We’re very happy to be joined by one of our long-time clients Minuche Mazumdar, Digital Communications and Brand Lead at Nacro. Nacro help the most vulnerable in our society to change their lives and to reach their full potential by addressing social exclusion, inequality of opportunity and deprivation.
Moove Agency started working with Nacro when we won the competitive pitch to re-design their site, re-engineer the user experience, revise their Service Finder search and develop the unique Quick Guide tool that intuitively leads users to whatever they are looking for. The result? A stunning website praised by peers and the public alike.
We asked Minuche to share some news from Nacro, what it’s like working with Moove and her role as Digital Communications and Brand Lead.
Q. Can you give an introduction to Nacro and its mission?
Nacro is a national social justice charity with more than 50 years’ experience of changing lives, building stronger communities and reducing crime.
We work with multiple audiences in housing, education, substance misuse prevention, offender management and social justice policy, offering advice and support. In 2016 we helped 37,500 people. We’re a very practical organisation that acts on what works.
I work in the Communications, Brand and Design team. We’re a very close-knit group, working to create an impact way beyond our budgets.
There are a range of products and services, each requiring a specific approach to the marketing mix. Our activities are supported by the Nacro website and a range of other websites and social media platforms, as well as a range of other digital activities and physical marketing materials.
We have a digital-first strategy that is part of a corporate digitalisation strategy. Growing outreach presents particular challenges as some of our audiences are hard-to-reach. So we use a range of supporting activities, including physical marketing materials and PR. But this cannot succeed without the staff on the ground and the skill they have in engaging people with these products and activities.
Therefore a lot of our work consists of supporting our staff around England and Wales. We are a small team and rely on them to act as marketers too.
To the same end, we also follow a principle of forming and maintaining strong relationships with suppliers and partners, who we aim to work with as an extension of our team.
In terms of our methods of communicating via the website, we have a policy of not relying on words alone but using simple, clear video, icons and graphics too, and using plain, direct language, no matter which audiences we are addressing.
Like most organisations of our type, we rely on our extensive understanding of Government policy to form the direction of our work, maintain our influence and ultimately to set our marketing communications objectives. This is particularly challenging for the Government, our sector and therefore Nacro, at the moment.
I have used the current turbulent times as the basis for our current brand and social media strategy, using our team and other staff more effectively to increase our ‘voice’. It’s a crowded space but our integrated communications strategy, and sheer persistence, has been helping us to improve our impact, profile and reach.
We are now supporting this with a range of developments to our brands and websites, with the support of all our suppliers, including Moove.
At the same time I need to ensure that we keep up with and cherry pick the latest digital developments. This is not so much a challenge, it’s an enjoyable aspect of the work.
It varies – my main sources right now are Twitter and Instagram and through them I find a variety of developments. I am interested in all types of innovations and social developments. I will regularly check Smashing Magazine, doteveryone, Chatham House and many more. I also keep in touch with peers and others I know in digital media industries.
I’m very happy to work with Moove. We have able to work incredibly constructively together and the team’s great. It feels like a collaboration, which is entirely how I prefer to work. Aside from specific projects that have gone well, you have been able to influence our staff and senior team. This has ensured that your proposals and recommendations have been accepted and championed and that our audiences’ needs have been acted on, resulting in long-lasting and user friendly digital solutions.
I wanted to work with an agency that I felt could respond flexibly and imaginatively to the challenges of re-developing our complex WordPress website, would be interested in working with an organisation with our values so that we wouldn’t get lost among all the big corporate clients, and could also establish solid, long-term technical support that would fit with our future objectives for digital. Moove Agency ticked all of those boxes.
Moove’s ways of working and your expert WordPress Support fits well with my approach. I try, whenever possible, to present briefs as clearly as possible so that you can concentrate on helping me achieve the overall marketing and brand objectives. You have been able to hone and clarify objectives when necessary and work with senior staff to ensure that decisions are owned at the highest level.
Nacro is becoming a more influential voice in its sector with the support of a new direction in our corporate messaging. So we are overhauling most of our web content with support on digital brand development from Moove Agency.
Read more about Nacro and our ongoing partnership in our unique success story.
