A UK wide magazine written, designed and managed by The Fifth Business has won a CiB (Communicators in Business) Award for Excellence. The Shell World UK magazine won the award in the quarterly Internal Magazine category. The judge’s comments describe the magazine as a “young magazine that has one hell of a future” and praise it for being “vibrant, lively and colourful”.

The communications team at Shell agree: "I’m pleased to hear about this very deserving award. I think The Fifth Business have done a great job with Shell World UK magazine, which is an excellent example of a corporate in-house magazine,” said Andrew Eddy, Head of UK Communications for Shell. “It has genuinely interesting and relevant content, not only about our people but also about the energy challenges we all face together.”

The magazine is a team effort between our London and Houston offices and combines great writing and editing capabilities with a modern and fresh design. For further information, please contact Jeremy Miles at our London office on +44 (0)207 534 9099.

CEO Enda Logan has been speaking at this year’s Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Australia European Conference in Amsterdam this May. His topic – communications in finance, accounting and administration – was part of CPA Australia’s conference programme for members aimed at lifting the horizons and leadership capabilities of finance professionals in the challenging times we face today.

Communications and its sister discipline, design, are seen as increasingly crucial to managing change, attracting attention and maintaining motivation among sophisticated business-aware corporate audiences. Mastery of interpersonal communications and the imaginative capacity to use new technologies to overcome distance and time zone issues were highlighted as major components of the conference’s content design. The Fifth Business was asked to provide lively and entertaining input into the wrap-up session on Day 2: Enda was able to focus on some new envelope-pushing technologies and customer case studies that illustrate the novel choices available to the professional communicator or savvy senior manager in 2009.

His submission was commended by the organisers as a perfect end to this year’s innovative conference programme. For further information on The Fifth Business BV in Holland or the company’s work throughout the world, contact Peter Leggett on +31 70 353 8174

The Fifth Business has won a new contract with a second luxury European car manufacturer to build an e-learning module . The ‘deliverable’ will act as an induction for sales staff on a new model of car. Working in conjunction with the client’s learning partner, the Fifth Business team is writing the script and creating a story board that will be combined with design to develop a highly engaging interactive programme. The induction highlights twelve features of the new model and allows the user to ‘play’ with the features to see how they function within the interior design and instrumentation – be it the dashboard or the gear stick. The client has stipulated that the product be as engaging as possible to keep the attention of these very highly regarded and well seasoned sales staff, whose responsibility it will be to represent this exciting new model in the marketing launch. To this end, video and interactive media are being used to create this experiential learning through simulation.

In line with the company’s long tradition of embracing new technology developments and communications channels as they emerge, CEO blogging has become a standard feature of the company’s communications sub-culture.

The Fifth Business has all the challenges of much larger organisations when it comes to geographies, organisational disparateness and customer site-working. Blogging is one of several techniques being used to overcome these dynamics: others include monthly regional get-togethers, regular communications sessions, a 24-page news letter designed to the highest standards and the appointment of a communications manager.

Blogging however offers the immediacy of contact with the CEO without an intermediary or filtering process – and this linkage between the CEO and staff allows for unexpected outcomes, according to Luisa Sorrentino:

"Blogging challenges the boundaries of normal communications practice and I have to acknowledge that in my role as communications manager. Sometimes messages, storylines and themes take on a life of their own on this blogging portal – and our CEO rises to the bait every time. In fact he quite enjoys provoking the chat. But I think this is a good thing – and part of the charm and engagement among staff who feel it is ‘live’, relevant and worthwhile as a feature of our culture".

At a recent Melcrum conference in Barcelona, keynote speakers Luisa Sorrentino and Enda Logan from The Fifth Business jointly presented a vision for the latest communications techniques and technologies available to the discipline.

Using examples to illustrate topics as diverse as Second Life, wikis, iPOD-delivered video and motion graphics messaging, story-telling and word clouds, the speakers presented a potted history and a glimpse of the future for professional practitioners. Illustrated case studies of specific customer applications were outlined in subject matters such as measurement, eventing and virtual conference management.

Below is a word cloud from the US Presidential debate:

A programme of international speaking engagements for The Fifth Business experts is planned throughout 2009. For further details, contact Gavin Aldrich in the company's London office on +44 207 534 9099.

A recruiting video produced for BP to assist them in enlisting staff for their Gulf of Mexico offshore team was awarded two awards recently. The first came from the Houston chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators in their Bronze Quill program, which celebrates the outstanding efforts of our best communicators and their unique talent, creativity, and resourcefulness. The second honour was a Communicator Awards' award of excellence from the International Academy of Visual Arts, a leading international creative awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals.

The video, Life Offshore – an Ocean of Opportunity, was produced for BP in response to a shortage the group is facing in the offshore technician workforce due to rising retirement and attrition rates. In order to attract potential employees with no prior offshore experience, BP sought to engage process technology students and experienced military hires by giving them a glimpse at what life is like on a BP platform in the Gulf.

In an effort to give something back to the community, the Houston team recently completed a video for AIDS Foundation Houston, Texas' first organisation dedicated to providing HIV resources, services and education. The video was highlighted during the organisation's World AIDS Day luncheon and as a PSA later that day on a local news station. The video will be used by the group to tell their story as needed for a variety of audiences.

The Fifth Business has recently been selected as the primary e-learning partner by a major European car manufacturer.

Our new customer uses e-learning in many of its training and development activities and has sought The Fifth Business' expertise to design and implement an engaging dealer training programme. The deployment of video within the e-learning environment is regarded as key to cementing the unique selling points of their new automobile series prior to launch.

The dealer community and other key stakeholders will be more conversant with the new features of the model, in alignment with the external PR & marketing campaign. The Fifth Business will draw on its e-learning skills and its deep understanding of employee engagement to help support the customer's launch strategy with the creation of these modules.

One well-received module is already in the field, achieving the highest user ratings the car manufacturer has experienced to date with its e-learning approach – work has now commenced on a second project.

For further information, contact Jeremy Miles on +44 207 534 9099.

The Fifth Business BV based in the Hague has secured several new contracts for its communications and design services as its first full year of operations comes to a close.

A major sportswear manufacturer has awarded The Fifth Business the contract for a project within their Corporate Responsibility department. The client, a CR leader in its industry, aims to inspire community investment through EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) and has commissioned The Fifth Business to create a toolkit that will not only inspire employees but make compliance easier. The Fifth Business will provide design and communication support, as well as workshop facilitation.

Peter Leggett sees this new contract as a major step forward in an exciting industry sector for the company.

"To secure this opportunity with such a global leader, on a project that means a great deal to me personally, is a wonderful step forward, and demonstrates the strengths and depths of our ability to work within a fast pace industry. The feedback we have had so far proves our capability in offering innovative, creative and pragmatic solutions, that really reach out to, and engage with, diverse staff communities."

The Fifth Business Inc is based on Paarkstraat in the Hague and can be contacted on: +31 70 353 8174