Social Media Project Shortlisted for CIPD Award
UK SHOWER manufacturer and designer, Roman Limited, have been shortlisted for a prestigious North East CIPD (Chartered Institute of Professional Development) award. This sees them being placed in the top 2, after a record number of entries, for their yearlong social media campaign, Project 252, which followed a year in the life of the manufacturer through photos.
The campaign saw one photograph being shared every working day throughout 2012 – each of the photographs showing a different aspect and area of the business. With the Company having a total of 252 working days during the year, the campaign was titled Project 252.
The campaign was played out across the Company’s social media platforms; Flickr, Facebook and Twitter, as well as being shared on Roman’s own website. The intiative involved all Roman employees (around 150 members of staff), who either supplied photos, or were captured in photos throughout the year.
David Osborne, Managing Director at Roman comments on the motivations behind Project 252: “The aim of the campaign was to involve all members of staff, whilst also communicating all the different aspects of the company. Roman has diversified greatly over the past 10 years. Although manufacturing Shower Enclosures is still at the heart of the business, we now have many other strings to our bow.
“We have an on-site Solid Surface manufacturing facility, which we opened in 2005. In 2009 we launched Roman at Home, which is an online business selling homewares. We have a growing Export division and recently set up a subsidiary business based in Kuala Lumpur, which serves the Asian and Australasian markets.”
The Company was keen to communicate all these new aspects to employees, as well as to those outside the business. Photographs are an ideal medium as they are quick and easy to digest and one a day gives enough scope to capture every aspect.
Osborne continues: “As a Company we see ourselves as being somewhat different to the norm. Where possible we keep everything in house; we have an in house customer services team; we manufacture all our products ourselves; we have in house engineers; all our products are designed by our dedicated Design Team; we have an in house marketing team which includes key skills such as PR, website development, digital marketing and graphic design.”
“One of the key struggles for any business is communicating what each different department does on a daily basis. This is particularly difficult for a business like ours, where we have many remote members of staff, including technical installers and sales managers, who live UK and Worldwide. It is particularly challenging to make them feel part of the business. That is why their involvement was so crucial in terms of both supplying photographs, as well as viewing them and following the campaign.”
Project 252 encompassed every aspect of the shower manufacturer’s daily life – from Export trips overseas; to products being packed on vehicles; from products being created in Design and manufactured on the shopfloor; to new showroom displays being installed; from key visitors at the factory; to staff milestones; and national events being celebrated.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony which takes place at the Hilton Hotel, Newcastle on the 18th April.
You can still view Project 252 now on the Company’s website and Flickr page.