Future of Corporate Communications - FINAL - FULL - REPORT

THE FUTURE
OF CORPORATE
COMMUNICATIONS
PART 1: The Evolution of Corporate Communications 1

INTRODUCTION
From a lingering pandemic to growing geopolitical tensions, never-ending technological disruption and an
accelerating climate crisis--at no time in history have business leaders been forced
to confront such complexity. Today's executives must navigate these challenges while creating
resilient companies that can thrive in any economic, social, political, or technological environment.
Accordingly, there is no established playbook for the myriad of issues that corporate
communications teams are now grappling with as they seek to navigate changing stakeholder expectations while
advancing the business interests of their companies.
To address this void, we set out to understand from senior communicators themselves what they are experiencing on
the front lines. Our research reveals that the role of the corporate communicator has forever changed, with new
expectations and rules of engagement. The message from nearly 250 of the world’s most senior communicators is
clear: to meet the challenge of this moment, the corporate communication function must
advance from operating as a transactional cost center delivering on a communications agenda to being an
indispensable partner generating measurable business value.
Some notable insights:
1. The role of communications has become more materially important to CEOs, Boards, and the C-Suite.
2. The modern corporate communications function is agile, multidisciplinary, and insights-driven.
3. CommsTech is already ushering in a new era and communicators can use it to deliver quantifiable value to the
business.
4. An increased focus on the workplace, workforce, and well-being of employees isn’t a pandemic fad.
5. Expectations around social issues have shifted the agenda — and there is no turning back.
6. A modern organizational structure only gets you so far.
7. Communicators are increasingly acting as change agents, enabling ongoing transformation.
8. The lines between communications and marketing continue to blur, creating new challenges and opportunities.
9. In an increasingly complex and activist multi-stakeholder world, the corporate brand matters now more than ever.
10. While the importance of the communications function is increasing, resources to deliver are lagging.
These insights form the basis of our Future of Corporate Communications study. Through direct conversations with
senior communications leaders, along with a quantitative survey, we examined how the corporate communications
function is evolving its role, strategies, structures, capabilities, and operations. Our study’s core objectives were to:
• Understand the trends driving the evolution of the modern communications function.
• Understand the current and future priorities of today’s senior communications leaders.
• Benchmark baseline corporate communications function design and organization.
We are deeply appreciative of all the CCOs and communications leaders who took the time to speak with us and respond
to our survey. This report reflects the changing nature of your work, your priorities, and the critical role many of you play
within your companies.
There has never been a more inspiring time to be a part of our profession. We are excited to share this glimpse into the
future with you.
With gratitude,
Jim O’Leary Dave Samson

U.S. Chief Operating Officer & Global Vice Chairman,
Corporate Affairs Practice Chair Corporate Affairs
Edelman Edelman
The Future of Corporate Communications 2

TABLE OF
CONTENTS:
§ Top Research Insights 4 - 14
§ PART 1: 15 - 27
The Evolution of Corporate Communications
§ PART 2: 28 - 37
Becoming a Strategic Partner Starts Inside the Function
§ PART 3: 38 - 51
Investing in the Future of Corporate Communications
§ PART 4: 52 - 68
The Organization of Corporate Communications
§ Appendix 69 - 75
3
THE FUTURE
OF CORPORATE
COMMUNICATIONS
TOP INSIGHTS:
A summary of key findings from our research
The Future of Corporate Communications

01
TOP RESEARCH INSIGHTS
The role of communications has become

more materially important to CEOs,
boards, and the C-suite.
CCOs report having increased strategic importance to the business.
More are reporting to and actively partnering with CEOs than in
previous years.
34%
of CCOs reported to the T H E P L AY B O O K
CEO in 2014, whereas …
• Recognize that you’re operating in an era of increased
accountability for corporations, creating more demands but also
46% the opportunity for communications to play a material
role. Similar to the HR function a decade ago, the communications
report to the CEO today. function has the opportunity to shift to a true business
partner. Those that succeed will seize this opportunity.
77% • Ground your goals in a singular objective: driving a shift from

cost center to value creator. The ball has rolled in your direction
say perceptions of the role of thanks to changing factors in the external environment, navigating
communications as a strategic COVID-19, social justice, geopolitical challenges, and stakeholder
business driver changed within activism, among others. To solidify your role as value creator,
their organization during 2020. you’ll need tangible proof of your business impact. Design your
team, investments, and communications strategy accordingly.
However, significant
variability exists in the • No communications leader can succeed solely by their own
perception of doing. Create a business-facing organizational design that delivers
communications as a the greatest collective contribution by building a bench of multi-
business driver depending on talented, multidisciplinary team members whose skills go beyond
industry and organizational the traditional to meet the new demands of communications.
maturity. A continuing uphill
battle exists for many CCOs.
“My communications team used to be my PR team. Now my communications team is in the room when we
are debating what to do on social issues, human capital challenges, risk prevention, and how we position
the company in an increasingly complicated stakeholder ecosystem.”

02
The modern Corporate Communications

function is agile, multidisciplinary, and
insights-driven.
CCOs are seeing their organizations shift from singularly focused expertise
to a multidisciplinary function of complementary capabilities. Leading
teams are now balancing traditional skills like writing, storytelling, and
media engagement with expertise in new areas like social purpose, risk
management, creative, and content marketing underpinned by a
CommsTech stack providing data science, actionable insights and
measurable outcomes.
89% T H E P L AY B O O K
of CCOs said “functional
organization” is a top-five
area of internal investment • Hire for expertise, but also for business acumen. Today’s
for the coming year. communications function demands “T-shaped” people —
professionals with deep expertise in a particular domain but
enough breadth of skill to think strategically and plug seamlessly
into a variety of contexts while moving at the speed of today’s
CREATIVE & DIGITAL news cycle.
were noted repeatedly as
having increased importance • Manage your team as an integrated unit. Ensure that all team
as core communications members have a shared commitment to and understanding of
common goals and the technology enabling the outcomes. Build
function responsibilities. processes that enable different functional specialists to work
together effectively.
Communicators also frequently • Cultivate a culture of collaboration. Create opportunities for team
spoke about the hurdles posed members to build strong relationships and develop an appreciation
by creating, leading, and for the diversity of their colleagues’ skill sets.
managing • Invest in professional development. As the demands and
MULTIDISCIPLINARY technology tools of the profession change, your talent mix will
TEAMS. need to evolve. Offer and reward continuous learning and
development that keep your team at the forefront of industry
evolution.
“A senior communicator used to be the best writer or had the best media contacts. But now the role of the
top communicator is to pull together the right skill sets to drive a strategy aligned with the business and
know how to maximize the value of the specialist on his or her team.”

03
CommsTech is already ushering in a new

era, and communicators can use it to
deliver quantifiable value to the business.
Technology changed the game for the marketing world. Now
communications leaders are leveraging its value in better understanding
and predicting stakeholder behaviors. But the road to a sophisticated
CommsTech-enabled function is fraught with uncertainty about how to
proceed.
of CCOs report CommsTech
as a top area of investment
for the coming year. • Recognize and embrace the role of CommsTech in driving and
proving your ROI. Digital tools, data, analytic capabilities, and
56% technology can not only help you sharpen your message and better
reach your audience, but can help you prove the value and impact
report increased use of of communications with stakeholders. Invest with a clear eye
communications technology. toward tying activity back to business strategy and results.
But adoption is • Start small and learn, then expand. Pick one or two low-risk areas
scattershot, for example, where more effective use of data, analytics, and technology could
measurably improve your impact. Use these as opportunities to
44% develop confidence. Let them serve as a beachhead from which to
expand and develop a more robust CommsTech-enabled function.
report baseline measurement
of media impressions, but • Build the right processes to ensure results from technology
only 30% are mapping adoption. CommsTech adoption doesn’t — and shouldn’t — stop
revenue growth back to at the purchase of a new tool or platform. Ensure you’ve designed
their core activities. the right processes, structures, and governance around the
technology to manage and derive compelling insights and
58% outcomes.
report it’s hard for them • Evolve your leadership style to manage a multidisciplinary team.
to justify large technology Leading a modern Corporate Communications function built on
investments, and 39% say data and insights requires new leadership skills. Embracing
this is not a strategic priority technology also means engaging new types of talent, collaboration,
for their CEO or C-suite. information-sharing, and strategic outcomes.
“We just have to continue to challenge ourselves. How do we get in front of our target audience in new
and different ways? [In terms of] proving business value, how can you make that simpler and make better
connections to the business results?”

04
An increased focus on the workplace,

workforce, and well-being of employees
isn’t a pandemic fad.
As employee engagement and the war for talent continue to be
recognized as imperative to business performance, CCOs report an
increased investment in employee communications and engagement
systems and programming, specialty areas of expertise in need of
ongoing development and attention.
T H E P L AY B O O K
62% • Put effective employee communications at the center of business

strategy. License to operate and sustained competitive advantage
of CCOs report an increased
are increasingly driven by a more purpose-driven, engaged
focus on employee
workforce. Evangelize the role of effective communications in driving
communications.
high performance.
• Build permanence into the employee communications function.
54%
Encourage stakeholders to recognize that employee communications
is not simply “a pandemic issue” but a tipping point in a long and
ongoing increase in strategic importance.
rank employee
communications in their • Recognize employee communications as a distinct and specific skill
top five areas of talent set. Hire functional experts with the experience, tools, and
investment for the resources to create a robust employee engagement competency
coming year. that demonstrates measurable business impact.
• Borrow from consumer marketing tactics. Great employee
communications include experiences, as well as paid, earned, and
38%
owned media. Develop the ability to segment and target the right
message to the right employee at the right time through the right
medium.
report talent considerations
have shifted their • Create a powerful employee engagement-specific tech stack. Build
communications agenda. the digital and human platforms to engage, inform, and track
employee sentiment and engagement. Embed two-way
communications and leader visibility into your employee
communications tool kit so you — and they — know what’s driving
or hindering performance, trust, and engagement.
"I always say that I love crisis because it's the opportunity to demonstrate the real value of communications.
Last year was an exceptional opportunity to show the value of employee communications and our team;
they really relied on us regarding internal communications. We had a big challenge too, to create internal
campaigns, to keep our employees safe.”

05
Expectations around social issues have

shifted the agenda — and there is no
turning back.
A pandemic, public reckonings on racial injustice, hyper-partisanship, climate
change, and the 24/7 news cycle have put businesses in the hot seat. Belief-
driven employees, customers, and shareholders are demanding action, and
increasingly, communicators find themselves navigating uncharted waters,
often in direct partnership with the CEO, that are unlikely to recede.
73% • Ensure that all stakeholders are aligned on your organization’s

of CCOs report that social social purpose. Explicitly defining your enterprise purpose and ESG
issues have shifted their road map is now table stakes and an opportunity for the
communications agenda. communications function to exert leadership.
• Develop a consistent framework for engaging and responding to
social issues. Establish a process that determines when you will and
51% won’t speak out. Gain stakeholder buy-in and conduct regular table-
top exercises to ensure that your process results in outcomes
consistent with your values and business goals.
report an elevated or altered
importance of • Understand where the risk is for your organization. Identify and
communications in today’s align on top internal and external risks for your organization related
environment. to social issues and environmental issues and develop an early
warning system. Create and implement an action plan for
proactively mitigating risks.
"There is a shifting recognition that we [Corporate Communications] have to be involved in many of the
strategic decisions that are made. I've seen our function grow in size, but also expand in influence and
recognition that we are critical voices when it comes to protecting, shaping, and advancing reputation.”

