« Hurricane Katrina and communication | Main | This week’s therapy session »
September 16, 2005
The lowly poster has great potential
The most underappreciated vehicle in employee communication is the bulletin board. A close second is the poster.
Posters are generally so far down on communicators’ priority list, in fact, that most posters are produced by other functions: HR. Marketing. Safety.
The posters that result are often ineffective: lacking a strong visual element, full or words, trying to convey too much content, not compelling. And employees, who always know good communication when they see it, respond appropriately. Here are some employee comments from a recent focus group study we conducted in a manufacturing facility:
“I never look at posters. They just don’t seem relevant to me.”
“Posters here are terrible. You’d have to stand there and read them—who has time for that?”
“I glance at the posters on the way to the cafeteria, but most of them seem like they’re just up so that someone can check something off their list—you know, ‘I put it on a poster, so I communicated it.’ But if no one actually pays attention, what’s the point?”
This is a missed opportunity because posters are such a great way to convey concepts to people where they pause and/or congregate: In the cafeteria. Waiting outside the credit union. Standing in the elevator.
Posters are especially valuable for employees who don’t have easy electronic access. But, as Hollywood film studios (think movie posters), advertisers (billboards) and retailers (visual displays) know, posters work for anyone—after all, we have to look at something, so it might as well be attractive, interesting and persuasive.
It’s time for us communicators to take posters seriously—and take them back from the non-communicators who are using them inappropriately. Start by thinking about what makes posters effective: a single focus, a compelling image, and a single strong theme.
For inspiration, look not within your own company, but at world-class posters. There’s a great Internet article about posters through history at www.artlex.com/ArtLex/p/poster.html; and for a “greatest hits” of movie posters over the last several years, go to www.impawards.com
Posters can be powerful. They just need your attention.
Posted by Alison Davis at September 16, 2005 10:31 AM