Do you know the Cnaf? Of course, but maybe under another name! 🤓 It is the public institution that manages the 101 CAF, present in each department. Each year, they support more than 32 million beneficiaries, made up of families and people in fragile situations. However, to serve citizens, they still need to be informed of their rights.
How to inform without boring? How to generate interest on a national scale? What are the ingredients for an impactful institutional discourse? Finally, how to rebrand a public service?
🚀 Damien Ranger-Martinez, Director of Communications and Institutional Relations at Cnaf and member of Club We Are COM, returns to a strategy bold which shakes up the codes of public communication. 👀 Ready to dive behind the scenes of public COM?
Hello Damien, what definition would you give to public communication?
Now that’s a big question! Public communication is, above all, communication of general interest. In an increasingly complex society, its role is to inform the population as accurately as possible about its rights and its duties. This is why, This full-fledged communication, issued by public actors, is aimed at citizens at all stages of their lives. Public communication does not take the same form depending on whether it is addressed to a student, a parent, a taxpayer, etc., but it carries the same values such as commitment, integrity, legality, neutrality, respect, etc.
Public communication is therefore an essential lever to combat the non-use of rights but also against criticism of political and public powerlessness. Often, public services are transformed to meet the needs of the public while adapting to the evolution of society and citizens are not sufficiently aware of this. I am convinced that " Better communication means better governance », a subject that I already addressed in my dissertation at Sciences Po. 🙂
In an increasingly complex society, the role of public communication is to inform the population as accurately as possible about their rights and their duties.
Precisely, before going any further, we would be curious to know more about your career and the organization of your Communications Department?
Like public communication, my career is fundamentally focused on the general interest. I was lucky enough to start my career in the world of political communication, in the service of a party and a presidential campaign. It is exhilarating to participate in convincing people of the interest of a political project for the country during such an electoral deadline…
After having dabbled in the political project, I turned to its design and implementation, becoming parliamentary advisor to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour between 2012 and 2015. It is a world that deviates from communication in the strict sense, but where the power of conviction and the requirement for dialogue are essential assets.
Finally, after having communicated on a political project and participated in translating it into public policies, I now contribute to their implementation. Since then, as director of communication and institutional relations of the ANRU (National Agency for Urban Renewal) for 7 years, then in the same role at the Cnaf for 2 years, I have indeed strived to make its exciting public policies understandable to citizens.
Concerning The Cnaf Communications Department is both a small and a large team, with 25 communicators. Our functions there are quite traditional: Press relations, internal communication and general public… Our uniqueness undoubtedly lies in our mission of animating the network. This brings together nearly 250 communicators spread across our 101 departmental funds (CAF) throughout the territory, which we are tasked with supporting, equipping and assisting.
What are your challenges, both in the short and long term, as head of communications at Cnaf?
In the long term, our mission remains unchanged: to make citizens aware of their rights, in particular their social rights, which sometimes still remain unknown. Nearly one in two citizens benefits from at least one of our 30 services and offers but recourse to the law remains significant for certain benefits, such as RSA or the activity bonus. We can't bring ourselves to do it. Providing accurate and rigorous information over time requires a real educational effort. given the complexity of the legislation and the life situations that we support.
As for our short-term challenges, they are numerous and varied, emanating directly from the political and public reforms underway: Solidarity at source, The public service for early childhood, etc. The new reforms are all designed to make life easier for users. However, these simplification measures initially represent changes in the lives of millions of French people who rely on our services. It is therefore imperative that we support them effectively! In other words, each new solution requires new communication, of which we are the guarantors.
And to be completely honest, some measures are difficult to anticipate. For example, in 2023, the legislator gave us 4 months to create and implement new emergency aid for victims of domestic violence. It is exciting to be able to meet society's strong expectations, but it is also demanding in terms of communication. This is where the beauty of working at Cnaf lies. , one of the rare public services capable of deploying such measures throughout the territory in a very short time.
Each new solution requires new communication, of which we are the guarantors.
Regarding your young target, what strategy are you deploying to gain notoriety?
Many of our audiences still think that our benefits are only for families, while some of our offers are specifically aimed at 16-25 year olds. So, How to attract the attention of young people when you are a public service? We have chosen to resume the use of codes and channels specific to this generation, without falling into "youthism".
Far from the traditional institutional discourse, our Instagram account Caf16_25 provides advice, tips and instructions for young people. We opted for an original artistic direction and offbeat content, convinced that humor can be a way to get our audience to take ownership of essential information.
At the same time, and for the first time in the history of the Cnaf, we have established partnerships with influencers and specific media, appreciated by the young targetIt is fascinating to see our technical and institutional jargon transform and become so accessible thanks to these new uses.
