LGA-Lgcomms Reputation Campaign Awards 2009 Shortlist

LGA-LGcomms Reputation Campaign Awards 2009 Shortlist 1 Judges comments A “premier league” of top performing how a good media relations campaign sophisticated with a growing number communications authorities is had helped with the overall reputation of councils linking the state of the developing in local government, of the council. environment to perceptions according to the judges of “The entries that did not make it on to the of the local community. this year’s LGcommunications shortlist really could not demonstrate that “There was a definite sense that Reputation Awards. media relations had played a major role councils were pushing the idea that In almost every category the judges found in meeting the strategic objectives of the caring for the environment was caring a growing divide in standards between communications team.” for the community,” she said, adding: the winning entrants and those who For the reputation award the key to “Environmental campaigns can involve missed out. success was “ruthlessness of focus”, lots of ‘recycling’ of old ideas but the acorrding to one judge Joe Simpson, challenge for councils is to tackle old Key themes for success included issues in a new way,” she added. evidence-based campaign research and director of politics and partnerships at evaluation, a clear and coherent strategy the Leadership Centre for Local Councils were also found to be for communications and its role within Government. He said: “Councils performing well in new digital the organisation as a whole and the needed to be absolutely clear what communications but judges felt there ability explain campaigns clearly in the organisation’s purpose was. Some was still room for improvement, according award submissions. had clear ambition and demonstrated to Joe Simpson, who commented after achievement but it was not always clear the judging: “On the whole councils are Francis Ingham, managing director and what strategy – or the line of sight – was proficient but not yet excellent in digital director general at the Public Relations between the two. communications and with good reason. Consultants Association, summed up If you read blogs they are often anti- opinion on the difference in standards “Councils need much clearer strategic communications. There needs to be authority and people tend to look for while commenting on value for money those with attitude and spice. But it’s entries. culture where communications is interwoven with the council’s overall difficult to do attitude or spice when you “There was a big gulf between the people organisational strategy. It’s not an add-on are the council and you could get yourself who ran excellent campaigns and were to be considered once a campaign has into a difficult place if you say the wrong able to explain them well and the people been set.” thing. I think people are still trying to find who either hadn’t run good campaigns, the right tone. or had but were not skilled enough in In the internal communications category, strategy once again divided entrants, with “The best entries produced digital communicating them to us,” he said, communications that weren’t obviously adding that evidence was key to one of the judges Ian Farrow, director of Jumping Dog Communications, ‘council’ – functional but perhaps a bit successful campaigns to prove the dull. They had really thought about their value of communications within the declaring: “Winning entries passed the bar because target audience and what their target organisation and the value of the audience wanted to hear and how they organisation to its community. they did all the simple things well. They did their research first into issues and wanted to hear it. Good websites had “Too often local government is not good problems, set clear, smart objectives lots of civic pride placing the council very at explaining the real difference it makes. that were clear about what needed much at the heart of the community.” There is too much about what has been to be achieved. Finally, judges issued a word of caution to ‘contributed to’ ‘helped’ or ‘sustained’ councils running big budget campaigns. when councils should be saying ‘we did “They set a strategy, implemented solid campaigns and evaluated the campaign Elliot Banks, marketing director at print firm this and the consequence was that’. gpex, who judged the place leadership People expect to have proof of what their in terms of business imperatives looking not just at how many people had seen category, said: “It wasn’t about spending council does and there are enough ways lots of money. One of the winners was of providing that proof or evidence now,” a message but liked it or had changed their behaviour because of it. very low budget but succeeded in he said. empowering a whole community.” Strategy proved to be the real dividing “The industry has been talking about strategic campaign planning for 25 years. And David Walker, managing director of issue for councils, with some excelling communications and public reporting at in their vision and focus for individual The Local