IABC Trinidad and Tobago hosted Senator Helen Drayton (a corporate communicator with over 25 years of marketing and HR experience) this morning at Satchmos',  the Woodbrook based jazz bar.  It was wonderful to hear a genuinely knowledgeable and articulate  voice on the  the topic of social investment  in the current  economic climate. Drayton lauded  CLICO, Republic Bank and Guardian Life for their  social investment programmes. She maintained that  now more than ever  was the time for CSR programmes  to be viewed as more than just appendages.

It was a point well made. NGOs force us to think differently about our involvement in community. Traditional advertising-agency controlled marketing models no longer work. Ads are increasingly ignored. CSR programmes on well-built PR platforms therefore stand poised to  create the runway of credibility  for brands to soar. 

This cannot occur in a vaccum. Drayton added some key metrics were necessary for it to work:

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• Make sure CSR values are integrated into the corporate vision 
• Ensure your programmes are CEO sponsored-have your CEO buy into it up front
• Have clear goals; make sure they are long-term 
• Look at employee engagement in the CSR programmes tie it into performance evaluation
• Measure. Measure. Get data to demonstrate the ROI of the programmes
• Make sure your CSR goals are linked to corporate business goals