Excellence in Corporate Communications - Internal Stakeholders

Summary of work

In 2018, AstraZeneca returned to growth after nine years of decline. This was just the first step towards sustainable success. To take the company to the next level it was clear that the people who had helped to deliver the turnaround could also help to shape the company’s strategy and future.

So how could this global pharmaceutical company actively engage all its employees as it embarked on the next phase of its journey?

The result was AZ2025 – a global campaign designed to immerse employees in AstraZeneca’s strategy and provide them with a stake in the future of the company.

AZ2025 centred around a landmark three-week online crowdsourcing campaign that brought employees together in an online discussion on key topics that were of paramount importance to the company’s future strategic success.

This generated incredible results:

• 11,000 employees from 70 countries delivered 77,000 digital interactions
• This generated 56,000 ideas from all levels and areas of the business
• 30 individual ideas have now been funded to progress into actionable items over next five years
• The campaign also delivered tangible behavioural and attitudinal change, with the employee survey showing 94% of employees now understood and were invested in the future of the business.

Judges' comments

The judges were very impressed by the ambitious nature of Ruder Finn and AstraZeneca’s project. The complexity was well managed in a comprehensive way, with strong tactics across 70 countries.