How Brunswick’s internal comms, PR and government affairs teams report as one

At recreational boating company Brunswick, the internal comms department doesn’t report its results to leadership on its own. Its numbers go into a single report alongside PR and government affairs.

During Ragan’s Communications Measurement Virtual Conference last month, Jenny Westfall, director of enterprise communications at Brunswick, told the audience that it took some time to bring all the departments together.

“Rewind about five years ago, we really were separate competencies with distinct priorities and ways of working, ways of measurement,” Westfall said. “We had to come together to find some common ground — shared outcomes that all three functions could contribute to, measure toward and report out to our leadership team.”

Westfall said the teams built one unified editorial calendar and set up regular briefings to stay aligned. She also told the audience that measurement was tougher, since each group had its own platforms and definition of success.

“We don’t want to put a square peg in a round hole and make numbers fit where they might not,” she said. “How can we develop a singular report card that still celebrates the different metric points, but also showcases the true comprehensive value that we’re bringing?”