Challenge:
Wyeth (now part of Pfizer) was a leading pharmaceutical and health care company with 50,000 employees in 145 countries. While there are many groups responsible for internal and external communication at Wyeth, none have ever come together to agree on a common approach to their writing. As a result, written communications across the company were inconsistent.

Solution:
Davis & Company worked with Wyeth's Corporate Communications to create editorial style and writing guidelines. We accomplished this by collecting and analyzing various forms of communications, including e-mail announcements, newsletter articles and press releases from all areas of Wyeth, to determine what was working and what was not. We also involved communicators in the process to identify examples of internal best practices and build consensus on what the guidelines should be. We used this feedback to develop the following:

• An Editorial Style and Writing Guide for all communicators, containing:
• — Grammar rules (based on the Associated Press Stylebook and the American Medical Association Manual of Style)
• — Tips and guidelines for creating content
• — Writing standards unique to Wyeth
• Face-to-face training session for senior-level communicators, including:
• — Detailed overview of new editorial guidelines
• — Interactive writing workshop
• Web meeting for over 100 internal and external communicators to introduce the guide and answer questions

Results:

• 90% of senior-level communicators who attended the training session agreed the writing workshop met their needs.
• The web meeting received 100% participation from internal and external communicators.
• 100% of senior-level communicators said they would be able to use the new guidelines in their job and would recommend them to a colleague.