 We're moving on to the valedictory session on critical factors and forces that will shape communication in 2021. Let us put our hands together. Join me in welcoming Ms Catherine Devane, Deputy Managing Director and Head of Health of We from UK. Over to you Ms Devane. Very warm welcome Catherine. Hello, good afternoon everybody. It's a pleasure to be here with you, even if we can only be together virtually. So thank you so much for the IPRCCC for inviting me to speak to you today. They've asked me to bring a perspective from other markets to your conference, so that's what I'm going to do. The focus of the presentation is to look at how social movements are taking centre stage, consumer behaviours and expectations are shifting and forcing brands to own up to their past mistakes and adapt their products and services to a more socially distanced and inclusive world. So I'm going to look at how the impact of last year has shaped communications on a global level. Look at the trends that we think are relevant for 2021 and steps we believe are important for brands to thrive in the next normal. And to do this I've used a combination of research from We Communications and our partners Quartz and the Foresight Factory, as well as including real life examples from brands which are leading with purpose to make a positive impact on the world. So even before Covid the world demanded a new way to lead, to communicate and to work. Increasingly it all comes back to purpose. In 2019 the media called it the year of protests because of the crowds of people who are marching in the streets supporting issues they believed in. And 2020 was the same with people marching on issues from equality to climate change. Some estimates say that the Black Lives Matter protests turned out more people than any other movement in the United States history. So I think we can see that activism is on the rise. In the UK dance group diversity performed on Britain's Got Talent with a piece that supported the Black Lives Matter movement, queued almost 25,000 complaints to the UK broadcasting regulator, Ofcom. ITV, the UK broadcaster of Britain's Got Talent, defended the performance, the group and the message on social media and in print and I love the message that they ran. They said we are changed by what we see just as we are changed when we are seen. The lines taken from a powerful purpose led ad campaign that the broadcaster launched earlier in the year. So social action is a powerful force and one that we've seen with our clients that we too. In Australia for example we've had a three-year partnership with non-profit Plastic Free Foundation which encourages people to reduce plastic use and is the driving force behind Plastic Free July. And this year even with the global focus on Black Lives Matter and the pandemic the Plastic Free movement drove a record 326 million people to participate in the challenge which was a 30% increase over last year's participation. Every year we invest in the Brands in Motion study at WE and it's our research that helps us understand audience expectations in brands and guides our clients as to how they can respond. In 2019 83% said they believed brands could be capable of providing stability in uncertain times. Well I think we can safely say that we've experienced enough uncertainty recently. One such example of a brand taking a stance is Avon. So committed to help end violence against women and girls globally this was a critical moment for Avon in India to introduce its promise through action. It's not a pleasant subject for anyone to discuss and the temptation might be to look the other way but Avon has leaned into its purpose and given a voice to the voiceless talking about a subject which some consider unspeakable. Avon the Avon Foundation for Women and their communications partners Avon and WE launched the isolated not alone campaign. They worked with NGOs fighting against gender-based domestic violence, rallied support from influencers and hosted live sessions on Instagram to address questions around legal aid and mental health. Overall more than 15,000 clients received health services including screening and counselling, $122,000 in grants to frontline services to support women and children in need and at risk and more than 2.9 million users were reached. Consumers are clearly asking for meaningful action over lip service or rhetoric and we hear so often in our society referencing this now as virtue signalling. Another example of a brand taking a stance and meaningfully acting with purposes of course Microsoft. Last year Microsoft announced its bold goal to go carbon negative by 2030 and then taking it one step further to pledge that by 2050 they will remove all carbon that they have admitted as a company since they were founded in 1975. We are really proud at WE Communications to ensure that the widest audience were reached with this announcement from consumers through to public policy makers and the timing of the announcement a week before Davos also made sure that maximum exposure with the financial and business community was achieved. For so many brands the pandemic has been a forcing function. It's driven companies to articulate and commit to a purpose that speaks to the most foundational human needs not just a product's utility but the real test of a true and resilient purpose led brand is how its purpose comes to life inside the company and for its people. We have seen a real uptake in client requests for support on employee engagement over the last year and we think this is only set to increase. Without employee engagement your company's purpose is hollow. Of course your employees are your biggest ambassadors for your purpose. In some cases in the past couple of years there's been a huge disconnect between outward displays of purpose and internal negligence. As IBM CEO Arvin Krishnapillett, purpose and profit go together reinforcing each other. PayPal CEO Dan Shorman took it one step further. I'd actually argue if you don't have a purpose as a company you will not succeed from a results perspective. When brands pledge allegiance to purpose for their customer's benefit and then fail to apply that commitment internally the hypocrisy undermines their credibility and erodes trust and ultimately impacts performance. For two years we has partnered with the publisher Quartz Insights to learn how communications leaders can help guide brands to a more purposeful future. Last year only 50% of respondents said employee engagement programmes were meeting their people's needs and only 20% are prioritising investments to address factors like emotional health equity and inclusion and culture. That's not just an HR or internal comms misstep that is a missed business opportunity. In the face of uncertainty and hardship we have all seen too many companies pull funding from internal programmes go dark on their employees because they just don't know what to say or simply let employee engagement efforts fall by the wayside as other priorities feel much more urgent to them. This year businesses