British American Tobacco
Case Study

Working within a controversial industry, and facing great challenges from a new digital environment characterised by the immediacy of social media, British American Tobacco (BAT) turned to LCT to help develop competencies within external communications.

Many delegates come to attend training courses at LCT when their job role changes and when they need to develop new skills. This was just the case with the Romanian division of British American Tobacco. Having been recently promoted, the Corporate Affairs Manager, saw her responsibilities shift from internal communication to external communication – which involved new challenges of government, stakeholder and media relations. With little prior experience, she required training to help understand this field and develop specific skills and competencies.

Her primary objectives were as follows:

With a lack of options available internally, and with few external training providers offering the breadth and depth of a course in this area of Public Relations, British American Tobacco turned to LCT, who have been at the forefront of the training sector for twenty years.

The attendee opted for the scheduled Strategic Public Relations Management course, designed to help develop practical skills to be used on return to the workplace. The course was scheduled for two weeks and focused on the development of external communication competencies. The modules included:

The course was a great success and achieved its learning outcomes. The relatively small class size meant that the training consultants were able to tailor the course material to the individual needs of each attendee, while the diversity of attendees enabled delegates to share their own unique experiences in PR, including the challenges they faced, how they overcame these challenges, as well as best practice.

LCT’s emphasis on practical training made the course dynamic and enjoyable. It also ensured the delegate came to understand how to use and apply the knowledge gained. For example, attendees were asked to analyse examples of good and bad press releases, share their opinions, and then draft their very own press release.

I very much enjoyed my time here and would definitely recommend LCT as a training institution.

Another highlight was the PR Plan, which provided a structured approach for an organisation to spread its message. Cornelia found it very useful to compare this best practice plan with the work she had been doing previously to identify potential areas of improvement. One of the most important insights was in learning the importance of monitoring conversations about the brand on the internet, as well as how to undertake this task.