Air Canada Pilots Association
RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIC PLANNING
The Challenge
The Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) was in the process of creating its first formal communications strategic plan. Communications to that point had been done on an ad-hoc basis and the new Director of Communications had a strong desire to create a formal structure for the function, set goals and achieve objectives to support the organizational direction.
The Solution
Strategic Communications was engaged to conduct a thorough audit of the communications function from the leadership, management, member and public perspectives. Stratcom completed key informant interviews, a telephone survey of the membership and an online survey of a representative sample of the Canadian public. The report-backs and recommendations from this process guided the development of a full-scope strategic communications plan and resulted in a number of changes and improvements within ACPA, including:
- A refinement of the internal communications infrastructure, including printed and electronic newsletters;
- Media relations and relationship building strategies with key public stakeholders, including reporters and analysts;
- Integration of media and government relations efforts to improve flight safety;
- A website redevelopment;
- A crisis communications plan and issues management protocol; and
- An organizational rebranding.
The Results
Follow-up research, also conducted by Stratcom, concluded that the membership, leadership and public all had increased favourable perceptions of the organization a year later.