are wondering how to be resilient in their purpose when they're constantly in reactive mode concerned about crisis response, reputation management and relevance. An excellent example of how a business has not just ignored the employee engagement in the light of these pressures is HSBC's commercial banking arm. Last year they established Drumbeat which is their employee engagement campaign and provides employees with regular newsletters and employee resources but beyond an email this also includes videos, podcasts, links to external content, question and answer sessions and so much more as well. It also includes engagement from different leaders through the business making sure that employees are getting information from the sources who matter most to them. HSBC discovered that 90% of employees surveyed found the drumbeat letter useful and in the first round of comms to go out after the COVID outbreak their clicks to resources increased by more than 100%. For many brands the pandemic has been a forcing function it's driven them to articulate a purpose that speaks to the most foundational human needs and not just that product utility. Kantar recently reported that brands who are able to deliver purpose in an ethical way saw their value grow twice as much as average brands during the initial weeks and months of COVID. Intel has been really clear about the steps it is taking to help fight the pandemic and communicate the impact of its product's unique value proposition. They've been very clear about their purpose in the world and how they're staying true to that in the current environment. Its scale to serve program helps hospitals install a platform that expands bed capacity in the ICU and care for patients. The company has also collaborated with medical device company Medtronic to enable clinicians to adjust ventilator settings outside the ICU to reduce healthcare workers exposure to patients recovering from COVID. A really important tangible demonstration of how technology is improving health. Scale to serve is a great example of digital transformation of healthcare which is happening across all countries. Digital innovation in healthcare is essential to improve patient outcomes, reduce waste and improve safety. However and I feel particularly strongly about this there is a real danger that as we digitize healthcare systems we leave behind some of the most vulnerable in our society. People who were either lack the technology or the ability to navigate digital appointments, online medical records, prescription services as well as patient support programs which increasingly live online. Our partners at the Foresight Factory identified a key trend for 2021 presence free connections and this speaks to the point about digital equality. The legacy of COVID-19 will recognize that modern life no longer requires us to be physically present and 2020 was definitely a year of cyber firsts as COVID-19 opened our eyes to digital alternatives in work in life and beyond and removed geographical barriers, accelerated tech adoption rates amongst all age groups and this provides opportunities for brands to use new platforms to engage with audiences. However and I think this is really important it also requires brands to take responsibility for considering the accessibility of their communications particularly for brands in healthcare financial services and energy. How can you ensure that you are not contributing to the digital divide? How can you work hard to ensure that the more vulnerable in our societies are not left behind? Well one way to tackle the issue of engagement is to seek input and canvas opinion from advocacy groups that represent these people even better still if you can actually work with the customer themselves. The stakeholder customer is another important trend for 2021. In 2020 foresight factory found that 63% of global consumers would like it if their favourite brand asked for their ideas for new products and 76% expected companies to use their feedback to improve their offerings. Moving forward the rise of stakeholder capitalism and approach demanding businesses be run for multiple stakeholders including customers, clients, employees, communities and the natural environment will keep brand purpose centre stage. Engaging effectively with all your stakeholders is going to build trust which is important in a world facing a crisis of trust created by the perfect storm of COVID-19 disruption, increasing polarizing politics and the rise of digital misinformation. Brands should prepare to offer new levels of transparency as consumers look for new ways to validate claims of all kinds. The trust economy is thriving however instead of seeing this as an added box to tick brands need to embrace the opportunity by sharing more information with the world from ingredients to common footprints to salaries and brands can differentiate themselves and strengthen their purpose and messaging together with transparency is authenticity of course not only are consumers more willing to trust when brands communicate in authentic manner there's no faster way to a trust erode trust than creating gaps between your brand's words and its actions. Just this final example I think is a really lovely way of seeing that come to life. It comes from Italian food brand Napolina although the brand has been tackling illegal labour in tomato supply chain for years an increase in media and shopper attention around the issue has created a need for added transparency so in response Napolina recently launched the product passport which is a digital experience showing consumers the journey of a product from right through the supply chain from farm to supermarket. The product passport can be accessed through QR codes printed on the products and is based on verified data collected through audits GPS mapping and blockchain traceability programs. The sustainability storytelling strategy has helped Napolina connect with shoppers while also providing evidence to support their global goal of becoming the most trusted FMCG supplier in Europe. So in conclusion 2020 has been an incredible level in so many ways forcing us all to reflect on many things as companies brands and individuals our behaviours our values and purpose and how we communicate. Communicating with the world is never an easy task and the world is in turmoil which has made it even trickier. We know it's tempting to retreat from purpose and focus on survival messaging but the top trends that I've shared and the case studies that that I found really inspiring show that leading with purpose and committing to positive action and remaining authentic will put brands in the best position to survive and thrive in 2021. Thank you. Happy to take any questions. Thank you. Because it's a virtual format we are not taking a Q&A session here but thank you for sharing those insights and your case studies here with us. Thank you for your time. I know it was you know a little delayed but thank you so much for being here with us. You're very welcome. Thank you so much for having me.