Case study: “We’re not just accountants…”

Posted by Guy Downes on March 11, 2011 under Infographics, Video Scribing | 2 Comments to Read

Leading regional business accountancy firm uses visual communications to tell its story

Duncan Plante & Company is a leading and well-established business accountant and taxation consultant based in Tamworth NSW who recently turned to visual communications to engage clients and employees.

“Guy Downes has brought a new perspective to our business. His visual communication work has not only engaged our team, it has also provided our clients with a much clearer understanding of our role and of our commitment to them. Guy’s work has really let us ’see’ and focus on our business priorities”.

Duncan Plante, Partner & Founder, Duncan Plante & Company

Opportunity:

Duncan Plante & Company wanted to shine the light on how they deliver value to their clients thanks to their higher quality service and quality assured work. At the same time, they were also looking for ways to keep employees actively engaged in the company strategy, their mission, the firm’s best practices and where they were headed together as an organisation.

Insight:

People process visuals 60,000 times faster than text (3M)

Challenge:

Set against the backdrop of a fast-paced work environment for employees and a client base dealing with increasing levels of information during their working day, the challenge was to find effective communication techniques that could quickly engage, educate, align (and entertain) employees as well as clients.

Solution:

With many people’s preference for visual learning, visual communication was at the heart of a layered campaign to gradually build visual assets that could overcome the challenges and issues the company faced.

What did we do? The levels of the layered campaign were as follows:

1. Company strategy workshop: using graphic facilitation techniques and posters, we drew out the company thinking on current direction, successes, challenges and key priorities for the future.

2. Messaging session: using the strategy workshop as springboard, we defined the language that quickly and easily describes the company, how it is different and how it benefits its customers (think: ‘Elevator pitch’)

3. Defining the company story: combining ideas, insights and information gathered from the strategy workshop and messaging session, we developed a unique story on ‘why we (Duncan Plante & Co) exist, what we do and how we do it’ to help people understand the value the firm brings and to give the team a unique way to remember and retell it.

4. Company Journey Map: we used the most important elements from the workshop, messaging and company story as the foundation for developing a Journey Map, which uses a themed picture (full of visual language, metaphors and images) to highlight the direction, priorities, best practice, values and vision of the company in a quick, engaging and compelling manner.

5. Refreshing the company logo and website: with all the momentum and information from phases 1-4, there was an opportunity to renew the company website and refresh the company logo so that it truly reflected the leading edge and dynamic work the company was doing and the strides the team was making. We engaged Alison Quodling, graphic designer, to rework the logo and visual identity and we brought in Acclipse to build an eye-catching, professional and effective website.

6. Video scribing – bringing to life the Duncan Plante & Co story using animation: Video scribing is the art of translating audio content, such as a speech or presentation, into a hand drawn video animation. In this case, we wrote, recorded and cartooned a speech by Duncan Plante about Duncan Plante & Co. All in all, the icing on the visual communication cake! To watch the video, go to the company homepage.