Barclaycard wanted to refresh their employee magazine, The Globe. We did more than that – we produced a stylish and edgy upmarket publication that colleagues can’t resist picking up.

The challenge

Encourage 15,000 colleagues around the world to talk with one voice.

What we did

Already established as a colleague magazine, The Globe brought the latest news and need-to-know information to Barclaycard colleagues. However, with low interaction and engagement rates we knew we could make it do more.

Collaborating with one of our design partners, we set out to transform The Globe into an irresistable read that would help colleagues, wherever they were in the world, feel proud to be part of a remarkable and progressive Barclaycard.

Spending time Story Shaping and Storylining with our client, we identify the subject matter for the year ahead and determined how each of the features should be treated. And making sure there are stories from all the different parts of the business keeps everyone feeling involved.

Reading how great your organisation is will always be more convincing when that opinion comes from somewhere else. So we recommended that the magazine should be written in a journalistic style from an independent viewpoint. And the investigative tone and edgier design differentiates it from a regular internal communication.

We design and break up the features with different types of reader in mind – those who have little time but still want to absorb the essential facts, and those who read it in more depth. From the editorial board meeting, issue planning and interviewing through to drafting, several levels of client review and final proofing, we make sure the content still cuts it for colleagues.

The triumph

The Globe is now read regularly by 60% of colleagues, with 96% of them preferring it following the relaunch and 92% recommending it to other colleagues. Recent reader surveys revealed that, through The Globe, they’re able to get a sense of what’s happening in other parts of the business, and are inspired to apply what other colleagues are doing to their own role.