Here at Rambutan we believe that in internal communications the channel should match the message. Have a look at the attached…what do you see?

When David first saw this he was running a little late after a three day development event in Düsseldorf.
 

“I arrived at the sign in the photograph with my Air Berlin voucher for flight 8476 to London Stansted in my hand. I was more anxious than usual because of my lateness and the fact that the media had been filled with tales of volcanic woe for the past few days. I could see my flight on the sign but the number was wrong. I switched views from my voucher to the sign, turning my head more times that the centre court crowd at a Wimbledon tennis final. The panic rose…had they changed the schedule due the ash cloud…and why was there a price for the flight? Had they cancelled all flights and decided to charge people on a first come first served basis? Nightmare…I was late..I would never get a seat and this was the only Air Berlin flight to the UK that day.”

“Looking around I realised that I was the only person in a pickle. I stood alone in the centre of the huge concourse full of people…alone in a crowd in a foreign land (I’m sure there is a line from a song there somewhere).  I decided to phone trusty Nicki in the office. She had booked the flight and would know what to do…too late…they had all gone home for the weekend. I decided only one course of action that was appropriate…a beer! As I sat at the bar within sight of the sign I noticed that it hadn’t changed in the ten minutes I had been transfixed by it….I watched it for a few more minutes…and then a few more…and then I burst out laughing so loud that I was not alone in a crowd any more…I was the centre of the crowd..the epicentre of embarrassment. The sign is not a departures board as I had assumed…it is a paper poster advertising Air Berlin.”

“I have been back a couple of times since that trip and the poster is still there and still hasn’t changed (of course) but it does tickle me to see it. So I guess as a piece of advertising communication this channel mix up got my attention. It also reminded me of a key principle of communication in that looking at things from a different perspective (the bar in my case) always gives you a different perspective. May be I have been a consultant too long and if I had any common sense left I would’ve not confused a poster with a departure board.”

Click to comment and let us know what your first impression of the image was.