“InfoBondo”, the crisis communication of the municipality of Bregaglia following the rock slide and debris flows in 2017, was awarded the Swiss Prize for Corporate Communications on Thursday evening. The jury of experts praised the ongoing dialogue with those affected and the comprehensive media work.
Excellent crisis communication
After the rock slide and debris flows in late summer 2017, almost 150 people had to be evacuated from Bondo, Spino and Sottoponte and lived all over the valley afterwards. The “infoBondo” communication campaign was launched for them, which was awarded the Swiss Prize for Corporate Communications in Zurich on Thursday.
“InfoBondo provided continuous and comprehensive information about the current situation, our activities and the prospects for the coming weeks and months. At the same time, however, we also wanted to know how those affected were doing and whether we were doing the right thing from their point of view,” explained Christian Gartmann, who is responsible for communication among the management staff, at the awards ceremony in Zurich. “Our dialogue with those affected and active media relations over many weeks were novel for a natural disaster in Switzerland and fully achieved their goals.
The prize is a reward for openness to break new ground in a crisis situation.”
The municipality's communication work was carried out via several channels: The media were always actively informed when important decisions had been made or the situation had changed. There were regular meetings for the population, at which those responsible provided information and answered questions from those affected.
A telephone hotline answered further questions and provided additional feedback on the work of the crisis organization, and an SMS service informed evacuees on a daily basis about the opportunities to enter the restricted districts. After all, the doors of the municipal administration were always open: residents could get information and help here.
The jury praised the project's focus on those affected. InfoBondo was “the return of dialogue in the midst of a crisis,” said jury president Prof. Peter Stücheli-Herlach in his laudatory speech. It was not a rigid plan that led to success, but the agile cooperation of all. “When people communicate so responsibly, they can handle the most difficult situations.”
Building trust to overcome the crisis
“Our active and regular communication created an important basis of trust and thus made the work of everyone involved easier,” summarizes community president Anna Giacometti just over a year after the natural disaster. “It is a great pleasure that our communication work has now received a national prize.”
In the days following the rock fall and after the large debris flows, dozens of media workers were on site and the media service answered up to 250 inquiries a day. “Media pressure is often greatest precisely when the workload for the crisis organization is greatest,” says Martin Bühler, head of the cantonal office for military and civil protection, who led the crisis organization as head of operations in the first few weeks. “The ongoing dialogue with those affected and continuous, active media work worked very well and effectively relieved the workload of management.”
Swiss Prize for Corporate Communications
Supported by the “pr suisse” professional association Swiss Award Corporate Communications is the only Swiss prize for corporate communication. Since 2005, he has been honoring networked and efficient corporate communications projects. They are judged by an independent jury from practice and science.
Together with “InfoBondo”, three other projects were honored:
- “ABB Formula E”: Public Relations Suisse AG service plan for ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd
(Congratulations on the evening's grand prize!) - “Ufenes Cüpli bi Wehrle's”: agency at Flughafen AG for Domus Leuchten & Möbel AG
(Congratulations on an award!) - “600 years of Niklaus von Flüe”: Küchler Kommunikation agency for sponsoring association 600 years of Niklaus von Flüe
(Congratulations on an award!)
personals
Prize winner: Christian Gartmann, 079 355 78 78
Corporate Communications Award: Roland Bieri, 079 631 55 77
Link: Technical article from “Marketing & Communications”