With more than 130 years of history, Michelin is a leader in the production and sale of tires. The century-old brand has more than 112 thousand employees, in 69 industrial units distributed around the world.

About the company

Michelin in motion. This is the motto of the century-old brand that offers a wide variety of products, as well as innovative services, that allow the company to face the challenges of more sustainable mobility.

The company emerged in 1891, launching the first air-powered bicycle tire and beginning a journey of innovations that is a key pillar in the company’s culture to this day.

In Brazil, Michelin has been present since 1927, with the beginning of operations at its commercial office in São Paulo. In 1981, the first Michelin factory was opened in the country, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, to produce tires for trucks and buses.

Customer care, quality of products, services and sustainability are part of Michelin’s pillars. The company’s goal for 2050 is a fully sustainable future, with zero carbon emissions in the production of its tires, which will be achieved through three main drivers: people, financial performance and planet.

Challenges in Internal Communication

With thousands of employees, communication processes are very challenging and comprehensive. Bruno Pietoso, Communications Manager at Michelin Brazil, explains how he implemented digital innovation, the gains from it and, today, how institutional news reaches all employees.

“We used a lot of bulletin boards, around 40, and it was a huge challenge for the communications sector to keep them up to date. There was always an outdated notice board, so we saw that it was necessary to have other communication channels here in the company”, he says.

He highlights that, before implementing a professional digital signage solution, screens with pen drives were used to display the content to employees:

“We ended up doing it on our own, placing screens with a pen drive, but in the end it had the same problem as the paper mural, as we had to update the pen drive, load, unload, check if the TV was on or off…”, adds Bruno.

Solution

Based on the need to be more dynamic in updating communication channels for employees, given the large amount of information that a company the size of Michelin has to disseminate, Bruno remembers what the process of choosing the digital signage solution was like:

“We came to research the market and came up with the Progic solution, which was exactly what we were looking for. Progic exceeded our expectations, because it has a series of added professional services that come along with the technology”, highlights Bruno.

Michelin’s Digital Signage project relied on Progic’s Corporate Communication Project, a service to assist in the construction of the channel, using best practices and in a personalized way for the company.

In total, the Michelin channel has more than 15 different editorials, such as Workplace Safety, Benefits, Open Vacancies, among others. Furthermore, Bruno highlights that he also uses Progic’s library of ready-made content to run engagement campaigns, especially those related to commemorative dates:

“The editable templates and content ready to be placed in the schedule are excellent because they help us communicate some specific dates, and also bring inspiration for other campaigns. It’s a solution that exceeded what we needed”, adds Bruno.

But even with all these benefits, infrastructure and information security is something that concerns companies when implementing a digital signage project. Bruno reports that Progic was also a partner at this time and met the demands of the Michelin IT team:

“Progic provided a lot of assistance in this bridge between the communication area and Michelin’s technology area. We have a very strict information security and data protection policy here at Michelin, and Progic corresponds with our care”, adds Bruno.

QR Code on Digital Signage

One of the features used in the Michelin digital signage channel is the QR Code, whether to facilitate the collection of responses from employees, encourage engagement in campaigns or to carry out a crossmedia strategy between internal channels. Bruno highlights that this feature of the Progic platform facilitated many of the company’s communication processes:

“Today, the QR Code is used in certain actions that require employee participation, such as choosing a new benefit through an online form that the employee accesses via the QR Code. It was a very significant innovation for the company.”

Bruno says that public support was very natural, without the need for any type of specific action to encourage employee participation in Corporate TV.

“We carry out actions on TVs that are placed at the exit of the restaurant, strategically so that people can pass by and become interested in opening the QR Code. So, nowadays, they know that if there is a QR Code, it is an action that they can participate in”, adds Bruno.

Results and looking forward

Michelin’s digital signage debuted in mid-2021 and impacts more than 5 thousand employees at the Campo Grande, Resende and Rio de Janeiro units. Bruno indicates how the channel is achieving incredible results for the company’s communication processes:

“The front line workers really liked the implementation of digital signage, because they understood that it was a channel made for them. We carried out research and, through this, we realized that employees have identified with the format of this communication. The response was very positive”, comenta Bruno.

And as a company that always seeks innovation, Michelin is already planning its next steps towards the complete digitalization of its communication. Bruno gives us a straw.

“We want to put an end to paper in communication once and for all, replacing the last two bulletin boards with a digital mural, as we are calling it, where we will have the Progic solution on a totem with six screens, placing the company’s main communications there”, adds Bruno.

Michelin’s experience shows how the communications team was very assertive, not only in choosing a modern, attractive channel that helps with the company’s challenges, but also in the strategic management of the tool. And, with this, it is enhancing the benefits of digital signage.