Kinross

Paying it forward with Chapeau!

How? In a word, story. Stories tell us who we are. Our premise was simple: The more people hear others’ stories, the more they’re inspired. But for role models to work, we have to know they exist. We have to hear the story, which is a call to action. To collect and share the collective wisdom linked to Kinross, we created a storytelling platform with 3 parts: the 25-year brand journey; the ethical business; and the people. And we made it beautiful, as it should be. The corporate website is about operations and sustainability, while Kinross World expands the stories of the people and their communities. Today, thanks partly to the storytelling platform, affinity amplifies at Kinross.

Because good news is worth sharing

We contain multitudes. There are 9,000 of us at Kinross. We work at 13 sites on four continents and live in communities from Fairbanks, Alaska to Kumasi, Ghana to Paracatu, Brazil. There are over 600,000 beneficiaries of our annual investment in these various communities. And we have stories to tell. Good ones. In 2015, for instance, we received 3,800 notes of gratitude (compared to under 200 complaints). It was time to tell these stories. They would be both proof and enabler. They would be stories about bringing Kinross beliefs to life: putting people first, being a great corporate citizen, growing a high performance culture, practicing rigorous financial discipline. They would be stories about people, as all good stories are. They would contain hundreds of thousands of human interactions (168,000 in 2015 alone). The stories would amplify our multitudes. They would inspire our world. The question was how were we going to tell our stories. We’re happy we turned to Chapeau! for the answer.

With a beautiful platform that tells our stories well

Chapeau! quickly understood our perspective and goals. They were instrumental in helping us articulate our ideas in actionable ways. From the start they saw this holistic communication as a powerful brand extension. And it is. Kinross is a brand that benefits people and communities. To this end, Chapeau! created three complementary storytelling experiences designed to engage and inspire. The first of these is Kinross 25 years, a website that takes stock of our journey so far, celebrates our LOVA winners (recipients of the Living Our Values Award), and signals the bright future ahead. The second is our new corporate website with its engaging presentations of Kinross operations and sustainability efforts, as well as a segue to the third (and richest) property: Kinross World is the platform for the many stories (past and present) about our work, our lives and our communities. Together, the three form an extended brand ecosystem where people share and grow. It contains multitudes.

So, more and more are doing more for more

People and community. They are what we at Kinross originally set out to celebrate and promote. Our friends at Chapeau! took it a step further. The digital experiences they made have cultivated something more: a community of interest. Through this storytelling platform, people — 9,000 Kinross employees, 600,000 community members, and countless others — have a place to share their experiences, and inspire and be inspired by others, both at home and abroad. It is a storytelling ecosystem that is a virtual hub for our global community, whose members are vested in supporting one another and nurturing the real places Kinross touches. A proof point: In 2020 Kinross employees around the world nominated 3,800 of their peers for the Living Our Values Awards (LOVA). To the eight winners, and the rest of us, it is a precious prize. It is one instance of the human value housed in our place of stories. Chapeau! has given new meaning to the golden touch.