Polpeo

The challenge

The team behind social media reputation and crisis management expert Polpeo had a vision.

They knew brands needed help to expertly handle and protect their reputation if things went wrong. Desk-based training was all very well but mere theory wasn’t enough. Clients needed practical experience of managing a crisis before it happened.

But how best to deliver interactive and realistic crisis communications training in a truly insightful and educational environment?

Polpeo’s big idea was a true-to-life digital simulation, populated with realistic scenarios that would immerse their clients in an engaging way. It would enable clients to develop crisis skills in a private and safe environment, learning powerful lessons and gaining invaluable insights that would help protect their brand in the real world.

The proposition

We proposed a uniquely-tailored platform that could accurately mimic popular social media channels, blogs, forums and news platforms in their appearance and functionality.

The project journey

It was a significant undertaking.

We’d need to build the simulation platforms from the ground up, to be as life-like as possible. We’d also have to create inbound emails, the ability to create and share crisis plans and strategies, plus a way of responding to public queries over multiple channels.

Polpeo needed to easily tailor the software to each unique client, so our product had to be scalable and flexible. It had to provide a seamless and easy-to-use experience in which the technology melted away, allowing participants to concentrate on the scenario they were taking part in.

Most importantly, the solution had to be agile enough to allow for further development and growth. To truly provide a realistic experience, we had to make sure we could keep up with real-world changes in social media.

So, we developed the tool in a cloud-based environment using our extensive experience of React and AWS. The browser-based solution is more flexible and scalable than ever before, allowing an unlimited number of users to participate in each simulation. Its infrastructure also means the software is able to react to users and external changes more quickly, with a lower use of resources.

The impact

An industry-defining tool.

Since the simulation launched, Polpeo has successfully worked with some of the biggest brands on the internet. They’ve delivered live-action training sessions on a multitude of crises, populating the bespoke platform with content delivered by experienced community and social media managers.

“We used Polpeo to deliver a crisis simulation for our directors — they all said they found it challenging and it really helped them to reflect on our crisis preparedness. The crisis tool Polpeo has developed was absolutely brilliant and totally made the simulation. It was so realistic and meant our directors were having to consider how the crisis was playing out on all our channels, as they would do in an actual crisis.”

— Andrea Lisher, Head of PR at MS Society

“The feedback we have consistently from our clients has been that Polpeo is the closest thing possible to dealing with a real crisis. The team at Isotoma has been amazing - they’re so quick to understand what we want to achieve, they challenge us (in a good way!) and always come up with suggestions for the best way to get the outcome we want. I can’t recommend Isotoma highly enough.”

— Kate Hartley, co-founder of Polpeo