Public Sector Communications Strategies: KNOW, SEE, FEEL, DO… an audience journey

I recently presented a case study to a lovely bunch of folk at the Orlo Tour in Manchester. It was around reducing anti-social behaviour on Bournemouth’s beaches following the lifting of lockdown restrictions. There had been some widespread ASB in 2020 – costing the council a lot of money to respond to as well as reputational damage – so action was needed to avoid a repeat in 2021.

What did we do? Well, we followed the established and trusted OASIS model to shape the campaign. There are many excellent case studies around how this model is applied in practice. So what could I cover that was different!?

I decided to frame the case study around the audience journey. We had clear objectives that guided our evaluation and good audience insight. So we adopted a strategy through to implementation that very much focused on a strong creative based around what we wanted our audience to know, see, feel and do.

To do that well, we need to start with a problem statement and desired end game (our objectives and scoring criteria in OASIS). What are you trying to fix? What does your desired state of play look like? And how is your comms campaign going to get your audience from start to finish effectively?

In this case, the starting point was one of extensive illegal parking, a sea of litter on the beaches, irresponsible BBQs and unauthorised camping, with the end game being a demonstrable, significant and visible (to our residents and the national media) reduction in these occurrences.

Our audience insight told us that those displaying these behaviours were not responsive to the (rather too nice) ‘leave only footprints’ messaging that had been prevalent for more years than I can remember. We needed them to know that there would be consequences to poor behaviours – fines for littering and BBQs, your vehicle towed costing you a fortune, and repeated waking up throughout the night if you camp where you shouldn’t – all interventions that the council and partners had put in place. But we also wanted them to know that this was not just unacceptable to wider society, but, more impactfully, to their social group.

We chose a bold creative – Sort **it out – coupled with a deliberately gentle colour palette. The graphics combined the consequential aspects of poor behaviours with an element of peer pressure and behaviour shaming. There were underlying hints of “I’m not angry, just disappointed!” We knew it was risky but also that we needed to try something bold, brave and fresh…

The campaign go-live was guerilla – there was no council branding and no press launch! It was run online with targeted OTS and behaviour-led out-of-home positioning – posters by the roadside and along the beaches and clifftops relating specifically to the behaviours seen there previously.

Don’t park **it there
Pick **it up
We’re cleaning **it up
Take **it home

As the campaign evolved, we did of course reveal that it was council-commissioned, as this also brought assets such as the piers and beach cleansing vehicles into use for high-visibility campaign branding.

We essentially wanted people to feel a bit **it about doing these things! Embarrassed in front of their peers or partner. Very uncool. So much so, in fact, that they altered their behaviours to those more acceptable to civil society and respectful of the environment and others around them.

Definitely not! Some residents were appalled. As were some members – mainly for political capital purposes. Some senior officers were sceptical at best. I worked hard to get buy-in from important internal stakeholders because I believed in the creative and the impact it would have. All the audience insight told us we had a winner! Luckily for me, we did!

Could KNOW > SEE > FEEL > DO be an additional consideration that works for your public sector communications strategy planning too? Let me know what you think!