Lessons from Stockport

1
Lessons from Stockport

• Alex Aiken

2
Strategy

• The remit for communications
• What do you want to be famous for?
• Building a brand for the area
• Moving towards a public sector hub
• Campaign in a unified way
• Use the evidence

3
Communications practice

• Value for money at the heart of delivery
• Do more communications
• Campaigns should change behaviour
• Target the use of social media
• Understand statutory guidance
• Engage with the community using campaigns that
  demand a response
• Work with the audience in campaign development

4
Development

• Are you taking the initiative?
• Listen and verify
• Have a demonstrable passion for the area
• Do the professional development

5
Making value for money part of the brand

• Alex Aiken, Westminster City Council

6
The presentation

• Why value for money is central to the work of all
  public authorities
• How efficiency drives reputation
• The critical role of the corporate narrative
• External and internal campaigns
• The role of new media
• Campaigns, not channels

7
SatLav The Secret of our success

• Four Ps Partners, Practice, Persistence and
  Paranoia
• Also, Integrated and Evaluated
• And demonstrably benefits the business

8
Electronic gradualism
Useful sources of information
Question Do you agree or disagree with the
following about the Westminster
Reporter. Source 1,009 Westminster residents
aged 18 , 9 December 2006 to 30 January
2007(Ipsos MORI)
9
Value for money

• Its the rock on which reputation is built
  because it
• is a sign of the health or otherwise of the
• organisation and a signal of competence to
• customers and citizens and stakeholders.

10
The issue
1,400
1,300
1,200
1,100
Council Tax Retail price index
Satisfaction with LG
1,000
32
900
20
800
What was the last thing you bought for
1,000? What factors affected your choice?
700
600
500
400

1989
1991
2001
1999
1997
1995
1993
2007
2005
2003
2008

• Source CIPFA

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Things we need to influence
Perceived quality of services overall
Greatest drivers of overall satisfaction
Perceived VFM
Media coverage/mood
Direct communication
Weaker drivers of overall satisfaction
District/Countys performance
Street cleaning/liveability
Source MORI Local Government research 2005
Positive experiences of contact with staff
12
Media and perceptions of efficiency
Council is efficient and well-rum
Media main source of information
Source 387 local authority General BVPI surveys
October 2006-March 2007
13
The Council Tax Game
14
Council information and perceptions of efficiency
Council is efficient and well-rum
Council main source of information
Source 387 local authority General BVPI surveys
October 2006-March 2007
15
Corporate narrative Westminsters One City
Programme
An open and tolerant City
Citizens as customers
Delivering for Neighbourhoods
Promoting Active Citizenship
16
Major campaigns

• One City
• Worksmart
• Value for Money
• Parking Perceptions
• West end Renewal

• Go Green
• Foster care and adoption
• Positive Youth
• Safeguarding children
• Crime reassurance
• School achievement

17
Parking tackling negative perceptions with
technology
18
Westminster and Harrow value for money campaigns

• Focus on a fair deal for local communities
• Call to action
• Mix of traditional and new media
• Involve a number of disciplines

19
Westminster and Richmond innovation campaigns

• Innovation campaign 250 ideas generating
  potential savings of 6 million
• Engaging staff as well as informing them
• Creating a culture where efficiency is valued
• Web-driven http//www.rubber-trouble.com/

20
The role of new media

• Part of the campaign, not the purpose
• Use to engage having delivered basic information
  to the audience
• Should be a more efficient channel if research
  has been done
• Does it represent value for taxpayers?
• Must be supported by reliable databases
• The old advertising broadcast is giving way to a
  more personal, targeted and interactive approach
  aimed at touching lives and improving lives
  Financial Times, February 2006

21
Three campaigns Go Green, CPA and some things
22
Lessons

• It has to be part of the corporate narrative
• It has to be reinforced each week
• It should be supported by an external lobbying
  strategy
• Internal understanding is critical
• The corporate identity matters as well

23
Two critical issues unity and consistency

• Too often, councils are very good at clearly
  branding unpopular services like
• council tax collection and parking enforcement,
  but allow the popular stuff like
• leisure centres, parks, after school clubs and
  theatres to distance themselves
• from the town hall through mini brands and
  independent marketing. As
• we improve services, we also need to ensure that
  our residents recognise
• these services as delivered by the council, paid
  for by council tax.'
• Sir Simon Milton, Chairman, local Government
  Association
• Whenever I communicated I explained the
  overriding philosophy
• behind what I was saying. My goal was to
  integrate even the simplest
• policy decisions into my basic ideas.
• Rudolph Giuliani, Leadership

24
Campaigns, not channels

• ROSIE
• RESEARCH Thorough research, understanding the
  audience.
• OBJECTIVE Clarity about organisational goals
  and outcomes.
• STRATEGY The approach and unified
  communications
• IMPLEMENTATION by linking communication and
  business objectives
• EVALUATION Honest benchmarking and evaluation
  of projects - measuring everything.

25
Conclusions

• Strong brands arise from consistent experiences
  which combine to form a clear, differentiated
  overall brand experience
• Your net brand image is determined by a
  combination of your proactive communications, the
  customer experience and what journalists and
  opinion formers are saying about you. If you are
  not proactive your net brand image will be based
  upon uninformed impressions, attitudes and
  beliefs
• Creating a brand will require you to have the
  credibility to help shape the business.
  Credibility requires a robust evidence base and a
  focus on your business goals
• You need disciplined communications, starting
  from the narrative, linked to campaigns that
  bring key messages alive and bourn by disciplined
  members and officers.