06
A modern organizational
structure only gets you so far.
Corporate Communications structures continuously transform, often more as
a product of incremental change than intentional design — each evolving to
fulfill the unique strategies, needs, and operating environment of the business
it supports. Structures typically start with one of three basic frameworks:
centralized, decentralized, and matrixed, none of which is objectively
preferable to the others, and all of which should support business strategy.
of communicators report
operating in a centralized
structure that provides them • Organization design is almost always a pendulum shift. The
greater awareness and access current trend is toward centralization, but communications
to business strategy and functions are constantly being arranged and re-arranged. Rather
increased relevance across than putting your focus on “is my organization correctly designed?”,
channels. realize there are legitimate pros and cons for different models.
• Start with a clear vision and direction. When evaluating your
function’s structure and operating model, start by aligning on the
26% business strategies you’ll drive, the vision and guiding principles
around how you operate, and the outcomes you’re responsible for.
of communicators leading
• In any model, focus on governance, process, and accountability.
matrixed functions and The biggest steps you can take to improve functional effectiveness
31% leading decentralized often have limited connection to the model or organizational chart
functions report closer you’re operating in, but in overlooked or underdeveloped areas like
relationships with business governance, process, and accountability — which have been long
leaders and more evidence of shortcomings for most communications function.
their work producing
results.
“In a centralized team, you have a better chance of having a great

understanding of the business climate, and they know what events
and programs are happening.”
“Alignment to [specific business units] means the communications team has a

deep understanding of who our partner is within the company. We understand
our client’s audience and can have thoughtful discussions about the objectives of
the messages and channels to use.”

07
Communicators are increasingly acting

as change agents, enabling ongoing
transformation.
Nine out of ten organizations are in some form of transformation, but more
than three quarters fail*. Corporate communications functions are increasingly
called upon to play a leading role in organizational transformation. This role is
no longer limited to employee communications and reputation management,
but now includes strategy on how to engage and drive a shift in mindset and
behavior across internal and external stakeholder groups — from workplace to
marketplace — to achieve transformation objectives.
77% • Recognize change as an opportunity for value creation. Establishing

a capability within the Corporate Communications function to
of CCOs report that support transformation is a great way to demonstrate the impact
business your team can have on business outcomes.
transformation has
impacted their • Build greater business acumen and an understanding of business
communications strategy across your communications team. It’s increasingly
important that communicators have an understanding of competitive
agenda. dynamics, business models, and strategic priorities in general, but
especially as critical underpinnings to a transformation agenda.
• Train communicators in the fundamentals of change management.
51% A good transformation communications strategy starts with a basic
understanding of the principles of organizational transformation and
report an increased change. Invest in change certification courses for your team and
focus on business develop internal mentor programs to grow their skills.
transformation efforts.
• Address organization transformation needs through the right
processes and structures. For businesses experiencing significant or
ongoing transformation, a matrixed communications structure can
help communications teams ensure both business access and
sufficient central resources to drive an effective communications
strategy. Relationships across the organization will make your change
agents more effective.
“Change communications has become so much of an integral part of our function across the
entire company. And so we’ve gotten very good at change management communications
because we’ve had to.”
The Future of Corporate Communications *McKinsey 11

08
The lines between communications and

marketing continue to blur, creating new
challenges and opportunities.
Rapid proliferation of available channels and the ongoing blurring of the
lines between paid, earned, owned, and social media have driven
communications to play a bigger role in upper-funnel and lower-funnel
marketing, often driving more marketing responsibilities into the office of
the CCO.
65%
of CCOs rank marketing T H E P L AY B O O K
communications in their top
five areas of increased
agency partner investment • Demonstrate ROI. Many communicators express frustration at not
for the coming year. having the budget of their counterparts in marketing. To grow your
budget, focus less on competing with marketing and more on
helping your team to recognize and embrace the new permission
45% being granted to the communications function. Use that permission
to execute CommsTech-enabled programs demonstrate business
are engaging in advertising impact and ROI.
of some sort.
• Partner with marketing. Teams that have successfully bridged the
communications-marketing divide report collaborative, integrated
12% planning that acknowledges the fluidity of both disciplines. By

embracing CommsTech, CCOs can co-create systems and processes
that clarify roles and drive collaboration. Use budgets to build
of budget, on average, is
going to digital capabilities distinctive capabilities in each function, but that are shared across
such as SEO, advertising, and both functions where appropriate.
paid amplification, resulting
in continued ownership
tensions between marketing
and communications.
42%
report challenges in “The worlds [of marketing and communications] are blended, and it’s
collaborating with a fight for relevance. It's a fight for talent. It's often a fight for
marketing and sales functions ownership of the audience groups that we want to own and the CEO
when asked about challenges we are both trying to demonstrate value for.”
to technology adoption.

09
In an increasingly complex and activist

multistakeholder universe, the corporate
brand matters now more than ever.
As the dividing lines between product brands and corporations blur in the
eyes of stakeholders, corporate leaders find themselves under pressure to
take a stand on various social issues on behalf of the broader enterprise.
Defining a platform that not only articulates what you stand for but, more
importantly, drives engagement across a multistakeholder world is
paramount.
of CCOs say “brand and
corporate identity” is
something their team is • Trust should sit at the center of your corporate brand. Trust is the
responsible for today. currency that creates lasting stakeholder relationships, gives
organizations permission to innovate, and ultimately drives growth for
the organization.
51% • Define a clear and compelling corporate brand platform and narrative
grounded in trust insights that enable your team to deliver an
rank “corporate positioning”
understanding of your brand responsibility as a leader in business and
in their top five areas of most
in broader society.
strategic importance.
• The corporate brand must be brought to life through consistent
storytelling activation and creative newsroom that help your
44% stakeholders see human faces, voices, and the impact you deliver as
an enterprise.
rank “corporate positioning”
• Communications leaders should own their corporate brand
in their top five areas of experience across stakeholders. The Corporate Communications lens
anticipated agency support is crucial in understanding and interpreting risk and delivering an
— second only to marketing integrated corporate brand experience that maximizes trust and
communications. delivers engagement returns.
.
“I think that thread [corporate-level narrative] is needed now more than ever given the complexity of
organizations, the pace of change, the complexity of the external environments. Everything requires a
communications lens and a consciousness around that narrative ...”

10
While the importance of the

communications function is increasing,
resources to deliver are lagging.
Despite a broader scope of responsibility and higher expectations, less than
one in ten CCOs anticipate a budget increase of more than 15% this year. In
fact, nearly half of CCOs expect their budgets to remain the same or decline in
the coming year. The evolved CCO remits, and the expanded set of capabilities
to deliver measurable value against them, are often underfunded.
more functional
responsibility has been given
to CCOs who are seen as • Create opportunities to demonstrate measurable impact.
strategic business partners. Focus communication efforts where return on investment can be
Yet only… measured and used as evidence to support increased funding asks.
• Link budget requests to strategic goals/priorities. Define budget

categories in terms of business priorities and illustrate how
6% investment will enable progress against stated goals.
of CCOs anticipate a budget • Partner with business leaders. Understand influential leaders’
increase of 15% or more, priorities and KPIs and design initiatives that will benefit them and
and… can be funded from sources outside of the annual communications
budget.
• Do more with less. Make the budget you have go further by

45% investing in people with agile, flexible skill sets and new technology
that drives efficiency and enables the measurement of quantifiable
anticipate a budget decrease results.
or no change.
I agree wholeheartedly that corporate communicators need to be seen as strategic business partners and
not just a cost center or an afterthought. The more we can share the importance and value of Corporate
Communications with business leadership, the better for everybody.

PART 1:
The Evolution of Corporate
Communications

PART 1: The Evolution of Corporate Communications
Among corporate leaders,

there’s a slow but growing
recognition of the value
of Corporate Communications
with COVID-19 accelerating
the role the corporate
Advancing up communications function
the strategic plays in ensuring a business’s

license to operate.
continuum.
This section looks at the impact of the
past several years on communications
functions strategic positioning, looking
beyond the pandemic to the headwinds
and opportunities shaping Corporate
Communications’ ability to advance up
the strategic continuum to the heart of
business strategy.

Impact & Opportunity

of COVID-19
The pandemic has accelerated the strategic
positioning of communications functions. It has “Because of COVID-19, I am now assigned
rapidly dialed up the importance of communications to high-level committees. My name is
and forced teams to reassess and reimagine their always out there and if there’s a special
ability to reach, engage, and impact stakeholders — project, I get that special project most of
beginning with employees — across a fundamentally the time.”
changed and volatile landscape.
In interviews and survey responses, a majority of

Corporate Communications leaders say steering their
organizations through the changes and challenges
wrought by COVID-19 has altered the
communications agenda. It has caused significant
“The role communications played [during
shifts in their function’s focus and ways of operating
the pandemic] was key for our success,
as the relevance and demand for communications internally and externally. It has opened up
internally and externally has escalated. new collaborations with different global
teams and has given communications a lot
of visibility.”
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being no disruption and 10

being significant disruption, how have your
communications objectives and agenda been impacted by
COVID-19 and the events of 2020?
43% “The silver lining of COVID-19 [for us] was

that Corporate Communications jumped
7-8
high in the eyes of leadership because we
31% both performed, but we also had the
opportunity to work more closely with
5-6
17% leaders and show them our value.”
10% 9-10
4 or Less
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
NO SIGNIFICANT
DISRUPTION
DISRUPTION

The Rise of Employee

Communications
External communications has been on an accelerated journey to strategic partner. Employee
communications, however, has been on a much slower trajectory. Interviewees report that in the past, their
organizations have not viewed a robust employee communications program and capability as a priority. There
was, and continues to be, a pervasive perception that anyone can pitch in and create employee
communications.
COVID-19 has shown this is not the case. It provided an accelerant to the advancement of employee
communications through the pressure to demonstrate and deliver clear strategic leadership and business
continuity in the face of a volatile and disruptive period to organizational operations. It forced leaders to stay
ahead of a rapidly changing corporate culture and to be constantly communicating, demonstrating a new
level of public care and attention for their workforces.
COVID-19 continues to force critical changes to employee communications in three ways:
1. The need to form a critical safety net that ensures employees are safe, connected, supported, and heard
in an uncertain and virtual environment.
2. The ability to help leaders align and communicate consistent policy and points of view as a matter of
strategic imperative and to be responsive to employee needs, concerns, and demands.
3. The necessity to reduce the “noise in the system” by streamlining and focusing content and messaging
on what is valuable and relevant.
1 62% Increased focus on internal

employee communications
More than half of 2 56% More use of

communications technology
communicators (53%) report
shifts in communications focus 3 51% Increased focus on business
transformation efforts
and demand from COVID-19 —
with employee communications
impacted most significantly.
4 51% Elevated or altered importance
of communications
47%
Increase in internal partnerships, e.g.,
5 business strategy office, marketing,
human resources
How has COVID-19 impacted your communications function and

agenda? (Shown among: n=200)

Key Finding:
The Corporate Communications
Agenda Is Changing
COVID-19 is not the only change

Business
driver in Corporate Transformation 77%
Communications functions.
Communications leaders
identified additional forces Social
Issues
73%
impacting changes to their
function and agenda, with
business transformation at the Customer/Consumer
top of the list. Demand Shifts 56%
Shifting expectations of
corporations and their leaders to
take positions on social issues, Talent 38%
particularly in the United States,
also emerged as a central driver
of the Corporate Regulatory
33%
Communications agenda in the Changes
past 18 months.
Technology
Transformation 25%
Investor
Activism
19%
What forces beyond COVID-19 are most impacting your
communication function and agenda? (Shown among: n=200)

PART 1: DRIVERS AND BARRIERS TO CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIC ADVANCEMENT
A New Role in Business

Transformation
Today’s communicators find themselves playing new roles in leading the
transformation agenda.
77%
As companies reorganize and reorient to meet shifting strategic priorities,
Corporate Communications functions are increasingly called upon to lead
and drive organizational transformation. Because of this, communications
of communications
leaders are seeing an increased need for their teams to have greater leaders report that
business acumen, as well as knowledge of the basic principles of change business transformation
management, and to be able to apply both to communications strategy has impacted their
communications
and execution. Many teams report this need as particularly urgent as they agenda.
see their organizations underinvest in change management functions,
51%
support, and expertise and rely instead on communications strategy to
drive transformation through the organization.
More and more teams report establishing change communications report an increased
centers of excellence, hiring entire new sub-teams with crossover focus on business
experience in change and communications, and investing in change transformation efforts.
management training and certification courses for communications
practitioners. Just as many Corporate Communications leaders are also
taking a more scrappy and practical approach to skill-building, they are
developing their own methodologies and approaches to change
communications and mentoring team members through projects that
allow them to build expertise through empirical experience.
“Change is a place we’’re going to continue to invest in because we’re

going to go through a ton of change in the next two years.”
“Change communications has become so much of an integral part of our

function across the entire company. And so we’ve gotten very good at change
management communications, because we’ve had to.”

