Big Global Companies Use This Simple (and Free) Communications Trick
7,500 global organizations, from Ministries of State to Microsoft, have grabbed the free Message House template to create key messages and get their teams to use them.?You should use it, too.
By Marc Fest
More than 7,500 companies, NGOs, governments, and nonprofits from over 65 countries have downloaded a free Microsoft Word template showing an empty page with the outline of a house. It is so simple, it looks like a child made it. But the Ministry of Children in New Zealand recently downloaded it for "key message development." At the US State Department, someone grabbed the so-called Message House template, simply stating, "I need to review it." Greenpeace in China and Lebanon both wanted it for their respective “campaigns” and “media training.” Other downloaders have included Alibaba, BASF, Boeing, Heathrow Airport, Nestle, SAP, Shell, and the United Nations.
So, what exactly is a Message House? Well, it's exactly what it sounds like - an outline of a house with messages inside. Once you have made one, just tell all your internal stakeholders (like salespeople and fundraisers) to "stay inside the Message House" when communicating about their project or organization.
The template I created makes it easy to create a Message House simply by typing into a Microsoft Word document with a built-in Message House image.
The Message House method is effective because it promotes a focus on a small number of key messages and turns an abstract concept (sticking to your messages) into a concrete and "sticky" idea (staying inside a house).
When people download the page from Message House on my site (messagehouse.org), they share their reasons for doing so, who they are, their organization, country of origin, etc. The use cases range from the personal to the monumental, from the Netherlands to New Zealand. For example:
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Building a Message House is often part of an important effort. For example, someone at Suzuki in Germany got it for “our PR strategy." Others use it for significant projects like "major organizational change for the Central Bank" (Bank of Jamaica) and "spreading human rights, democracy" (Friedrich Nauman Foundation, Morocco).
I learned about the method around 2009 at Knight Foundation where I was in charge of communications. A consultant introduced me to the magic of Message Houses. At first, I was skeptical. Who needs a whole house for their messages? But my colleagues kept showing up in my office, begging for message houses for their projects. The method had proven to be sticky and elevated communications at my organization. That’s a fancy way of saying that more non-comms people across departments began to care about messaging.
Before I knew it, I was known as the "Message House guy." I became a believer pushing the Message House method on anyone and everyone. Every project had to have its Message House, and Knight Foundation got one, too. It was like a house-building frenzy!
The origin of the Message House method is a mystery. I emphasize my non-authorship of the technique on messagehouse.org to ensure that nobody thinks I am the inventor.?
To be frank, though, I thought that creating messagehouse.org would help me find new clients as a communications consultant after leaving Knight in 2012. But as it turned out, no one was interested in me. Instead, everyone wanted those templates that I had added almost as an afterthought. I ended up starting a different business, Elevator Speech Training, which has been successful and rewarding. But I left messagehouse.org out there, with its free templates and e-Book. And the downloaders keep coming ever since.
Just look at these recent ones:
To download your free Message House template, visit messagehouse.org. To be inspired by more than 1,000 use testimonials, go to www.messagehouse.org/testimonials.