The power of a good news story
Good news is motivating, and we can learn from it too. That was the thinking behind the Business at its Best campaign, especially as expectations grow for business to demonstrate purpose beyond profit. From a start-up school for the over 50s to making houses out of mushrooms, we’ve shared stories of inspiring businesses that have collaborated, changed shape, and given back.
Setting the scene
In partnership with the CBI, Federated Hermes, The Inclusive Economy Partnership, ReGenerate, and The School for Social Entrepreneurs, PwC launched Business at its Best (BAIB) on LinkedIn in January 2021.
The aim of this digital-first programme is to celebrate UK businesses that are making a difference to their customers, communities, their people, and the planet, and to inspire action among other organisations.
Doing this felt especially important during a time when no matter where and in what sector a business operated, it would’ve been presented with new challenges.
How we helped
Working with our partner organisations, we used social media and our combined networks to ask businesses, customers and employees to nominate organisations that they felt embodied purpose - whether that was preserving jobs in difficult circumstances or helping to solve a longer-term social or environmental problem.
Our editorial team produced stories to showcase the best examples. By drawing on our in-house communications expertise, we used creative storytelling, such as blogs, videos, thought leadership, podcasts, and press coverage to help nominees reach new audiences.
Alongside this, we invited feedback from our followers on how these stories could impact their own consumer choices and how businesses could support individuals in achieving wider environmental and social goals.
Whether the business was doing something brilliant in its ‘business as usual’, carrying out acts of community kindness, or even reinventing itself as a result of the pandemic, Business at its Best has been there to amplify.
“Resilience, inclusivity and collaboration are just some of the themes we’ve noticed in the submissions we’ve received from our followers. We’ve now shared over 50 stories of organisations of all shapes and sizes across the UK. It’s been inspiring to see the difference that businesses are making to their customers, communities, their people, and the planet, particularly as we work towards a greener, fairer UK economy.”
Making a difference
Working together to establish and run Business at its Best, we’ve given organisations small, medium and large an opportunity to reach new audiences for their purposeful stories.
To date, we’ve grown to over 1,000 followers and, through a combination of organic and limited paid promotion, we’ve cultivated over 450,000 impressions (the number of times a post was viewed). We’ve shared the stories of over 50 businesses from a variety of industries, from hospitality and education to fashion and finance. These features have received 3,400 engagements (comments, likes, clicks and shares), demonstrating the strong appetite for stories that exemplify purposeful business, innovation, and care.
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