Still concerning our partnerships, we have decided to design and develop the manga "Sam and the Administration", with Health Insurance. To reach an ever-wider young audience, we illustrate delicate life situations in a fun and entertaining way, providing concrete answers. This series of content, accessible on our website, was also broadcast online on Instagram and distributed free of charge in all Fnac stores in France on the occasion of their programming for the "Japan Expo".
We believe that humor can be a way to help our audience absorb essential information.
The Cnaf is innovating by rethinking the format of its magazine “Vies de Famille”, so do you think it is still relevant to have a paper magazine in 2024?
The magazine "Family Lives" is an integral part of the historical heritage of the CAF. Born in the 60s under the name of "Happiness", it has been a part of the lives of many beneficiary families for decades. It was then printed in 13 million copies each quarter and sent to all beneficiaries of our services. For ecological, economic and usage adaptation reasons, we have reduced the number of recipients and adapted this format to a digital version for about ten years. However, we have chosen to maintain a paper edition, available in CAFs but also in a network of 10 partners such as social centers, town halls, France service, in order to meet the needs of those who are sometimes far from the digital.
On the one hand, great opportunities lie in It was crucial to think about citizens who are not always comfortable with digital technology. On the other hand, the paper format guarantees access to certified and quality information, especially when faced with the infobesity of the web, which often complicates the search for reliable information. The paper format has a significant attractive interest, which informs at its level, while referring to more specific digital content. For this, the QR Code, which has become democratized during the health crisis, is a more than effective tool.
“Vies de Familles” is also a local news media. Each departmental CAF has the possibility of creating a central notebook in order to share its local news. This targeting of information is an incredible added value in terms of engagement.
The Cnaf has launched a project on its brand identity. What are the challenges of such a project?
Beyond a simple rebranding, we have chosen to work on our identity, so that it best reflects the scope of our brands and our actions. On our logo. , was still listed as “family allowances”, while our services are much broader than this historic benefit. In recent decades, the State has gradually entrusted us with the management of numerous solidarity benefits (APL, RSA, activity bonus, etc.) without our identity adapting accordingly.
The redesign of our branding represents a real challenge: We must therefore strengthen our reference brand, CAF, which already has a strong reputation, while promoting all of our other social benefits. We are therefore working cautiously and without haste to change the perception of our acronym. For example, when you go to the FNAC, do you really think of the Fédération Nationale d'Achat des Cadres? I think it should be the same with the CAF. We should not have the pitiful "family allowances" but our identity must leave all their place to the other solidarity benefits that we offer.
When you go to the FNAC, do you really think of the National Federation for the Purchasing of Executives? I think it must be the same with the CAF.
In the coming years, what do you think will be the major developments to be expected in terms of public communication?
We are living in a “post-truth” world, in which Social Media and artificial intelligences accentuate the phenomenon of duality of information and fake news. As well, It seems to me that in the future, all attention will be focused on information, its source, its reference, its stability and more broadly on its veracity.
And who says reference information, does not necessarily mean boring information. Increasingly, public communicators will have to adapt content to changing modes of information consumption, so as not to encourage the reader to find what they are looking for elsewhere.
For example, we questioned ourselves about our presence on social network X: was it relevant to stay there or leave it? We decided to stay, to deliver certified information and to be able to control the appearance of fake news. Do you know the expression: " When all the disgusted are gone, only the disgusting remain »? We must strive to deliver the truth, wherever we are given the opportunity to do so.
Finally, what communication advice would you give to We Are COM readers?
This advice also concerns me, as a reader of We Are COM! 🙂 Let us continue to inform and train ourselves. This complex world absolutely needs people who are able to simplify things, to make them understandable for the greatest number of people. For this, we communicators have and will need to constantly reinvent ourselves, according to new tools and new uses.
3 things to know about Damien Ranger-Martinez
His sources of inspiration? The daily press is his admitted drug. It is impossible to fall asleep without checking the next day's headlines. His heart has a special attachment to the "Paris Normandie", the regional press of his childhood, which he regularly leafs through. On a professional level, he likes to believe that " the worst is never certain ", an adage that illustrates the optimism, agility and resilience necessary for communicators.
His favorite COM campaign? As a child of advertising, Damien was raised by "Culture Pub", he would be incapable of choosing a single campaign from this fascinating repertoire of the 90s. His latest favorite is the internal communication campaign of the CAF of Strasbourg, encouraging employees to display a real profile photo on office tools to better identify and know each other. A success soon to be extended to the national scale.
His passions ? Do you know “Le Vaillant”? It’s the automobile magazine that Damien created as a child, intended solely for his family. His secret passion for the mobility and transport sector still drives him today: he devours the pilot’s manual for an Airbus A350 as well as a book on the deployment of electric charging stations in France.
