety director, said:
"The impact of the 'It Matters'
campaign on our health and
safety culture has been positive
and sustaining. The extent to
which we have further
educated, what I know to be a
tough audience, is nothing
short of remarkable."
Keith Forbes, co-director of
Good, said: "We believe our work with
ScottishPower to unify, re-invigorate and
improve the effectiveness of their internal
health and safety communications
absolutely proves the power of simple,
clear and engaging design.
"It shows how design can transcend a
broad target audience, ambivalent to
what you're trying to sell and connect
with them in a refreshing way, ultimately
changing their behaviour. It shows how a
tight budget can work with simple copy
and stock imagery to communicate at the
unglamorous end of the design spectrum,
saving the company money and
ultimately improving day-to-day lives."
Good, whose clients include Marks &
Spencer, AEG, Vladivar,
CLWorldbarnds, Bacardi, Siemens and
Land Securities, is seeking to capitalise
on the company's growing reputation
and success with a possible move to
London. It is currently considering
various options, including
a partnership or joint
venture operation that will
enable it to get a foothold
in London.
"We have proved ourselves
consistently to be one of the
very best design
consultancies in the UK and,
with 70% of our business now
coming from outside of
Scotland, it makes sense to be
closer to where are customers
are based," said Forbes, who
founded Good eight years ago
with co-director Chris Lumsden.
The It Matters campaign has
also been recognised externally
with it being named as one of
the UK's most effective
marketing strategies and gaining
a Gold award at the Design
Business Association's annual Design
Effectiveness Awards in February.