Social Issues Shift the

Communicator’s Agenda
Changing expectations of the role of corporations in influencing social as well
73%
as economic direction in modern society is another key factor moving
communications forward on a strategic continuum. It represents perhaps the
most significant factor, outside of COVID-19, shifting viewpoints on the role
of communications and elevating its influence in the organization and C- of communications
suite. leaders report that social
issues have shifted their
Communicators reported “the times in which we're living” — meaning the communications
public dialogue around political and social issues, and the increased agenda.
51%
expectation that brands and corporations take a position — as having thrust
their companies and leaders into the public spotlight in ways that demand
more of them. Being proactive with a story and point of view is felt to be
increasingly demanded by employees and consumers alike. report an elevated or
altered importance of
And yet, for many organizations, engaging in a public dialogue about the communications in this
organization’s vision and strategy, much less broader social issues, represents new world.
a huge mindset and cultural shift, and one not without risks. Communicators,
especially in more conservative industries and organizations, talk about
ongoing efforts to evolve Corporate Communications’ culture and approach
from within while overcoming leadership resistance to public engagement. 19%
For others, their role as leaders and change-makers on emerging issues report that investor
impacting reputation, brand, and employee sentiment is giving them greater activism has shifted
opportunity, visibility, and responsibility. And they are taking advantage — their communications
working to demonstrate engagement through communication as central to agenda.
the organization’s ability to build and maintain trust and remain competitive
in consumer and talent markets.
“The more we continue to play in these spaces, more opportunities come

to us — demand has grown.”

An Ever-Changing Information
Ecosystem
Finally, the modern media and information ecosystem of the past decade fundamentally changed the ways in
which businesses communicate and engage. The ecosystem that emerged continues to expand in breadth and
complexity and remains a critical driver of the advancement of Corporate Communications as a strategic
imperative to effective business strategy.
Communications leaders say the way social media cycles now drive news, product marketing, and sales cycles
(not to mention employee communications rhythms) has permanently altered their function’s approach to
stakeholder engagement and information dissemination. Web and social, at first critical to reputation
promotion and issue response, have become fundamental tools for consumer, media, and brand engagement
and storytelling. Over time, consistent shifts from a focus on owned websites to the prioritization of social
platforms have elevated the importance of Corporate Communications and brand PR and the role they play in
driving the business forward.
These shifts have changed how Corporate Communications functions are

structured, ushering in a new set of digital and creative multimedia capabilities
still being integrated into the Corporate Communications operating model.
“We had a couple of situations, years ago, that resulted in negative news coverage
that raised awareness of how important social is and that led to the organization
dedicating more resources to addressing inbound messages. Then the next question is,
‘What positive stories do we have to tell and how do we tell them?’ And that's led to
an increase in resource allocation around the storytelling piece.”
“My next challenge is getting the organization to move into that phase of
[short-form video] storytelling because we’re still primarily text-driven in
terms of how we’re telling our story.”

Barriers Remaining
to Advancement
An obstacle to Corporate Communications’ strategic positioning is

the maturity of the organization in terms of its receptivity to
communications as a strategic driver and how it thinks about and
uses communications in service of business strategy.
For some, industry and geographic location, especially, anecdotally, in South America (e.g., Brazil, Mexico)
and Asia (e.g., Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong) affect how far Corporate Communications can permeate and
positively influence the business. More than a few communications leaders say regional culture and
operating norms dictate their approach to communications and hold them back. In Japan for example, some
communications leaders see social culture as having an outsized and heavy hand in dictating everything from
information sharing and transparency to employee and media engagement practices, leaving communicators
feeling behind their North American and European counterparts in sophistication and approach.
Lack of maturity in the application of communications to business strategy becomes a critical barrier to the
function’s strategic advancement and poses particular strategic and logistical challenges to globally integrated
teams and organizations. Organizational and leadership maturity has significant influence on Corporate
Communications’ ability to secure the budget needed to advance and modernize the function and often
impedes investment in advanced capabilities like data and analytics and employee communications. These
deficits are shown to have a cumulative detrimental impact on everything from labor relations, to customer
retention, to overall brand and business performance.
“It’s not because the organization doesn’t want to change, but the entire culture and context
around the organization and in specific geographic locations doesn’t support it. For us, the
mindset change in the organization is still too slow.”
“If you're in the service sector or a technology sector, [communications] is more important right
now and they are valuing communication more and more. Traditional manufacturing and
industrial sectors still do not recognize the strategic payoff unless there is a crisis.”

The Ongoing Competition

with Marketing
Another barrier to the advancement of Corporate Communications is a persistent comparison to and
competition with marketing. For many of the mid- to large-sized Corporate Communications teams we spoke
with, collaboration with marketing is an increasingly routine occurrence, and yet in the Future of
Communications survey 42% of respondents report challenges collaborating with marketing and sales
colleagues.
Who takes the lead was and is often situationally determined — marketing traditionally leads when the need
is specific to demand generation; communications leads when the objective is broader brand promotion. But,
as integrated campaigns become increasingly common, roles, accountabilities, and leadership are less clear.
As digital and social ecosystems grow and take a dominant position next to media and advertising, the
dividing lines between communications and marketing change and converge, creating new tensions.
Sometimes the tension can be a positive — communicators report competition with marketing as compelling
both functions to up their creative game and set new standards for multimedia, multichannel strategy, and
content. In a fight for leadership over the strategic approach, communicators also report working to get their
teams to new levels of business acumen and ability to demonstrate audience insight and a point of view of
how and where the organization needs to drive to produce business results.
“We’re spending too much time competing with marketing for budget, rather than proving
a case for the value of communications and earned media [in its own right]. Everything that
we do should be seen as either an independent value driver or as complementary to
marketing. Instead, we look at it as a zero-sum game.”
“I see the lines [between marketing and communications] not so much blurring as
converging. The tension comes from determining where conversion is healthy for a
business, but the battle over turf is silly. No one ‘owns’ brand, for example. We all have
a role to play based on our ability to generate content that resonates with audiences.”

The Ongoing Competition with

Marketing (cont.)
The tension between communications and marketing can be good for both disciplines. It can also be an
unproductive distraction.
Some communicators see the competition between communications and marketing — for position,
budget, executive attention — as shifting critical energy and focus from the real value Corporate
Communications should be bringing to the organization. A fruitless focus on one-upmanship, born from
battles for talent, resources, audience ownership, and ultimately relevance within the organization, were
consistently reported to lead nowhere.
Communicators blamed themselves, and the failure to correct corporate leaders’ misperception that
communications and brand PR should be able to demonstrate impact and results — on stakeholder
engagement, sentiment, and action — as clearly and easily as their marketing counterparts.
Communications leaders see their profession’s preoccupation with holding themselves against a marketing
performance benchmark (and trying to match or beat marketing teams) as counter-productive and needing
to be corrected through education and the identification and defining of their own value proposition for
the discipline, the function, and the organization.
The case for a communications-led approach

“Marketing is responsible for the buyer. Communications is responsible for the stakeholders, which includes
the buyer, but is not only the buyer. And to me, that’s a communications-led approach. It makes an
argument that in this battle of who leads, the CCO or the CMO, I feel like the CCO is truly an all-
encompassing role that looks at strategy holistically inclusive of the buyer, but not exclusive of that. The
label is important because it signals approach and it signals a philosophy around the role that both
marketing and communications play. That’s the case that we’ve been arguing as communicators forever —
that communications is a thread that must run through everything. We should have that seat at the table
because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got this great human capital idea, a great
commercial product, if it’s communicated poorly across the organization or externally, or it’s not bundled or
thought of properly, or put in perspective of priority, it’s going to fail, internally or externally, or both. I think
that thread is needed now more than ever given the complexity of organizations, the pace of change, the
complexity of the external environments. Everything requires a communications lens and a consciousness
around that narrative through line now more than ever.”
The
TheFuture
Futureof of
Corporate Communications
Corporate Communications 25
Proving the ROI of

Communications
Proving Corporate Communications’ relevance and “We don't have a business case [for
strategic importance to the business hinges on Corporate Communications]. We think we
demonstrating value through measurement — have a business case, but at the end of
explicitly showing impact and outcome. the day we are looking for tangibles that
To this end, measurement and analytics continue to are only intangibles.”
make slow progress. Qualitatively, communicators
see how good content affects consumer behavior and
business performance and compels stakeholders to
action. But the quantification and correlation of “The challenge for a lot of us in our
impacts remains elusive and time consuming. function is how close can we get to
Because of this, communications are often not actually measuring business impact? It’s
included as part of business KPIs — like marketing or hard to say this article led to a client in
human resources — for most organizations. engagement.”
Today, many Corporate Communications leaders

report being on a mission to demonstrate the clearer
results and return on investment that the business “Our KPIs are not overly impressive,
requires. While the mission is clear, they say the path which is why I really want something that
to proving outcomes in a consistent and scalable can say we are influencing [upper funnel]
manner is hard, requiring a new, more rigorous customer leads too. We track marketing
measurement discipline and significant investment in influence on leads and opportunities.
time, technology, talent, and capabilities. Well, what about PR-influenced
opportunities? How do we get those on
the chart?”
“We can see how many people went to

the media page, but how do we know
where they went next? And then how do I
get them to go somewhere else? What is
it about this press release that got
attention versus that one? I want to go
deeper. I need to go deeper.”

The Playbook:
What communications teams can do to

advance Corporate Communications:
• Be strategic: Demonstrate an understanding of business priorities, profit
drivers, and strategic choices; explicitly connect communications decisions,
campaigns, and aspired outcomes to business priorities and impact.
• Be diverse: Take a multimedia, multidimensional approach to
communications; bring different perspectives, approaches, and ideas to
the table that may not be there today.
• Prove your business acumen: Understand and have a perspective on the
business, its performance, and its vision and direction beyond
communications.
• Network: Focus on developing relationships with the business through the
quality of counsel you give, the performance of the function, and the
quality of content and programming.
• Lead with insights: Create the data that ties communications activities and
investments to business outcomes; feed the data back to the business
leaders speaking their language.
• Invest in specialists: The general practitioner can't do it all. Invest in
insourcing and/or outsourcing the skills and capabilities that bring the
function to the next level.
• Stay connected: Emerge from your corporate silo (regularly and often) to
proactively drive collaboration and ensure a general view of the field and
markets outside of your own.
• Know how to prioritize: Base communications strategy on the needs of
the business and keep pace, constantly course correcting.
• Execute flawlessly: You don’t move up the continuum if you have the
smartest ideas but you’re not executing well and consistently; you’re not
going to even be invited to the table.

