• Emergency artwork created (ads & promo leaflets) – 3
  
• Leafleting team locations in 1 day – 11
• Media materials drafted in 2 weeks – 7
• Proactive Tweets (and schedule) drafted – weekly, in advance
  
• Responses in 2 weeks – 20,000

Guildford Borough Council had asked people for their views about the future as part of its Local Plan, which encompassed housing development, transport, infrastructure, jobs, the environment and services. With only two and a half weeks of an eight-week public consultation period left, very few had responded.

The View was appointed to assist in the publicity and issues management of this highly complex and potentially sensitive initiative. We conducted a full analysis and consulted on the communications strategy – including agreement of easy-to-understand key messages.

Our education campaign included advertising, a media relaunch and ongoing content for use across digital platforms. We mounted a ‘dawn to dusk’ promotional blitz and leafleted in high footfall areas to reach everyone who lived and worked in the area, from commuters to students to grannies.

The activity resulted in an increase in queries generally – and hits to the council website.  There was a massive upsurge of responses. 20,000 were received in time for the deadline, making it the most successful consultation the council has ever run.

Believability™

Crucial to the Believability™ of our campaign was communicating in simple language, with relevant, stories and case studies – and in a way that affirmed people’s sense of importance.