The list of lovable robots on screen extends from Short Circuit’s Johnny Five to Star Wars’ C3PO and R2D2 and even Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. The star of his own two-and-a-half-minute video, Infobot, may be the corporate world’s equivalent. The little robot with a big message now forms the centrepiece of international knowledge company Informa’s internal communications.Dreamt up by the joint efforts of the teams at Informa and London-based animation studio Gorilla Gorilla!, Infobot first starred in a short animated video designed to impart messaging around data security, called ‘Information is precious.

’The company found that 42% of its employees were unaware of information security regulations and safety measures – not great news for a company whose business is data. One of the problems was the 20 plus page document related to information security; the other was the voiceover/powerpoint route the compliance team had taken to disseminate their message in the past.

Informa’s group compliance officer Geoff Dadswell says, “We’re a fairly creative bunch at Informa, so you’ve got to interest people here...We felt we needed to do something different.” He, alongside the internal comms team, turned to the animators and creatives in Shoreditch to turn Informa’s nascent character-based video idea into a usable piece of content.

“Animation could give them the cut through they needed,” says Gorilla Gorilla!’s founder and creative partner Dean Beswick. After some development, they alit upon Infobot, a floating, bow-tie wearing robot with a screen for a face and an Informa sword and shield at the ready. Beswick says the androgynous character was deliberately chosen for its ability to transcend culture and language, “We worked hard to conceive a generic character that would have broad appeal without being bland.” Infobot’s environment is deliberately sparse so the character itself can be the star.

Dadswell says, “People have latched on to the Infobot character. The only person who doesn’t like it has been the general counsel, because he likes words and documents. But nevertheless, having said that, people have seen that character as ours, it’s Informa’s and it’s our ambassador for information protection.

”That was the easy part. From there, the lengthy guidelines document had to be distilled into a few concepts to explore in the short animation. Dadswell says determining three key ideas was a challenge for the group of compliance experts who wanted to include as much as possible in the video. Finally, Informa and Gorilla Gorilla! managed to narrow the content and script down to three areas: awareness of one’s surroundings, awareness of the bad guys and appropriate use of information.

Beswick says it would have been easy to provide too much information, thus muddying the message. ““The key difference is about narrowing the information down and focusing on the important stuff,” he adds. “That’s part of working in this short-form way. I think the other thing is actually using animation for what it’s best at which is finding more interesting, non-literal ways to explain or make people aware of something or get them to understand something more clearly.

”Dadswell says the team considered using live action video but found that the increased cost, potential for cultural misunderstanding and inability to use content outside of the video led Informa toward animation.

Infobot was also charged with appealing to and communicating clearly with all of Informa’s employees around the world. With employees in 25 countries using five different languages, that was a tall order. Yet, animation, once again, came to the rescue.

Beswick says Infobot took the challenge of localising content head on. His animated screen-face uses symbols, rather than words as universal communications tools. The on-screen captions and short script were then translated into five different languages. “We felt a character-driven piece could be really good because the great thing about character animation is that you can change the voice and a few key details and as far as the viewer is concerned, it could’ve been made for a French market, a German market, a Japanese market and so on,” he adds Dadswell says he was pleasantly surprised by a viewing experience with Chinese employees after which they remained silent. When asked about the video they then expressed how much they loved the ‘adorable’ Infobot character. 

The video was an unmitigated success. Dadswell reports that 100% of employees say they do not need further information about data security after watching ‘Information is precious,’ Infobot’s awareness is at 88% and, crucially, 83% now say they understood information security. But the key from the outset was to integrate the video content into the internal communications strategy surrounding information security. Infobot’s universal appeal and universal dissemination throughout the workforce has turned it into a data security icon within the company. Dadswell says the character will be used across six more information security points as well as appearing on printed materials, banners, posters and on the intranet.

Beswick says, “As the design of Infobot came together, all of us collectively could start to see the possibilities with it immediately. We had some feedback (from the internal comms team) and they said, ‘This is the most fun that we’ve had with an internal campaign for ages.’ They were finding that they could do so much with the Infobot character in terms of changing something on its screen or using it on a poster or a desktop.

”Film robots have long been the purveyors and bastions of information, language and communications. Infobot has managed to do the same for the corporate audience, and it’s use is not through yet.