PART 2:
Becoming a Strategic
Partner Starts Inside
The Function

PART 2: Becoming a Strategic Partner Starts Inside The Function
The rise of the new social

enterprise, significant
transformation, and a global
pandemic may finally
cement Corporate
Communications’ strategic
positioning, placing it at the
Drive your center of organizational
strategy.
own evolution.
This section looks at moves
communications leaders are making to
advance their functions up the
strategic continuum, and in turn the
role and responsibility their corporate
leaders and organizations have to help
them get there.

Communicators Are
Driving Their Own Evolution
Moving up the strategic continuum from

cost center to value creator.
Since the first Edelman benchmarking study in 2014, communications leaders
have built new functions and capabilities that successfully navigated dramatic
changes in how we consume information, market and promote products and
services, and build corporate brand and reputations.
Now, there is a new set of expectations being set upon Corporate Communications teams. They’re
helping organizations navigate the choppy waters of trust, grappling with the rise of the new social
enterprise, experiencing significant sector and industry transformation, and facing an ongoing global
pandemic. These factors may finally cement Corporate Communications’ strategic positioning, placing it
at the center of organizational strategy.
What our study shows us is that, despite the barriers and roadblocks, Corporate Communications
functions are making progress, and a lot of that evolution — strategically, structurally, capability-wise —
is driven from within, by charismatic communications leaders and their teams.

Becoming a Strategic Partner

Starts From the Inside
In speaking with communications leaders, one of the key drivers in the evolution of Corporate
Communications is how teams see themselves and think about their work. As leaders set goals to take their
functions from cost centers to value generators, they’re starting with a holistic change in their vision of the
role of Corporate Communications and perpetuating a mindset shift in how their teams approach and build
communications strategy.
These leaders push their teams from a reactive, check-the-box focus on storytelling and information
dissemination, to operating within a strategically defined framework that considers the impact and outcomes
of content and programming on business priorities. They use pressure-testing strategies to ensure they tie
back to objectives and think creatively about using data and insights to tell a better story and drive specific
action and sentiment in their audiences.
In survey and interview responses, a majority of Corporate Communicators leaders see themselves advancing
on the strategic partner continuum. Few, however, see themselves as fully actualized strategic partners, with
more work to be done.
Strategic Partner Continuum

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being transactional and 10 being full strategic partner, how is your
communications function currently regarded by business leaders in your organization?
(Shown among n=200)
17% 27% 37% 20%

4 or Less 5-6 7-8 9-10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Transactional Full Strategic Partner

Relationship Building
and Education
Communications leaders we spoke to spend
significant time and effort educating their leaders and
organizations on the value of communications.
“If you don’t let people know the
They understand that leveraging communications as a contributions you’re making and you
strategic business driver requires access and acumen don't have other people validating it,
— understanding of the strategic vision and voice of you’re not going to get very far,
the CEO and the priorities of the business moving especially if the leadership team doesn’t
fully appreciate or value what you’re
forward. Communicators challenged to advance
doing or understand the power of what
Corporate Communications’ strategic position lament you’re doing. If you don’t find a way to
the lack of direct access to the CEO and C-suite have other people influence and help
leaders. A lack of exposure to business strategy and expose him to that, then you’re dead in
decision-making hinders Corporate Communications’ the water.”
impact and ability.
Teams that view themselves at the far value-driven

end of the strategic continuum have gotten there by “It was really the mindset of our CEO
securing — by invitation or sheer force of will — and the senior leadership team at the
regular, direct engagement with CEOs and time that our communications function
participation in business strategy. From there they be run very much with a news desk
leverage solid impact data and analytics to show the mentality. We waited for things to come
ways communications is driving stakeholder to us, and then we reacted. Our leaders
sentiment, behavior, and action. didn’t see a lot of value in
communications because we weren’t
These communicators are in the room representing necessarily a partner saying, ‘Hey, you
all factors of trust, public relations, and the know, we can help you with this.’”
reputational and workforce risks of business
decisions.
“Before I got in here, the senior
communications director, he did his
work, he kept his head down and he
didn’t really influence as much as he
could. I’m trying to raise the profile of
what we’re doing and be that squeaky
wheel.”

The Responsibility of
Corporate Leaders
While much of the evolution in communications is being driven from within, there’s a role for C-suite leaders
to create the access and opportunities that pull the function forward and advance communications within
their organizations. How leaders view the role of communications and engage their teams is significant to the
positioning of the function.
There is a need for C-suite leaders to mature their own thinking and educate themselves to understand how
corporate and brand reputation, employee engagement, and the articulation of business strategy impact the
business’s ability to execute. It is also imperative that corporate leaders be held accountable. While in the
minority, a few organizations have started to elevate reputation to a shared business goal, and ultimately a
goal for the board of directors. They are compensating leaders based on reputation and trust metrics as they
relate to different constituents from customers, to employees, to shareholders.
“It’s really top buy-in to the Corporate Communications function. Having a champion in our
corner [is what has] allowed us to grow and do new things.”
Things a CEO can do to advance Corporate Communications:

• Lead by example, partnering with communications as a strategic advisor on the execution of business
strategy and priorities.
• Direct business unit leaders to engage communications and ensure that a thought-through
communications strategy runs through the business.
• Bring communications into decisions earlier — as they are being made, not after the fact.
• Ensure there’s always a communications representative evaluating strategic moves from a risk,
reputation, and positioning perspective.
• Ensure that limits to budget, staffing, and resourcing are not holding the function back from being a
true partner.
• Ensure that Corporate Communications has enough of the right talent in the right places to serve
the business.
The
TheFuture
Futureof of
Corporate Communications 33
PART 2: BECOMING A STRATEGIC PARTNER STARTS FROM THE INSIDE
The Responsibility of
Corporate Leaders (cont.)
Many executives are on their own evolving
communications spectrum. Those who have arrived
understand that the successful execution of business
strategy requires frequent communications and “If I had a more direct line with the CEO
stakeholder engagement, the strategic use of media, and we spoke more and interacted
messaging, and storytelling, and ensuring that together more, and we supported him
business innovation and advancement is shared as more on the business side, we could be a
loudly and effectively as the competition. better partner to the business.”
That is not to say leaders aren’t still attracted to the

shiny objects. Communications leaders report that
external validation through the media, such as a “Not being part of the C-suite is a
flattering profile executives can share with their major impact to our positioning.
When we reported in to the CEO, we
boards or a Fortune’s Best List placement, can still
were much closer to the business and
have a bigger impact on C-suite validation of understanding in real time what was
communications than strong data and analytics. happening directly from the business
In light of this tendency, communicators report leaders … We were able to be more
responsive to business and leader
working to help executives think more consciously
needs. Not being part of those critical
and conscientiously about how trust and reputation conversations, and being able to
impact business goals and then engage Corporate understand and respond either
Communications as a strategic business partner. reactively or proactively, really sets
us back.”
“We wanted that connection with the

leader, but we wanted to ensure it was a
consultative connection, a strategic
connection — a ‘business partner first’
connection versus a ‘we've made all the
decisions and now we need you to go
execute.’”

Establishing the Building Blocks

Mindset, education, and relationship building are only three pieces
in the value continuum puzzle. In addition, communications
leaders identified the following structures and management
imperatives for a well positioned strategic function.
Integrated Strategic Planning: Leaders report needing

strong integrated strategic planning processes at the
functional and campaign levels. These processes
involve business and functional partners and align
communications objectives directly to business “We have a really good planning
system in which we seek out what the
priorities and goals. Discipline within functions drives
business objectives are for our business
purpose, intent, and business outcomes in every partners. Then we have a really good
communication strategy and every campaign. campaign development template and
process to then come back to them
with a strategy to [achieve the
Building a Consultative Team: Stand-out leaders are business goal].”
shifting talent within their teams. They are looking for
more than a good storyteller and are developing
communications practitioners with the consultative
“I sit on our operating committee and it
skills to advise the business on reputation and
helps me create strategic plans. The
engagement impacts and opportunities. More than a benefit is I know all of the macro and
few leaders talk about actively working to empower a micro projects that the business is
consultative mindset and culture, moving staff focusing on. If it’s important enough to
beyond service providers to strategic advisors. come before the operating committee
then I know that’s a priority.”
Holding Your Own Budget: Communications leaders

universally recognize the importance of holding
“One of the strengths is that we’re not a
their own budgets and not being beholden to
charge-back department, we’re a stand-
another function to determine where to make
alone function that can initiate projects
investments. Leaders talk about leading with on our own. And we have budget
strategy and watching budget increases follow. responsibilities for programs, so we
manage the budget for the programs for
the company.”

Taking Advantage
of This Moment in Time
At times, a barrier to Corporate Communications advancement is communicators themselves. Interviewees
point out that in some corners of the profession there is still an attitude or approach of “covering” the
business and its communications needs in a reactive, transactional manner, as opposed to moving it forward
strategically.
Communications leaders view counterparts who keep their heads down, delivering only the rote
communications demanded by the business, as not only holding back their functions from playing a strategic
role, but the greater discipline also. They view these teams as passive, with no strong strategic planning
processes or point of view on the role of communications in place. But this may be changing.
Capitalizing on the opportunity COVID-19 has wrought

More than a few communications leaders, especially those overseeing smaller, centralized teams, say
they have new access to the C-suite and a new voice in high-level meetings as strategy and policy are being
determined.
The shrewdest communicators are taking full advantage of these opportunities — actively participating and
extending feedback and a point of view on reputation and engagement considerations, and developing
stronger, lasting relationships with leadership. They are cementing their position by making sure their teams
are delivering quality content, engagement, and results. Together, these shifts are forcing a rethinking on the
part of management teams in how they leverage communications in ways that sustain post-COVID-19.
“I agree wholeheartedly that corporate communicators need to be seen as

strategic business partners and not just a cost center or an afterthought.
The more we can share the importance and value of Corporate
Communications with business leadership, the better for everybody.”

Key Finding:
Driving a communications evolution starts with showing your team,
and your organization, the difference between being a cost center
and becoming a value generator:
FROM COST CENTER TO VALUE GENERATOR
As a result of education, execution, and proven results,

Business leaders are leery of leveraging communications is embraced in everything the
communications as a tool to drive strategy organization does
Corporate Communications is brought late to Corporate Communications is fully integrated into business
business strategy, projects, and initiatives strategy and consulted on all major decisions
Corporate Communications shows up as much more than

Corporate Communications is treated as merely a
an execution function, providing strategic counsel and
cost center and service support provider
partnership
Communications leaders and teams have earned a seat

Corporate Communications operates in siloed
at the table by marrying their expertise together with a
isolation and is reactive to needs and requests
holistic view of the business
Corporate Communications produces programming Communications programming is insight-driven, directed by

and content based on precedent and instinct data and analytics, and measured for impact and outcome
Corporate Communications function rests on Corporate Communications embraces a diversity of

traditional notions of storytelling, media, and cutting-edge multimedia, multistakeholder, and
stakeholder engagement omnichannel strategies to drive engagement

PART 3:
Investing in the Future of

PART 3: Investing in the Future of Corporate Communications
Investment strategies are as

individual as companies and
communications leaders. But
CommsTech — the tools,
technology, and data that
allow communicators to
CommsTech precisely target, measure,
as a principle and shape perceptions — is
emerging as a top investment
investment priority for 2022 and beyond.
for 2022.
This section looks at investments,
both traditional and novel, that
communications leaders are looking
to make in the coming year. It also
includes advice on building the
business case to make them.

