Ferrero, Nos mudamos de mindset: an internal campaign to manage change

The start of the pandemic brought a great deal of misinformation and fear of organisational change. At Ferrero, one of those fears took concrete shape: a rumour about an office move that began circulating within the organisation and spread dangerously, creating a tense and stressful atmosphere.

In a situation like this, the internal communications challenge is delicate. Ignoring the rumour lets it grow; simply denying it can sound like denial and doesn't address the underlying anxiety, which wasn't so much about the building as about the uncertainty surrounding everything that was changing. The response had to acknowledge the change, reconnect teams with the company and turn anxiety into a positive, galvanising idea, at a time when face-to-face communication wasn't an option.

The idea was to use the wave of misinformation around the rumour as part of a change initiative, but a change of mindset. Instead of fighting the conversation, the campaign jumped on board. It kicked off with an email that “confirmed” the move, an inevitable change inherent to the COVID-19 pandemic, but closed forcefully on a move of mind, of ways of working and of thinking about Ferrero in general.

That first email was followed by a series of graphic pieces sent by email over the following months to reinforce the key message. It fits because it harnesses the attention the rumour had already generated: everyone was going to open that email. And because it reframes the uncertainty: change was indeed coming, but not the one people feared, rather one in which everyone had a part to play.