You don't know the latest one? 🤓 The We Are COM team went to meetElodie Calmels, Director of Communications at Iberdola France.
Iberdrola, who are they? The leading European energy company in terms of market capitalization and one of the four largest energy companies in the world. The Group is the world's number 1 in wind power. Brand communication, CSR, awareness of environmental issues, disinformation, stakeholder engagement, etc. Diving into the heart of Iberdrola France's greatest challenges.
Hello Élodie, to begin with, can you give us your definition of brand communication, particularly in the specific B2B sector?
Brand communication is all the strategies and actions that a brand implements to promote and radiate its values. Ultimately, whatever the tool or medium – public relations, Social Media, corporate, event… – brand communication is always at the service of notoriety, clear and coherent notoriety.
In the particular sector of B2B, events play a major role in brand communication. It is by reaching out to people that we are able to deliver sometimes very technical information in a relevant way..
Precisely, how is the Communication Department of Iberdrola France organized? How can the consistency of the brand message be guaranteed?
Iberdrola is an internationally active group with more than 40.000 employees and more than 100 million customers. To ensure the consistency of our messages, we must maintain a permanent link with the various communication teams around the world and align ourselves together behind the values instilled by the corporateToday, many tools can facilitate this alignment and ensure consistency, providing a great overall dynamic to the group.
More concretely, as Director of Communications for France, I manage communication strategies, corporate and business units. Our management is made up of four different poles: digital, press relations, theinternal and events.
You are committed to decarbonization, how can you make this project work in the long term and raise awareness among your stakeholders? What are your CSR communication challenges?
Ah the Decarbonization, yes, it has been more than 20 years since we took the renewable turn. How can we bring this bias to life? It seems to me that when a company's projects are in line with its values and the actions it takes, this makes the work considerably easier. Whether on the ground, through our partnerships or our investments, our actions for decarbonization are convincing and therefore coherent.
More generally, I am convinced that the biggest challenge in CSR communication is awareness. For us, Awareness raising is a daily challengeWe need to popularize very specific subjects, make our messages accessible to as many people as possible, demonstrate educational skills, while obviously avoiding the trap of greenwashing.
Raising awareness among the general public on collective issues is our priority! As I often say to my teams « communication is repetition ». Indeed, communicating means communicating over time, without deviating from one's primary objectives.
I am convinced that the biggest challenge in CSR communication is awareness.
Iberdola France has launched a large offshore wind farm project. Can you tell us more about it? What communication strategy are you implementing?
Yes, the great Saint-Brieuc project. About ten years ago, when we launched this project, we had to deploy a communication that was both robust and local, focused on information. Who are we? What are we implementing and why? Why are we in the Côtes-d'Armor territory? Once again, Our watchword was “awareness”, we had to present our project in the clearest and most transparent way to all stakeholders.
Beyond traditional communication – online portal, press releases, etc. – we have relied on the commitment of communities, human interaction. Engaging stakeholders means integrating them into the project. Partnerships, collaborations, local events, social networks, The challenge was to deploy communication truly based on transparency of information and community engagement.
Finally, I would say that To establish oneself in the minds of local populations, to make a company known, it is necessary to think "long term". For example, the majority of our partnerships and support for local initiatives have been renewed since the beginning of the project. These evolve, but continue to grow over time!
Engaging stakeholders means integrating them into the project.
More specifically, how do you inform the general public? What are your challenges in this area?
Communication is experienced in sequences. In other words, To communicate is to say the same thing, in different ways and through different channels. Whatever sequence is chosen, the challenge remains the same: to provide reliable and accessible information.
We are evolving in an increasingly demanding world, where the public is able to seek out information that brands do not provide them. But what kind of information will he find if he is left to his own devices? Faced with the growing phenomena of disinformation and fake news, how can we communicators re-establish the truth?
Informing the general public about subjects as technical as ours requires other challenges. We must constantly popularize scientific language and other overly specific elements. We also need occupy the information space constantly, according to new challenges, new issues... Remember that nature abhors a vacuum, so if you don't communicate, someone will do it for you, and even more so when environmental and therefore controversial subjects are involved.
Similarly, in a crisis situation, transparent communication is essential with the right spokesperson, the person who is best able to answer all the questions. It is also necessary to know how to react quickly and effectively to restore trust.
Nature abhors a vacuum, so if you don't communicate, someone will do it for you.
How do you combat disinformation at Iberdrola?
When we choose to commit to renewable energies, we don't wake up one morning with the idea of building a wind farm. 😊 We are here to respond to issues related to the urgent need to decarbonize our energy. Faced with disinformation, we therefore continue to speak out in an educational manner, to explain our ambitions without giving up anything. Too often, the human reflex when faced with an attack is to protect oneself, to wait for the storm to pass. In communication, we must go against this natural reflex and not fear media exposure.
To fight against fake news, digital is a key lever. This is why, at Iberdrola, We make it a point of honor to respond to all social media requests, even the most virulent., so as not to let worry set in.
Speaking of which, what do you think will be the major challenges and major changes in communication in the years to come?
Even if communication continues to evolve, it seems to me that today's challenges will remain tomorrow's challenges. It is necessary and it will be necessary, perhaps even more so, redouble efforts to find reliable and freely accessible tools and media.
Social networks are changing the way we communicate: people are reading less, they are expressing themselves differently, they are subject to a multitude of requests... Also, The real challenge will be to develop innovative and impactful communications in a world where everything tends to become bland.
Finally, do you have any final communication advice to share with We Are COM readers?
On the one hand, there is no secret, to be a good communicator, you have to be a brand ambassador and therefore be in line with the values of its cause, of its company.
On the other hand, communicating is above all listening. Before sending a message, a communicator must be attentive to background noise – monitoring, social networks, press – and learn to listen to the targets and their needs. It is only under these conditions that a message can be designed in a relevant way and therefore listened to in turn.
3 things to know about Élodie Calmels
His mantra? « Listen, innovate and impact ", these are the 3 verbs that Élodie uses on a daily basis, both in her approach to communication and in her life in general. At the same time, the profiles of women who have impacted the world are role models and sources of inspiration for her.
His favorite COM campaign? A campaign that seems naive at first glance but is meant to be provocative by Greenpeace. Do you remember this animated spot in which a little orangutan sneaks into a little girl's room. Why does he come to her house? A question that echoes societal issues. Let's watch it!
His passions and commitments? Élodie is passionate about horse riding, especially show jumping, a discipline that reflects her persevering character. On the commitment side, she is involved in diversity and inclusion, both internally and externally.
