One Brand, One Voice at WM

Deon Smith
Jul 9, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Jan 22

An Internal Communication Brand Strategy

WM, a leading provider of comprehensive waste management services, recognized the need to unify its internal messaging from a brand perspective to strengthen employee engagement and alignment. With a workforce spanning diverse roles and locations, the organization faced challenges in delivering consistent, cohesive communications. Messages delivered through newsletters, executive updates, presentations, digital signage, and other channels often lacked a unified voice and visual identity, leading to confusion and weakening the connection to WM’s brand and mission.

The internal communications rebrand strategy aimed to create a seamless and recognizable communication experience that reflected WM’s values and strategic priorities. By aligning messaging and visuals across all internal channels, the initiative sought to ensure that employees at every level felt connected to the organization’s identity, understood their role within its success, and engaged with the company’s vision for the future.

Objectives

Unify Messaging: Establish a consistent tone, style, and visual identity for all internal communications channels.

Enhance Brand Connection: Ensure employees feel connected to WM’s mission, values, and strategic priorities.

Increase Engagement: Drive higher levels of employee understanding and involvement in company initiatives.

Streamline Delivery: Simplify internal communication processes to improve clarity and reduce fragmentation.

Implementation

Discovery

The rebrand initiative began with an assessment phase, aimed at understanding the state of WM’s internal communications. This included conducting a detailed audit of all existing communication channels and materials to identify inconsistencies in visual identity. By analyzing newsletters, executive templates, presentations, and digital signage, gaps and redundancies were uncovered that diluted the overall impact of internal communications. This audit served as the foundation for the rebrand strategy.

Brand Alignment and Design

To ensure consistency and strengthen the connection between internal and external communications, the brand team was engaged. A refreshed design system was developed to standardize internal materials, including templates for newsletters, presentations, and digital signage for communication professionals across the corporate office and area markets. These templates adhered to the company’s brand guidelines, featuring clean layouts, cohesive color schemes, and clear typography, making them both professional and user-friendly. This design overhaul reinforced WM’s commitment to delivering high-quality, engaging communications to its workforce.

Branded Templates

Newsletters

One component of the internal communications rebrand involved restructuring WM’s bi-monthly newsletter, NewsBrief. Previously, the newsletter included every story and update since the last issue, resulting in lengthy editions that were overwhelming and lacking aesthetically. Recognizing the need for a more streamlined and reader-friendly approach, NewsBrief was reimagined to focus on the top 6-8 priority stories for each issue.

To further enhance readability, full-length stories were replaced with teasers with links directing readers to the full articles housed on the company’s intranet news page. This section of the newsletter was called "News Nuggets." This shift not only made the newsletter more digestible but also encouraged employees to explore additional content on the intranet increasing engagement with the platform.

Emails

The executive email templates were revamped to improve readability, consistency, and alignment with WM’s brand identity. Previously, the executive email graphic banners featuring executives’ headshots, names, and titles were embedded as images, resulting in pixelated text and a lack of visual clarity. Links defaulted to a generic blue, clashing with brand guidelines, and inconsistent formatting across templates diminished their professional appearance.

The redesign focused on functionality and brand alignment. Names and titles were moved from the banners to editable text in the email body, enhancing readability on all devices. Each template featured a standardized headshot, a polished WM-branded layout with branded green clickable links, and a digital signature. A new addition—a clickable link to executives’ LinkedIn profiles encouraged employees to follow them, boosting their social presence and extending thought leadership. The updated templates created a cohesive, professional look while improving accessibility and reinforcing WM’s commitment to high-quality, employee-centered communications.

Town Halls

The town hall presentation deck was redesigned to modernize its look, enhance visual impact, and align with WM’s refreshed brand identity. While adhering to WM’s official colors, the previous deck lacked thoughtful design and appeal, making presentations feel outdated. The updated template featured a cohesive layout with professional, engaging color combinations and introduced a variety of slide options for charts, infographics, and text-heavy content, offering flexibility for diverse presentation needs.

Additionally, a preshow was introduced a looping video of announcements and updates shown as attendees joined online or in person. This engaging feature set the tone for the event and seamlessly transitioned into the main presentation. These updates elevated the professionalism and visual appeal of town halls, aligning them with WM’s brand standards while improving audience engagement.

The Results

Increased Consistency: Internal communications across all channels adopted a unified brand identity, creating a more professional and cohesive experience for employees.

Enhanced Efficiency: The central repository of templates and guidelines reduced time spent on creating materials.

Improved Engagement: Metrics showed a 20% increase in open rates for NewsBrief.

Stronger Alignment: Employees reported greater clarity and alignment with WM’s goals and initiatives.

Insights

The brand strategy transformed WM’s internal communications, turning a fragmented approach into a unified system that resonated with employees and internal stakeholders. The new internal communications brand strategy allowed area communication professionals to communicate in a unified voice. We not only improved engagement but also reinforced WM's commitment to delivering communication excellence.

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