Designing a future-focused communications team with the University of Derby
The challenge:
What will university communication and PR teams look like in the future? And what changes do we need to make now to start preparing for that?
These were two big questions that the University of Derby was exploring. And so they partnered with us to answer them.
What we delivered:
From the advent of AI, to the continued dominance of influencer marketing, and constant changes in how the “traditional” media work and tell stories, hand in hand with the growing need for international PR and public affairs to lead strategic change, there are big shifts across the PR sector as a whole.
For decades the PR and communications profession has argued that it needs to be seen as a strategic leadership function, helping to guide and steer business and policy decisions.
This has evolved in recent years in the higher education sector, with more and more universities recognising this and demanding strategic leadership from their communications team.
At the University of Derby, they felt that they were on the cusp of an opportunity to reshape the vision for the future of their communications activity.
Pickle Jar Communications collaborated with senior stakeholders and the communications team at Derby to envision and strategise for future developments. Our comprehensive approach included:
Consultations to align the communications strategy with the university’s leadership vision.
An in-depth review of upcoming trends in communications and PR.
Analysis of current practices, desires for change, and existing barriers within the team. Our final report provided actionable recommendations for reshaping the communications team as strategic leaders, proposed new roles and structures, and defined a guiding vision focusing on eight key components for the team’s future operations and cultural integration.
“The work Pickle Jar Communications completed for us was detailed, insightful and thought-provoking. The report shaped our direction of travel, helping us to create better unity between our marketing and communications functions, and make more intelligent decisions”
~ University of Derby
Are your content teams future-proofed?
If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you to shape your content teams and plan for the future, drop us a line, we’d love to hear from you.
