YPO

YPO, a global leadership community of 30,000 CEOs in 142 countries, needed help launching their new Diversity and Inclusion Hub. The goal: for the Hub to serve as an online space where members could chat about sensitive D&I issues and find tools and learning opportunities to improve their businesses and communities. 

But the problem was this: YPO has hundreds of networks and groups battling for the attention of their members, so how could the Hub stand out? 

As a strategist leading the project, I tackled the issue by doing the following:

1. Interviewing some of the CEO members about their D&I experiences and how the Hub could deliver the most value

2. Uncovering secondary research on how diverse teams tend to be more innovative, resilient, and profitable than teams filled with people from similar backgrounds.

Synthesizing all this information, I developed a distinct positioning for the Hub, centering on how it’s a confidential “safe space,” where you can ask questions and share stories about your diversity and inclusion experiences, while also learning how to make your team more innovative and profitable. In addition, I crafted a tagline (i.e. “The Power of Different”) and consumer-facing messaging statements to ensure consistency through all marketing touchpoints.

Two and a half years later, the tagline and messaging are still in place, anchoring all the new content that is created by the org. Also, to broaden their reach, the Diversity Hub has developed a podcast – which was another idea proposed in my original plan.

The messaging strategy and documents are for internal use only, but see below for how the tagline and aspects of the positioning have been weaved into the public-facing messaging on the YPO site.  

(Note: With the aim of creating a “safe space for CEOs,” most of the resources, tools, and content are shared within the private YPO network, but some content – like what is included below – is shared externally.)