Government Association, LGcommunications and leading the Audit Commission, went one step campaigns and role they would play in further and warned in the current climate the council’s overall objectives, while authorities have been trying to instil this discipline, especially in the last four or five excessive spending on campaign would others were guilty of “sending out stuff” inevitably backfire. without due thought about what they years, but there’s a shocking amount of were trying to achieve. councils that still don’t get it.” He concluded: “It’s tempting to Catherine Howe, operations director at spend lots of money on environmental Richard Evans, director of consultancy messages but if you are going to deliver PPS, who judged the media category, Public-I, said strategy was also important to the environmental communications a campaign with massive funding it said: “Two entries really stood out had better be good. Value for money because of the way they had clearly category. Her simple advice to councils was: “Think before you act.” is becoming increasingly important identified what they were trying to do, how and campaign planners must watch they were going to do it, carried out their However, she said environmental every penny.” plan and demonstrated and evaluated campaigns were getting more 2 Contents page Category 1: Media relations 4 Category 2: Publication 8 Category 3: Internal communications 16 Category 4: Environmental communications 24 Category 5: Value for money 34 Category 6: Local democracy 42 Category 7: Digital media 48 Category 8: Reputation 58 Category 9: District communications 66 Category 10: Place leadership 68 Category 11: Community reassurance 74 Category 12: Improving health 80 3 1. Media relations London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham Hammersmith & Fulham Council substantially raised its London-wide and national profile in 2008/9 to become one of the most talked about councils in the capital. 2007 The Communications unit implemented a new media relations strategy which substantially Value for 2008 increased the Council’s profile in London and contributed overall to a huge rise in money informed ratings and reputation.1 The results, according to the 2009 Media & Reputation 2009 Survey2, have produced: 2007 Overall • 43% of residents saying H&F is viewed positively by the media (increase of satisfaction 2008 7% in 12 months). 2009 • 88% of residents saying H&F is viewed positively or neutrally – 28% increase 010 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 in 12 months. • Highest unprompted and promoted recall rate of major stories in London3 • 9% increase in residents who say they use national newspapers to find out what H&F Council is doing. • 9% increase in residents who use Evening Standard to find out what H&F Council is doing. Targeted, innovative media mapping The new approach to media relations involves setting up effective relationships to targeted journalists within London with a combination of formal and informal briefings behind major stories on the capital’s landscape. The Communications unit maps the new agenda in a way that understands the pinchpoint behind various stories allowing the Communications unit to fine tune media messages around it based on our own corporate key messages. Overall, around £260,000 of positive media coverage has been achieved in the last six months on: • Council tax reduction 2009 (key message: value for money) • Opposition to Super Sewer (putting residents first) • Scrap C-Charge extension (putting residents first) • No to Heathrow extension (putting residents first) • Support our local Post Offices (putting residents first) • Opening of Westfield London (borough of opportunity) • 24/7 neighbourhood police (cracking down on crime) 1 Overall informed ratings increased by 10% between 2007/8 and 2008/9, based on results from the Annual Residents Survey (2008) and Media & Reputation Survey 2009 2 Media & Reputation Survey commissioned by Westminster Council and conducted by FACTS International involving 600 telephone respondents. Field work between March 1 and March 30 2009. 3 Media & Reputation Survey findings: 21% unprompted recall of council tax reduction story, 24% unprompted recall of ‘other’ stories. 75% promoted recall of council tax reduction story, 55% opposition to third runway, 49% 24/7 neighbourhood police. 49% opposition to Post Office closures. 4 Case study: Council tax reduction H&F Council cutting council tax by 3% for the third consecutive year was always going to be newsworthy yet there was a danger in the message getting lost if not clearly signposted and mapped against the media’s agenda. First we researched the media pinchpoints on council tax which allow a natural window of media debate. The pinchpoints in 2008/9 were: November 30: RSG announcement December 17: GLA precept January 21: LGA survey February 2: CIPFA national league table February 28: London Councils league Our announcement was made on the eve of the RSG announcement while we then co- ordinated messages around other pinchpoints.

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