Budget Benchmarks
The Organization of Corporate Communications:
How to Think About Functional Structure
In the 2014 Edelman communications benchmarking study, as today, Corporate Communications budgets spanned a
significant range. Influences include everything from the size and type of business, to the position of the function and its
maturity.
In the 2021 survey, annual budgets range from less than $500,000 to over $5 million. The good news: As organizations
advance into a post-COVID period, 54% anticipate some level of budget increase in 2022.. The bad news: Despite new
expectations for measurable impact and a broader mandate, 46% are expecting budgets to remain the same or decrease.
2021 Budget Snapshot
26% 21% 27% 27%
Less than $500K $500K to $999K $1M to $4.9M More than $5M
Anticipated Budget Changes – 2022-23
29% 55%
Budget Decrease Budget Increase
11% less than 5% 24% less than 5%

7% 5% to less than 10% 16% 5% to less than 10%
5% 10% to less than 15% 9% 10% to less than 15%
6% 15% or more 6% 15% or more

Investment in
Next 12 to 18 Months
Most communicators are understandably
conservative in their 2021-22 budget forecasts. 89
Most are also optimistic about 2022 being a year that 70

65
marks a return to growth. Everyone has a wish list of 56
where they would like to make investments. From 49
43
these sentiments, a rough set of investment themes
34
emerged.
6
Top five areas of anticipated investment

CommsTech
Capabilities &
Governance
Skills/Training
Process
Creative Resources
Functional Org
Other
Strategy
over the next 12 to 18 months.
Please rank the top five areas of anticipated investment for your function
over the next 12-18 months. (Shown among: n=200)
50 50 49 46
40 40 39 39 Top five areas of anticipated
35 35 investment in CommsTech, data,
and analytics over the next 12 to 18
months.
Please rank the top five areas of anticipated investment in

digital and analytic capabilities for your function over the next
Corporate Website
& Campaign
Paid Amplification
Social Media
Internal
Collaboration
Content Management
Data Analytics
Dashboards
Automation Systems
12-18 months. (Shown among: n=200)

Platforms
Automation
Marketing
Hyper-Targeting
Tools
CRM
Employee Apps

Talent Investment and

Agency Support
Communicators place head count at the top of their investment wish list, noting that while additional staff is
often what is most needed, it is also the most difficult to secure.
Interviewees say budget dollars aren’t always the deciding factor in winning new headcount.
Communications leaders cite pace of work and growth of the functions — in workload and capability demand
— as central to the business case for new talent and increased agency support.
While many communications leaders are committed to expanding permanent head count, a few are moving
in the opposite direction, reducing team size and outsourcing specialty skills and capabilities to agencies and
contractors. They view this strategy as more efficient and effective in advancing their functions in areas as
diverse as creative brand promotion, change communications, and predictive analytics, shortening learning
curves and allowing them to experiment with new capabilities.
65
44
3934 Top five anticipated areas of
32 32 31 partner support over the next 12
30 28 26 to 18 months.
Please rank the top five areas of partner support you anticipate
needing over the next 12-18 months. (Shown among: n=200)
Employee
Communications
Media Relations
Development
Editorial & Content
Development
Management
Narrative
Crisis & Risk
Marketing
Financial
Corporate
Comms Tech
Communications
Communications
Positioning
“The pace of work is so much quicker than it was before. And so helping the team really manage
through that through new team members and great external partnerships as an extension of our
team — we need to tap into that.”

Skill and Capability

Investment
Notably, investment in core skills and capabilities is second only to head count in communications leaders’
budget priorities. This includes investing in talent, training, and/or wholesale specialty areas like data and
analytics.
Leaders continue to focus on the basics, however — media relations, multimedia content and creative, and
employee communications. These investment areas correlate to functional responsibilities that leaders
identified as critical to delivering on communications strategies and objectives in the next 12 to 18 months.
Ranked in Top 5
51%
Responsibilities Critical 30%
to Delivering Strategy 67%
An overwhelming majority (67%)
put marketing communications
26%
at the top of the list, followed by
employee communications. 40%
54% 27%
Marketing Communications Corporate Positioning Editorial & Content Financial

Development Communications
Employee Communications
Crisis & Risk Media
Management Relations
Please rank the top five capabilities you consider paramount to delivering your communications strategy and objectives in
the next 12-18 months. (Shown among: n=200) Marketing Communications is net for respondents who selected corporate
branding , marketing communications, or corporate advertising. Corporate Positioning is net for respondents who selected
enterprise positioning or mission/visions/values work.

Skill and Capability

Investment (cont.)
Beyond traditional capability development, three new areas of
expertise are singled out in interviews with communications leaders
and are quickly becoming the new hallmarks of Corporate
Communications.
1. Change Communications: As many organizations

navigate some form of transformation, change
management and change communications
capability is fast becoming a leading investment
for many Corporate Communications leaders. “For us, ESG is a big area of continued
growth and investment. Bringing in
2. Data and Analytics: Communicators recognize agencies that specialize in that to help
that the use of advanced data and analytics us navigate that will be important to
requires new skill sets, and at times a whole new our business.”
specialty group (in-house or from agency)
embedded in the function. These specialists are
immersed in data, can analyze for insights, and “I recognize that the communications
work with strategists and planners to frame strategist can know how to use an
insights into something actionable to take back to analyst, but the communicator may not
the business. be able to also be an analyst.”
3. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG): ESG

skills and experience is another capability
investment on the list of more than a few teams. “Supporting social issues is an area of
The ability to support communications and growing need to support both internally
engagement around social issues and and externally. Our employees are
environmental, social, and corporate governance demanding it and our customers are
is increasingly core to Corporate Communications’ demanding it as well.”
role, particularly in the United States.

The Playbook:
What communications leaders can do to

build high-performing teams:
• Invest in professional development for your communicators

— building a baseline of strong communications and
business skills, supplemented by cutting-edge approaches
and specialties.
• Focus on your people as business leaders with a specialty in
corporate affairs, as opposed to the other way around.
• Focus on building good critical thinking and decision-making

discipline that can move with the speed of the business (and
the modern media cycle).
• Talk to your teams, keeping a pulse on how they’re feeling
and what they need to perform and grow.
• Embed and empower your teams in the business; as a

leader, give up control and trust the team.
• Have people who are smart, have frameworks, and have

principles — the guts to go out there and tell the story.

Program and Channel

Investment
Many communicators see a continued need for investment in external communications — corporate
brand promotion, paid media connected to the purchase funnel, and deeper multistakeholder insights.
These investment insights correspond to the responsibilities defining the Corporate Communications
function today and represent a stable majority of activity and investment for Corporate Communications
teams.
Communicators note that media investment remains a priority for many teams, but as functional
responsibilities shift and capabilities like brand and corporate identity, digital, and analytics take an
increasingly prominent position in functional activity, communications leaders are doubling down on
investments in owned digital channels covering a range from influencer programming, to website
refreshes, to corporate video and multimedia.
Channel investment on the employee communications side of the house will also continue. After the
rush of setting up virtual work environments at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic,
communications teams are extending the investment period to stabilize and introduce more
sophisticated digital tools, starting with mobile apps as a replacement for the traditional intranet and
collaboration sites, and more sophisticated collaboration platforms.

CommsTech and Advanced

Analytics Investment
The ability to build insight into communications strategy is another
element identified by a significant number of communicators as
continuing to change and advance the shape, positioning, and capability 27%
of Corporate Communications functions in the years to come. Salaries & Related
CommsTech represents the largest share of budget allocation at 35%, as

reported in the 2021 Future of Corporate Communications survey.
For 2022, most communications teams report focusing on “just trying to

get back to normal.” But looking past pandemic-driven technology 17%
investments, many leaders anticipate increased spending in advanced Fees to Agencies &
communications technology and analytics. This holds particularly true for Other Service Providers
larger, global Corporate Communications teams.
To justify CommsTech investment, communicators are 12%

building cases around the need to build tools and Measurement &
platforms capable of aggregating data and creating CommsTech is
Monitoring Activities
the tools,
insights that drive more targeted content and
technology, and
12%
messaging across audiences. Communicators are data that allow
focused on data that helps them dial up or dial back communicators
to precisely Digital Marketing
programming to drive a particular sentiment, action,
target, measure, (SEO, paid amplification, digital
or outcome. This holds true for brand marketing, advertising)
and shape
corporate and brand reputation, and employee
perceptions and
communications. behavior at the
To this end, Corporate Communications teams also
individual level. 11%
Communications Analytics
report seeking new partnerships with marketing
counterparts to present joint investment cases for
shared analytics to drive integrated insights across an 10%
entire multistakeholder engagement spectrum. Multimedia Content Development
(video, design, graphics)
Equally and across the board, we are using technology and data 1% Other
on the internal, external, and marketing sides, embedding
Please provide an estimated average operating
CommsTech and MarTech into everything we do.” budget allocation by major operational
type/category. (Shown among: n=200)

Key Finding:
As CommsTech grows in strategic importance, communications leaders say they are struggling to develop
their strategies and investment cases. They point to challenges in three areas: At a foundational level, many
are still navigating self-education around what CommsTech is. Next are decisions around technology and
platform investments and complex aggregation efforts requiring considerable time and expertise. Finally,
there is the challenge of application — getting teams to successfully understand and apply insights to
communications strategy.
58% 47% 42%

It’s difficult to My team Challenges in
justify large tech struggles collaborating with
Top five most significant investments to adopt and marketing and
barriers when it comes leverage digital sales operation
tools and
to increasing the use of
analytics
technology, data, and
analytics in corporate
communications. 49% 46% 39%
IT operations IT and/or This is not a
understanding of marketing strategic priority
communications has responsibility for my CEO/C-
1. Investment justification
needs for this in my suite
2. Challenges educating and engaging organization
corporate IT functions
3. Internal team adoption challenges
4. IT and/or marketing function conflicts
36% 34% 23%
I don’t have the My CEO/business I don’t fully
5. Collaboration barriers budget leaders don’t see understand the
or understand the benefits and value
value in these proposition of
tools and these tools
capabilities
34% 34% 6%
Budget is I don’t know Other
decreasing what’s out there
and what I should
Please rank the top five most significant barriers for your be leveraging
organization when it comes to increasing the use of
technology, data, and analytics in communications.
(Shown among: n=200)

Barriers to CommsTech Digital

and Analytics Adoption
In more detail, three main challenges to the adoption of CommsTech were highlighted in communications
leader interviews.
1. Finding and building the right technology solutions: The need for better analytics powered by automation
and AI was mentioned in interviews and survey responses as central to Corporate Communications’
ability to guide external consumer, stakeholder, and media engagement. As brand PR teams become an
increasingly core component of B2C and B2B marketing and sales, a new arena of measurement and
analytics systems is needed to track consumer sentiment and engagement. Communicators’ challenges
have been in automating the process of collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data from multiple sources
and in creating tools and platforms that enable diverse systems and data sets to converge.
2. Gaining and leveraging metrics at scale: In large, geographically dispersed teams, the systems and
capabilities required to collect and leverage insights at a global scale require time, investment, and, again,
automation. Metrics often exist in functional pockets or with regional teams. Rolling them up to be able
to look holistically at activity and impacts at the enterprise, country, or market level is a logistical
undertaking that teams are just beginning to wrap their arms around. For smaller teams, data at scale is a
challenge in a different sense, with difficulties in maintaining a robust impact measurement strategy due
to a lack of data volume and team capacity and capability.
3. Harnessing insights to influence strategy: Finally, there is the slow process of building the strategic
discipline to harness data into meaningful, actionable insights, and from there facilitating strategy and
programming pivots when data is saying the opposite of the direction that’s been set. Most corporate
communications leaders talk about building stronger data fluency in their teams. They are looking for
new and novel ways to incorporate and integrate insights into current processes and getting their teams
to a comfort level where this becomes a natural, ingrained part of how the function operates.
“The website people, digital people, they’re all data. They have analytics coming out of their ears. There's so
much data, but what we don't have is the deeper dive to understand what the data is actually telling us about
channel and content performance and how it is driving sentiment, behavior, and action.”
“The Holy Grail is something where you could connect all your channels … [into one integrated] dashboard
that ties everything together. How do you tie together share of voice, FCM results, digital engagement
results, social media engagement, advocacy metrics? How do you tie that all together in one snapshot that
says this week, this happened?”

