Mick Ord Media collaborated with Oh Polly, a global fashion brand, to enhance the media communication skills of their senior managers. We provided rigorous training to maintain the brand’s reputation in a competitive industry.
“What impressed me most was the hands-on approach that the training adopted. The interactive sessions, case studies, and role-playing exercises allowed us to apply the theoretical knowledge immediately, making the learning process both effective and enjoyable.”
Gemma Stuart, Head of People and Culture at global fashion brands Oh Polly and Bo+Tee.
Oh Polly is a global fashion brand selling women’s clothing online in almost every single country in the world. They employ nearly 2000 people in Los Angeles, Miami, Dhaka, China, London, Wirral and Glasgow. They have a combined social media following of more than 8 million people.
Their mission statement says it all – “We exist to provide trend driven, high quality products from ethical supply chains that will turn heads and get you noticed.”
The challenge
Some of their senior managers had been media trained some years ago but many had had no training. In a highly competitive industry like fashion Oh Polly’s brand reputation can’t be compromised, and the company felt that their senior team needed to improve their media communication skills to equip them to deal with media inquiries effectively to ensure their brand reputation is maintained during the good times and the bad.
Our solution
Working with Gemma Stuart the senior HR manager at Oh Polly I devised a series of realistic scenarios that managers might have to face when confronted by the media.
This included a challenging interview about “greenwashing” following allegations by a fictional eco-journalist; dealing with a major data breach at the company; and a potentially highly damaging story in a newspaper about the inappropriate behaviour of a male employee towards one of the company’s models.
The scenarios required careful planning with individuals working together in small teams in a highly time-pressured environment.
Results
Managers were initially nervous and apprehensive about appearing on camera but all came through with flying colours at the end of the session, significantly more confident in their own communication skills than they were at the start of the day.
They found the teaching on ‘how to prepare for an interview’ particularly useful and all improved significantly as the mock news scenarios became more difficult as the day progressed.
The small teams included people who rarely worked alongside each other so it gave people the chance to get to know colleagues better and acclimatise to a different environment, away from their comfort zones.
