To meet the current needs of the PAU in terms of communication, Kopperkollektive, which was the consultancy firm selected to review the PAU communication Strategy was commissioned to:

• Strengthen the communication strategy and working plan in terms of raising awareness for PAU among all African member states and other relevant stakeholders such as political stakeholders, donors, higher education partners.
• Support the operationalization of the existing communication strategy
• Support the creation of channels to cooperate and strengthen communication with the different stakeholders.
• Raise awareness about the importance of a structured corporate branding among the decision-makers of the PAU
• Update and revise the central PAU website incl. concept development, content proposal, graphic design, programming.

The purpose of this workshop, conducted by Kopperkollektive, was to bring on board all the decision makers of the PAU in terms of external communication (branding, communication channels, etc.); to support the project in terms of promotion, create awareness, establish PAU’s competitive advantage, reposition and differentiate the PAU brand which could be reflected in a competition for excellent students, increase autonomy and accountability competition for legitimacy / resources, pro-actively managing reputation to better “amortize” crisis and attract key stakeholders. The meeting started with a focus on the importance of having a clear and defined identity of the PAU and each of the institutes – in alignment with the overall PAU identity. On the second day, the workshop focused on the website of the PAU, the current situation, technical details and the next steps to create one of the most important products to promote the university. 

More specifically this workshop organized with the PAU Institute Directors and communication managers aimed to review the existing communication strategy with special attention to strengthening the PAU brand identity. Revise the current situation of how the PAU is perceived and propose solutions to the current corporate branding challenges to ultimately promote the university and attract key stakeholders.

It was also intended to discuss all the technical details of the PAU website as well as the content structure, to understand the needs of the university and agree on a plan to build a site map and content architecture to proceed with the creation of the website. This workshop was also an opportunity to understand the previous experiences of key stakeholders with the PAU websites.

With regard to the PAU brand identity, agreement on a pragmatic way forward on how to strengthen PAU’s brand identity (logo, corporate design and messaging) was made, with the aim to heighten awareness and strengthen its reputation with its stakeholders, taking into account the different institutes. This will serve as a basis for the new PAU website and operationalising the communication strategy.