Key Finding:
CCOs who see themselves as full strategic partners to the business are more likely to track communications
performance against business goals, are investing in content publishing tools, and are producing tailored content.
CCO Adoption of CommsTech by Level
Baseline Intermediate Advanced
44% 44% 39%
Create dynamic content and

Measure based on Create and distribute content optimize based on
media impressions tailored to the performance
channel and audience
43% 35%
44%
Source of enterprise
Social media content data to inform
publishing tool Track our performance business strategy
against business goals
31%
35% 33% Use deep learning to

predict messaging and
Stakeholder Micro-target targeting opportunities
monitoring audiences
dashboard with paid
30%
33% 29% Map revenue back

to our activities
Earned strategy Develop audience
informed and personas and
validated journey maps
Which of these best characterize your team’s adoption

of communications technology (CommsTech)? (Shown among: n=200)

The Playbook:
How to make the case for investment in
Corporate Communications:
Most communicators agree the key to unlocking new budget rests in part on speaking the
language of the business. Communicators focus on educating and influencing leaders on
the value and necessity of communications in the context of corporate goals and the
impact of reputation on revenue and profit drivers. When asked how they develop
business cases to justify budget increases or investments, communicators outlined three
components.
ROI: Most communicators are building budget cases based on a return-on-

investment (ROI) calculation that includes both need and impact justifications,
focusing on the business return of a particular tool, staff addition, or agency
support over time.
Metrics: Closely aligned, and often a part of an ROI argument, metrics tracking
the impact of communications and its correlation to business results such as
conversion rates, share of voice, or talent retention are core components of
the justification for budget and investment. Beyond those standards,
communicators are developing more sophisticated measurement and analytic
arguments that show upper- and lower-funnel consumer behavior correlations
mapped to communications programming and product and brand
performance. All admit that demonstrating behavior and sentiment to
performance correlations is challenging and is one reason many
communicators keep their KPIs to more basic, provable metrics.
Strategy: Finally, as communicators build closer working relationships with the

C-suite, a clearly articulated strategy for the function is increasingly used as
baseline justification for investment. Communications leaders are making their
business cases based on a clear vision and set of objectives for the function
and how those objectives help advance it, the business, and ultimately the
bottom line.

PART 4:
The Organization of

PART 4: The Organization of Corporate Communications
In multiple studies over the years,

a wide range of team sizes,
reporting lines, and functional
breakdowns is found. What this
Future of Corporate
Communications study confirms is
that there is no set standard for
Corporate how Corporate Communications
functions are organized and
Communications structured. There is, however, a
structures are set of principles and best
practices that govern good
constantly functional design.
evolving. This section offers perspective on how
to think about the nuts and bolts of
Corporate Communications function
design, from vision and purpose, to
budgets and reporting lines, enabling
the function to perform to new
expectations and propelling it toward
strategic partner.

Key Finding:
Corporate Communications Functional
Responsibilities Benchmarks
Communications
Strategy 79%
Investor &
Government 70%
Traditional Corporate Relations
Communications functions — Brand +
from employee communications Corporate Identity 63%
to crisis and media relations —
still represent a stable majority
62%
Employee
of activity for teams and have Communications
not shifted significantly over the
years.
What has shifted is the increased

Communications
Policy 60%
focus on newer capabilities like
brand and corporate identity,
advanced analytics, and digital,
Audience Insights 60%
all of which have taken an
Executive
increasingly prominent position
as core responsibilities for the
Communications 59%
59%
function. Crisis +
Issues Management
In defining the areas of work and
responsibility, please check all that apply for
your organization’s Corporate
Communications function.
Digital +
Social Media 58%
(Shown among n=200)
56%
Investor & Government relations is combined
Measurement, Monitoring
into those respondents who selected investor
relations/financial comms, stakeholder
+ Analytics
relations, or government relations/public
affairs.
Audience Insights is combined into those
respondents who selected audience insights,
PR +
Media Relations 52%
audience targeting/micro-targeting, demand
generation or revenue attribution.
Brand PR 50% 54
Functional Reporting Lines

In 2014, there was a significant variance in Corporate Communications’ functional reporting lines up through
the organization; CEO, CMO, HR, legal, and corporate strategy functions were all listed as mostly equal
owners of Corporate Communications.
While these ownership dynamics still exist, in 2021 there is significant consolidation with 46% of Corporate
Communications functions now reporting directly to the CEO.
Interviews with communications leaders corroborate this finding and associate it with the elevation of
Corporate Communications’ strategic role and positioning in the organization. Respondents in 2014 and
today agree that reporting directly to the CEO is the most effective way to move Corporate Communications
up the strategic continuum and closer to the heart of business strategy.
11%
A vast majority
CFO
46%
of Corporate CEO
Communications
functions
currently report 16%
19%
directly to the COO
CMO
C-suite.
10%
Other
Who does your most senior communicator report in to? (Shown among n=200)

Functional Structure
Corporate Communications structures, organizational charts, and operating models are constantly evolving
and are often more a result of incremental change than a deliberate design strategy. Many, if not most,
interviewees describe a natural cadence of assessing and adjusting their functions to keep pace with the
changing communications environment. For these leaders, finding the right operating model and structure
starts with thinking through communications’ role and defining its purpose and value proposition. From
there, they were able to more easily determine the right structure required to execute on the vision.
There are multiple structures

communicators can build from.
26%
The three most common are 43% MATRIXED
represented in the graph. CENTRALIZED
31%
DECENTRALIZED
How is your communications function currently structured (i.e., configuration and

reporting lines of teams and individuals)? (Shown among n=200)
Corporate Communications • A direct response to a business shift or realignment at the

structures swing from centralized to enterprise level; as businesses centralize and consolidate their
decentralized depending on the year operating models, so goes corporate communications.
and the trend. More than a few • The need to reduce complexity and streamline decision-making
leaders talk about moving back within the function based on a centralized approach and point of
view.
toward centrally managed Corporate
Communications functions, or • The desire to operate with greater coordination and agility by
matrixed functions with a center pulling all communicators into a centrally managed model with a
shared vision, objectives, and strategies.
enterprise governing team in 2022.
They attribute the moves in part to • Correcting a lack of line of sight across communications
programming, content, and messaging that can undermine
the following: corporate positioning and stakeholder engagement.
• The ability to deploy resources more easily, matching resources
and expertise to business need quickly, efficiently, and in real time.
• The need to more effectively leverage economies of scale, from
content and message development, to media pitching, to capability
development.
Breaking Down Structures

Centralized Model
Centralized structures are most often led from the Head, Corporate Communications
center enterprise level and organized around

communications disciplines — most often
Corporate Communications, brand, employee
Lead, External Lead, Internal
communications, and digital/social. Communications Communications
Lead, Public Affairs Lead, Digital
Core pillars may be accompanied by capability Editorial & Content Team
experts such as newsrooms, channel teams, and

increasingly, measurement and analytics. Capability Capability
TBD TBD
Capability Capability
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
Our survey showed corporate communications Capability Capability

TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
functions with operating budgets of less than
$1 million annually were more likely to exist in a
centralized model.
Advantages Disadvantages
Team operates under centrally managed, aligned Greater enterprise focus can be at expense of
vision and strategy. market, geography, or business function/unit
considerations.
Easier to manage consistent enterprise narrative Content can be overly directed by a dominant
and brand and reputation agendas. geography and fail to land in local market context.
Easier to drive transparency and collaboration Teams find themselves removed from direct
within and across function. business relationships, diminishing business
acumen and strategic reach.
More consistent and efficient processes and Requires teams to work well within a matrix and
approaches. operate in alignment to the same communications
philosophy and approach.
Increases agility and economies of scale around Fights for resources and investments within and
resources, content, technology, analytics, etc. across the function, as needs in different areas of
the business can differ.

Breaking Down Structures (cont.)

Decentralized Business
Partner Model
Business partner models provide direct support Head, Corporate Communications
and engagement with business units,
geographies, or functions through self-contained
communications teams that mirror the operating
structure of the business. This model is nearly as Business Unit or Function Business Unit or Function Business Unit or Function
common as the centralized model. It helps teams

achieve a high level of “local” relevance and Strategy & Execution
Support Teams
Strategy & Execution
Support Teams
Strategy & Execution
Support Teams
deliver communications and programming that Media Internal Media Internal Media Internal
are especially well designed for stakeholder and Relations Comms Relations Comms Relations Comms
market needs. Business partner models can also Thought

Leadership
HR Ops
Comms
Thought HR Ops Thought HR Ops
Leadership Comms Leadership Comms
be matrixed with discipline or center-of-
excellence teams that provide strategy and Digital
Social
Community
Engagement
Digital
Social
Community
Engagement
Digital
Social
Community
Engagement
execution support across business units.
Proximity to leadership with opportunity to cultivate Absence or challenges in maintaining enterprise

deep strategic counsel relationships. corporate/brand identity strategy and positioning.
Deep business acumen and intimate knowledge of Difficulty maintaining enterprise vision, narrative,
business/product strategy. and consistency of communications and messaging.
Dedicated teams focused on developing localized, Uneven communications strategy and delivery due
targeted strategy and programming. to lack of centralized strategy and approach.
Strategic themes emanate from the center as well as Collaboration is challenged as teams revert into
from local market teams. business-driven silos.
Directed allocation of budget and resources aligned Redundancy in resource and process and challenges
to specific business unit needs. in creating economies of scale.
Communications roles and resources closely aligned Communicators in compromised positions when
to specific business unit needs. business unit leaders act counter to enterprise
strategy.


