Municipality of Breda
Directing the city’s digital transformation
With the Bredata programme, the Municipality of Breda is pursuing an ambitious goal: to become the most digitally inclusive city in the Netherlands. The ambition was clear. The reality was complex: numerous projects, multiple stakeholders, and different teams across the organisation.
The challenge was not a lack of vision, but a practical question: how do we ensure that employees and partners understand, embrace, and apply the Bredata story? Not as an abstract digitalisation programme, but as a guiding narrative for daily work, implementation, and collaboration.
gr8 agency helps us communicate the story of Bredata — about the digitalisation of society — clearly to different audiences. After a series of workshops, a strong narrative was developed that now forms the foundation for communication around digitalisation in Breda. A topic that affects many people and can be socially challenging. Communication therefore requires great care.
Judith van Brussel, Programme Manager Bredata
The behavioural question
What needed to change?
Employees and partners should not only know Bredata, but recognise themselves in it — and want to play an active role in realising this ambitious plan. So that decisions, projects, and communication align more effectively, and everyone understands how their role contributes to the broader ambition.
Our approach
We started with the internal and external context of the organisation. Not the city as the primary audience, but the people working on digitalisation: policymakers, project leaders, partners, and executives. What does Bredata mean to them? What is their role within the whole?
Together, we brought focus to the story behind Bredata. We developed a clear overarching narrative that provides guidance for everyone involved in the programme. Not a technical explanation, but a story that shapes choices and strengthens collaboration.
Communication thus became a tool to reinforce collaboration — rather than an additional layer on top.
We translated this narrative into concrete tools, including:
- strategic narratives and message houses for consistent communication
- presentation concepts for internal and external sessions
- content calendars and storylines
- films and visuals that make digitalisation tangible for professionals
What this set in motion
Bredata became more manageable within the organisation and in collaboration with partners. Employees gained greater ownership of the story and could apply it more consistently in projects, presentations, and meetings.
The ambition shifted from a programme on paper to a shared narrative in practice.
Sounds familiar?
Are you working on a complex transformation — such as digitalisation, innovation, or transition — and want people inside and outside your organisation to understand and actively use the same story?
Read how we work on Movement & Change, or schedule an introduction.
