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Jason Sumner
In this excerpt from the Bowen Craggs Index report 2021: Corporate digital communication gets bolder and sharper under fire, Jason Sumner shares five of the best editorial pieces that our team of consultants has come across this year.
The Bowen Craggs team spends a lot of time reading and viewing corporate digital communications (so you don’t have to), in order to create the Bowen Craggs Index.
Increasingly and pleasingly, we come across stories and videos that break with ‘corporate’ convention, and are unexpectedly amusing, moving, educational or otherwise inspiring.
Live sustainable #LikeABosch: Quirky and memorable
The video on this page, released in 2021, is like Marmite (you either love it or hate it), but distinctive amid the forest of samey corporate responsibility messaging. The fact that it features the CEO taking the time to do something unconventional and out of character is also notable.

Valuing neurodiversity at HSBC: Inspiring
A video on this page features three people on the autism spectrum talking about working at HSBC. The production style is straightforward. One thing that is notable is that it is pleasingly short – 44 seconds – ensuring that key messages hit home even to impatient visitors.

Outmanoeuvering the cancer genome at GSK: Explaining breakthrough science
This story from September in the UK pharmaceutical company’s Behind the Science magazine explains the new strategy of “synthetic lethality” to fight cancer. The read time is four minutes (it may take longer for the story to sink in), but the explanations are clear for non-expert readers, with an accompanying short video.

The beavers that broke the internet and other stories: Fun
Verizon’s special feature ‘Verizon in the wild’ has entertaining vignettes featuring ‘some of the world’s wildest critters’. Catchy headlines include, ‘The beavers that broke the internet’, ‘Calling all sharks’ and ‘Furizon: The secret life of pets’. A creative and engaging take on recent company history that also promotes Verizon’s work to protect endangered species.

If you enjoyed the above download the full Bowen Craggs Index report 2021