Voice magazine – for Institute of Internal Communication

Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) is the leading independent professional body dedicated to internal comms and employee engagement. In 2016, Artful Dog was as its creative partner to develop a refreshed communication and publishing strategy.

Our aim was to produce a magazine that stood out from the content that internal communicators receive every day. We wanted to produce a publication with newsstand design and valuable content that IC managers could share with their teams – offering authentic experiences of the internal comms world and practical advice about resolving the challenges of effective employee engagement.

We launched a quarterly, feature-led print magazine (currently 52 pages), with an accompanying online channel, exploring the good, the bad and the ugly of internal communication.

Artful Dog writes, edits and designs the publication – planning and writing all content, sourcing contributors and interviewees, laying out copy and providing creative direction.

Sent to more than 1,400 IoIC members – mainly IC managers, consultants and creative agencies – Voice takes an honest look at the challenges and barriers internal communicators face in delivering a positive employee experience, and the trends and hot topics around the future of work.

Voice explores the topics and trends keeping internal communicators awake, and the channels they use to deliver key messages and create inclusive cultures. These have included mental health in the workplace, communicating about sustainability, all areas of diversity and inclusion, leadership trust, comms on a small budget, working with external comms, recruitment and redundancies, digital transformations, live events and artificial intelligence.

Since launching in December 2016, Voice has contributed to IoIC's sharp growth in membership, which has more than doubled since. IoIC attracted 607 new members in 2018 alone; the record in one year before Voice launched was 236. In one IoIC membership survey, ‘Access to industry content and resources, including Voice magazine’ was the top reason of eight for joining IoIC; and ‘Free quarterly copy of Voice’ scored highest out of 15 membership benefits.

‘It’s a publication that packs a real punch, tackles some big issues and provides snippets of ‘quickfire’ info that are interesting/useful. I don’t always see that from membership magazines.’ – IoIC member

Content from the magazine was published as standalone articles on its own website until 2022, when IoIC relaunched its own website. Voice articles and features are now published in the IoIC's Knowledge Hub.

Voice has won two awards: at the memcom membership excellence awards in 2018, Voice won Best Magazine Launch/Relaunch; and after two nominations for Best Association Magazine in the Association Excellence Awards, in 2022, Voice won the Best Association Newsletter, Blog, Online or Physical Publication (circulation up to 6,500) award.