Matrixed Model
A hybrid or matrixed structure is the most
Head, Corporate Communications
common. It often combines dominant and
secondary teams that emphasize core Integrated Government
Brand & Product
communications disciplines managed from the Communications
Corporate
Communications
Relations & External
Affairs
GLOBAL
center and are supplemented by geographically
aligned teams. The strategy may also be the Communications
Operations
Digital
Internal
Communications
Sponsorship
reverse, giving geography-based teams greater Global News & Content
autonomy supported by discipline centers of Global Monitoring & Analytics
excellence. Process and governance are very

important in matrixed models where strategy
Americas LATAM EMEA APAC HQ
Regional Regional Regional Regional Regional
SBU
encompasses multiple areas of the business and Americas LATAM EMEA APAC HQ
Local Market Local Market Local Market Local Market Local Market
execution is happening at the enterprise and local
levels.
The survey showed Corporate Communications

functions with budgets over $1 million annually
are more often matrixed models.
Teams guided by a centralized, enterprise strategy Content and message overlaps and redundancies, as
and approach. well as floods of uncoordinated messaging from
enterprise and regional teams.
Better balanced enterprise and local market Challenges in determining decision rights and
communications and brand objectives. accountabilities for strategy and content
development and execution.
Ability to more easily anticipate potential conflicts of Management of function demands more
interest across markets/business units. coordination and collaboration, even when org.
chart provides for direct and dotted reporting lines.
More balanced focus between corporate reputation Strategy misalignments and conflicts due to dual
initiatives and individual business unit/business ownership at the enterprise and business unit levels.
activities.
Better collaboration and ability to bring teams Lack of clarity or confusion around roles,
together around strategy and approach and responsibility, and decision-making authorities.
individual issues or initiatives.


Decentralized
Stakeholder Model
Decentralized stakeholder models are organized Head, Corporate Communications
around audiences. This is a less common model and

most often used by smaller communications teams
(i.e., fewer than 25 people), as well as in some Lead, Corporate Lead, Employee Lead, Media Lead, Constituent
pharma/biotech settings where the needs of unique Strategy
Communications
Communications Engagement and Community
scientific and patient constituencies dominate the

communications agenda. Capability Capability
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
Like business unit-aligned functions, designing a Capability Capability

TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
TBD TBD
function around stakeholders while providing deep

audience insight and experience can challenge
strategy, approach, and message consistency.
Without careful planning, management, and
collaboration, the model is less efficient at
leveraging talent and resources.
Increased audience insights-driven strategy and Lack of business alignment (outward vs. inward
content; clarity on the what and why of focus), which undermines strategic positioning of
messaging against audience insights. function.
Easier story sourcing within and across business. More work and effort to find and pull through
red thread of central narrative and themes.
Clear roles and accountabilities for More complex for business to navigate multiple
communications team segmented by audience communications POCs and points of
or stakeholder group. engagement.
Opportunity to build deep, tailored capability Resource and talent redundancies and lack of
and resources aligned to specific stakeholder ability to leverage economies of scale through
strategies. matrixed teams.
Opportunities for scalability of team and Career growth and succession potentially more
team capabilities. challenging.

Key Finding:
The Elusive Integration of
Marketing and Communications
From a structural perspective, the successful blending of marketing and communications functions
continues to elude many organizations and create confusion around leadership, roles, and accountabilities.
While there was an initial trend several years ago to try to merge marketing and communications functions,
because of significant operating and cultural divides difficult to overcome, a majority remain separate, and
teams are still working through integration growing pains.
Teams that successfully bridge the divide start by creating joint planning that exists within a flexible
framework that accounts for everything from individual product lines to local markets. These are dynamic,
as opposed to rigid planning and collaboration systems. This process allows teams to confront cultural
differences through strategic approach and understanding — how teams view and perceive each other’s
role and value proposition, but also how they think about programming, particularly when it comes to
brand and product marketing that dictates communications and marketing work closely together. From
there, teams jointly work through the process of co-creating the right systems and processes to drive
collaboration.
“The swim lanes used to be very clear between marketing and communications and
it has become less clear. We're both sort of encroaching on each other's territory.
And now that's where the tension is.”
“[Team members] want to know ‘what box do I play in? What am I

accountable for and what am I not? And when do I pass the baton?’”

Good Governance
At the most basic level, governance is how decisions are made and how information moves, both within the
function and between the function and other parts of the business. Taken further, governance is a critical
framework defining how strategic and operational decisions are made and executed. It is fundamental to
how the function is managed and more important to efficient and effective and operations than structure.
For Corporate Communications, the essential aspects of governance fall in three categories:
Strategic Operational Message Issues Team Team

Drive Management Alignment Management Development Leadership
Strategy delivery Budgets, Communications Rapid Best practice, Function

and progress performance calendar, response, innovation, meeting and team
monitoring management, internal and Coordination, upskilling, and interactions
HR matters external alignment and alignment team training
during issues
Drive and manage the Manage communications Develop capability and provide
communications function proactively and reactively visible leadership
Many communications teams struggle to build the right

forums and processes to ensure good governance both Effective communications
within their functions and as the critical connective governance models include the
tissue with other functional partners and the business. following elements:
Left undefined, a lack of defined governance becomes • Clear roles and responsibilities
the primary barrier to productivity and execution in • Defined decision rights
Corporate Communications functions today. • Formal and informal
communication mechanisms
More than a few communications leaders believe they
had structural or reporting issues that required an • Consistent leadership
overhaul of their teams and organizational charts, • Aligned incentive structures
when in fact they were experiencing a lack of • Metrics or KPIs
governance and clear accountabilities, which are much
more easily solved.

Good Process + Workflow

Communications leaders say establishing strong processes around core work has had the greatest return on
time and investment and is one of the most critical aspects of their functional design to get right.
Defining processes is critical to establishing how the function’s work gets done in the context of specific
activities. While some processes evolve naturally, there are others for which it is important to develop clear
policies and procedures that are consistent and institutionalized. Interviewees singled out three processes
they see as both essential to a well-functioning Corporate Communications function and benefiting from
having defined approaches and workflows.
Strategic Planning
1 Communications leaders who have instituted regular, integrated strategic planning find it to
be a starting point for better collaboration and a way to ensure that teams and functional
partners are informed and aware of each other’s strategies, goals, and program planning.
Content Development + Newsrooms

Another core process that teams spend significant time establishing is around the
2
administration of content creation and dissemination — whether through a traditional
storytelling engine or an internal newsroom. Corporate communications leaders see
value in developing an engine that defines its audiences, identifies priority topic areas,
and categorizes the optimal channels for distribution, ensuring a well-managed, fully
integrated content development process.
Issues and Crisis Response
3 A central process and plan built with the appropriate resources to proactively monitor the
organization’s issue risk portfolio should include crisis team roles and responsibilities,
response protocols, and playbooks that reinforce a process-driven communications
approach and serve as the central resource for issue response.

Team Size and Head Count

There does not appear to be any standard benchmark for the appropriate size of the Corporate
Communications function — teams run in size from two to 200.
Factors influencing size have as much to do with the value the business places on communications and
reputation management as with the function’s organic growth and strategic positioning. Size correlates
somewhat to the role and complexity of Corporate Communications, but not necessarily to the size or
revenue of the business.
Function Org size Org revenue Corp Communications Budget

Head Total Under Under $500k- $1M to
Count 5k+ <$2B $2B+ $5M+
5k $500k $999k $4.9M
Sample size N = 192 N = 102 N = 90 N = 94 N = 98 N = 48 N = 40 N = 51 N = 53
1 to 4 15% 16% 14% 18% 12% 46% 5% 6% 4%

5 to 9 54% 69% 37% 64% 44% 44% 78% 61% 38%
10 to 24 19% 11% 29% 11% 28% 6% 10% 24% 34%
25 to 99 6% 4% 8% 5% 6% 0% 8% 8% 8%
100+ 6% 1% 12% 2% 10% 4% 0% 2% 17%
Median 8 7 9 7 9 5 7 8 11
Mean 51.01 12.94 94.14 17.52 83.12 21.94 9.45 20.86 137.70
*Median refers to the middle response provided of all responses, while mean refers to the average of all responses.
“I don't know how much of our staffing numbers were data-driven or just some
random business number — you can have 120 people in the department.”
“Shadow communicators contribute to our challenge [of growing the size of the
team]. We might have had 10 people in communications that we know about,
and 20 more behind the scenes that we don’t.”

Key Finding:
Building and Leading a Multidisciplinary Team
Corporate Communications is shifting from singularly focused communications expertise — creating and
disseminating content — to a multidisciplinary function of complementary capabilities. To lead an effective
corporate communications function in today’s environment, teams we spoke to are beginning to shift their
talent and capability sets to a more diverse balance of traditional skills (e.g., writing, earned media,
employee communications) and new skills in strategy, data and analytics, brand and marketing PR, and
multimedia.
The dilemma of how to create new multidisciplinary teams and strategic disciplines within Corporate
Communications, starting with embedding data and analytics, was called out as one of the biggest hurdles
facing many communicators in advanced and global functions.
For some, the first step to building a multidisciplinary team is thinking of the team as an integrated unit as
opposed to a collection of individual specialists or silos on an organizational chart. Doing this requires
adjusting leadership style, building culture, and rethinking the underlying architecture of the function with a
special focus on collaboration. A few other critical components highlighted by communicators include:
• Shared understanding and alignment around a common set of goals and objectives that the entire team,
regardless of discipline, is working toward.
• A baseline, generalist understanding of the core disciplines of communications regardless of specialty.
• Processes that guide integrated planning at the macro and micro levels.
• Collaborative processes that make it easy to come together and produce work as integrated teams.
“The ability to lead and manage multidisciplinary teams — that in and of itself is a very
different skill set for communications leaders than maybe 10 years ago when you were
managing a more homogenized team with similar skill sets. It changes the role of a
communicator. A senior communicator used to be the best writer or had the best media
contacts. But now the role of the top communicator is to pull together the right skill sets to
drive a strategy and know how to maximize the value of the specialist on his or her team.”

People, Teams + Collaboration
Roles and Responsibilities

One of the biggest challenges for Corporate
Communications teams, regardless of structure, is keeping
roles and responsibilities clear within the function, and
between the function and other departments such as
marketing and HR.
Some teams report using RACI-style exercises to clarify roles

and responsibilities, ensuring that individual communicators
and teams understand their swim lanes. Others looked to
create broader service-level agreements that approach roles “[COVID-19] showed what
and responsibilities from the perspective of the work being
collaboration and working across the
done.
organization really meant, not just in
In each exercise, communications leaders took pains to think my silo to deliver the work product.
not only about tasks and skills, but about ownership around And that really helped us.”
channels and strategic platforms and types of
communication — earned media, paid media, websites,
social handles, etc.
“One thing that I would like to see stay

Integration and Collaboration
[as a result of COVID-19], and
An additional challenge is fostering engagement and
building the appropriate networks that compel and enable
everybody's seen the value of, are
teams to effectively emerge from discipline or business unit regular alignment and integration
silos and work cross-functionally. Building necessary meetings between teams and
collaboration and knowledge-sharing networks and functions.”
behaviors is never a simple task; undermining these efforts
are everything from strategic and physical silos, to time and
resources, to the competitive tendencies of corporate
culture.
Teams reported that good collaboration for them started

with setting routines where teams gather and work together
on a regular basis. Remote work over the past 18 months
has helped. It has accelerated and facilitated development
and investment in improved technology and collaboration
platforms, and a focus on more formal processes and
governance, starting with a proliferation of alignment
meetings used to speed collaboration and decision-making.

People, Teams + Collaboration

(cont.)
While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced greater collaboration, some communications leaders expressed
concern over long-standing, ingrained challenges they face. These challenges manifest frequently in two
places: global teams facing tensions between center and regional communications authorities and
engagement, and between Corporate Communications and marketing.
Solutions that have made a difference and were referenced by communications leaders are:
Institutionalizing Collaboration Processes: Cross-collaboration is achieved through formal and

informal relationships. Some teams have taken steps to institutionalize routines to ensure that
collaboration is a deeply ingrained accountability in the performance of the function.
Investment in Collaboration Platforms and Tools: Teams continue to make significant investment
in collaboration platforms and tools — from digital work environments to content databases — to
drive more virtual collaboration and information-sharing.
Meeting Cadence: Teams are trying to make COVID-19-driven work groups and alignment
meetings permanent. Regular meeting cadences supplemented by informal check-ins, strong
editorial and issues management processes, and more formal annual summits and strategic
planning processes are just a few things teams are focused on.
Collaboration Is Cultural: There’s a recognition that collaboration must be ingrained in the culture
and operating environment. This manifests through leader and manager approach, norms and
behaviors that define performance, and a discipline of transparency and information-sharing
across teams.
“We've absolutely broken the barrier on communications as a strategic driver and

we've expanded the team dramatically. Since COVID, we've been way more valued.
I get pushback way less.”
“There are still region-centric fiefdoms. There's still the ‘you guys in [the
corporate center] don't really understand us’ and us saying ‘we don't
know why you can't execute that in your region.’”

The Playbook:
Guiding principles for designing your
communications function.
Communications leaders are trying to build operating models that move them closer to the
business without losing a consistent, managed approach to enterprise communications
strategy. Some leaders are also confronting the need for a (sometimes vastly) different talent
mix and wrestling with developing new capabilities and a new functional architecture to
support them.
While there are no hard and fast rules to functional design, communications leaders, backed
by Edelman’s own experience, offered a set of guiding principles influencing functional
structure and design today.
Have a clear vision. Perceptions of the role of communication hinder or advance the
function and impact structure, budget, and strategic positioning. Create and leverage
a clear communications vision and value proposition to signal the function’s strategic
value to the business.
Enable business strategy. Closely align Corporate Communications structures and

operating models to the broader organization mission and business strategies and
objectives.
Combine planning and insight. Leverage data and advanced analytics to drive strategy;
ensure that the necessary tools and disciplines exist to integrate insight, outcome, and
planning.
Optimize how work gets done. Establish good processes and institutionalize the
critical ones to enable the team to perform the activities consistently and efficiently
across the function.
Allow governance to trump structure. Establish rules for how the team and individual
contributors share information and make decisions within and across the function and
the broader business.
Have a strong people strategy. Define and continuously re-evaluate the skills and
capabilities necessary not only for today, but to bring the function into the future.

The Future
of Corporate
Communications
APPENDIX

The Future of Corporate Communications | Appendix
About the Authors

Lead Authors
Geren Raywood
Executive Vice President, Business Transformation
Geren Raywood is an Executive Vice President and leader in Edelman Business Transformation practice.
Geren brings more than 20 years of experience in strategic communications, organizational strategy
and change, and employee engagement. Geren partners with clients at the executive and functional
levels to develop large-scale workforce and change communications programs designed to deepen
stakeholder engagement and drive business performance. With a background in management
consulting, Geren has worked extensively in the commercial, government, higher education, and
nonprofit sectors.
At Edelman, Geren also leads an Organizational Design practice focused on assessment initiatives
analyzing strategic, operational, and cultural issues in the context of large-scale functional redesigns
and communications effectiveness audits. Her recent work includes new marketing and Corporate
Communications functions for a global commodities company and two major universities, a global
approach to manufacturing communications for a major automaker, and internal communications and
labor relations strategies and counsel for two global companies managing through major crises.
Before joining Edelman, Geren was at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she developed leadership, human
capital, and workforce planning strategies for the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security,
Justice, and the President’s Management Council. Geren graduated from Boston University and has her
master’s from Columbia University. She holds post-graduate certificates in Global Affairs and Change
Management from New York University and Georgetown University, respectively. She has worked
throughout the U.S., Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Kari Butcher
Managing Director, Edelman Data x Intelligence, U.S.
Kari is a research and communications specialist with more than 25 years of experience in corporate
reputation, public affairs, and issue campaigns where she has deep expertise in turning data into
actionable insights to drive client engagements. As a former political pollster, Kari brings a unique
combination of issue management, reputation, and advocacy campaign expertise to the team. She has
led the research for national issue advocacy campaigns and global reputation benchmark and tracking
studies, and worked with multinational companies on managing risk and crisis recovery.
Kari works with some of the leading global government affairs and law firms and trade organizations on
crafting issue narratives, testing messages, and measuring impact to guide communications for local,
national, and global issues. She has expertise working in highly regulated industries and navigating
sensitive issues dealing with policy, legislation, energy, transportation, environmental, and community
issues.

About the Authors

Research & Editing Team
Lindsay Hanson
SVP, Global Corporate Practice Strategy
Lindsay leads strategy for Edelman’s Corporate Affairs and Advisory Services practice. Over her career,
she has worked in advisory capacities to help organizations define and understand their stakeholders,
establish strategic priorities, and achieve target outcomes.
As strategy lead, Lindsay collaborates with a global network of practice leaders to drive business
growth, capability innovation, and efficiency.
Lindsay holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a bachelor’s
degree in political science and economics from the University of Richmond. As an undergraduate
writing fellow, she was trained in the art of developing young writers, a practice she continues to enjoy
today.
Alayna Van Hall

SVP, Corporate Growth and Innovation, CommsTech
Alayna leads innovation at Edelman’s Corporate Affairs & Advisory Services practice. With more than
10 years of experience working with marketing, advertising, AdTech, and innovation firms, Alayna
works with Edelman’s leadership and clients to uncover the most pressing needs of the
communications industry and leverages design thinking to bring each solution to life.
With a focus on CommsTech, Alayna has helped to infuse digital, data, and analytics into the Corporate
Practice — helping communications do what they do, but better.
Stephanie Lesser
Consultant, Edelman Data x Intelligence
Stephanie is an experienced market research professional and 7-year veteran of Edelman's data and
intelligence arm. While at Edelman, she has developed and led bespoke audience insights research for a
variety of leading companies, government entities, and not-for-profit organizations. In recent years,
Stephanie has helped design and execute both qualitative and quantitative research for several of Edelman's
organizational design projects.
Stephanie holds a Master's in international economics and international relations from Johns Hopkins
University and a Bachelor's in linguistics from the University of Florida.

Our research focused on

two tracks:
1. A quantitative survey fielded to 200 The Future of Corporate
participants in December 2020 and January Communications Study
2021.
in Numbers
2. In-depth interviews with 35+ senior
communications leaders from participating
U.S.-based organizations.
3 months of research
Our survey was a combination of trend
identification and baseline functional
benchmarking (e.g., head count, scope of 200+ 35+
responsibilities, operational models, budgets, Survey Interviews
participants and
and investments). conversations
Interviews focused on the operations and Representative

strategic positioning of the Corporate Geographies
Communications function and forward- North America (85%)
looking insights around future growth and EMEA (7%)
investment. APAC (4%)
Latin America (4%)
The survey was conducted by Edelman Data &

Intelligence, an independent research firm Representative Public: 49%
Sectors Private: 49%
and part of the DJE family of companies. Nonprofit: 2%
Global Multinational: 61%

Data analysis was performed by an integrated Reach National (U.S.): 39%
team of Edelman organizational design
subject matter experts and Edelman leaders
and subject matter experts. Participants
Senior Corporate Communications
leaders, Minimum 10-24 years
For more information, contact professional experience
[email protected].

Survey Demographics
Survey Participant Profile
Over eight weeks in December 2020 and February 2021, Edelman conducted a survey and interviews
with a diversity of leaders in Corporate Communications.
The objective was to understand how communications leaders are thinking about the strategic
positioning and structure of their functions today and in the future.
Representative Geography:
North America (85%) Latin America (4%), EMEA (7%), APAC (4%)
49% 49% 2% 61% 39%

Public Private Nonprofit Multinational National (U.S.)
Role: Level: Professional

Corporate Senior Leader Experience:
Communications 10-24 years

Survey Demographics
Industry + Focus
Survey respondents represent a range of industry categories.
The top five industries representing between 10-15% of total respondents include:
1. Financial Services
2. Professional Services
3. Technology
4. Retail
5. Manufacturing
Professional Services Financial Services
13 15 Other
Technology 12
Industry Category
12
6 Healthcare
Displayed as a percent (%)
11 6
Retail 11 10 6 Consumer
Products & Goods
Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals Food & Beverage
Business-to-consumer Business-to-business
(B2C) (B2B)
26 42
Sales Focus
Displayed as a percent (%)
30 3
About equal Other
B2B and B2C
Which of the following best describes your industry? (Shown among: n=200)
How would you describe your sales focus? (Shown among: n=200)

Survey Demographics
Company
Annual Revenue
About half of survey
49%
respondents manage Less than
communications for $2 billion
companies with less than
$2 billion in annual revenue.
22% 20%
$2 billion to
$4 billion $5 billion to
$24 billion
5% 6%
$25 billion
to More than
$50 billion
$49 billion
Approximately how much is the annual revenue of

the organization you work for?
(Shown among: n=200)

Survey Demographics
Survey Participant Profile
The average workforce size for the majority of survey respondents is less than 5,000.
An additional 44% of respondents represent between 5,000 and 100,000 employees.
53%
Approximately how many employees work for your
organization? (Shown among: n=200)
Fewer than
5,000
30%
5,000 to
20,000
14%
20,000 to
100,000
2% 3%
100,000 to 200,000 to
500,000
0%
200,000
More than
500,000

Future of Corporate Communications - FINAL - FULL - REPORT

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Future of Corporate Communications - FINAL - FULL - REPORT

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Future of Corporate Communications - FINAL - FULL - REPORT

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

THE FUTURE

PART 1: The Evolution of Corporate Communications 1

Jim O’Leary Dave Samson

The Future of Corporate Communications 2

§ Top Research Insights 4 - 14

The Future of Corporate Communications

The role of communications has become

77% • Ground your goals in a singular objective: driving a shift from

The Future of Corporate Communications 5

The modern Corporate Communications

The Future of Corporate Communications 6

CommsTech is already ushering in a new

The Future of Corporate Communications 7

An increased focus on the workplace,

62% • Put effective employee communications at the center of business

The Future of Corporate Communications 8

Expectations around social issues have

73% • Ensure that all stakeholders are aligned on your organization’s

The Future of Corporate Communications 9

“In a centralized team, you have a better chance of having a great

“Alignment to [specific business units] means the communications team has a

The Future of Corporate Communications 10

Communicators are increasingly acting

77% • Recognize change as an opportunity for value creation. Establishing

The Future of Corporate Communications *McKinsey 11

The lines between communications and

12% planning that acknowledges the fluidity of both disciplines. By

The Future of Corporate Communications 12

In an increasingly complex and activist

The Future of Corporate Communications 13

While the importance of the

• Link budget requests to strategic goals/priorities. Define budget

• Do more with less. Make the budget you have go further by

The Future of Corporate Communications 14

The Future of Corporate Communications

Among corporate leaders,

the strategic plays in ensuring a business’s

The Future of Corporate Communications 16

Impact & Opportunity

In interviews and survey responses, a majority of

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being no disruption and 10

43% “The silver lining of COVID-19 [for us] was

The Future of Corporate Communications 17

The Rise of Employee

COVID-19 continues to force critical changes to employee communications in three ways:

1 62% Increased focus on internal

More than half of 2 56% More use of

How has COVID-19 impacted your communications function and

The Future of Corporate Communications 18

COVID-19 is not the only change

The Future of Corporate Communications 19

A New Role in Business

“Change is a place we’’re going to continue to invest in because we’re

“Change communications has become so much of an integral part of our

The Future of Corporate Communications 20

Social Issues Shift the

“The more we continue to play in these spaces, more opportunities come

The Future of Corporate Communications 21