Three years after delivering its inaugural Climate Change Strategy 2020, Whakatāne District Council (WDC) was reviewing the strategy and seeking community input into what more it could do to meet climate challenges.
In July 2023, WDC asked Frank Engagement to design a communications and engagement strategy to drive genuine community participation in the review – including the values, vision, and future projects – ahead of formal consultation in early 2024.
Supporting the strategy was an action plan for a targeted campaign, to build buy-in to the climate change strategy, raise awareness of the upcoming consultation and promote action the community could take themselves to reduce impacts on the environment.
Key to garnering participation was building trust in council to deliver on the strategy, making it relevant to residents’ everyday lives and allowing for easy engagement in the process.
Working hand-in-hand with WDC’s team, Frank Engagement developed the campaign elements, including media releases, a landing page and survey, social media content, newsletter articles, advertising and brochures.
A core campaign platform was a video series rolled out over the one-month campaign to build a whole-of-community perspective and drive a collective vision for the future. Videos focussed on how climate change is affecting what is important for whānau, communities, and Council, what their concerns are, and what actions are being taken. Frank Engagement story boarded the concept, worked with WDC to find great talent, sourced and briefed local video providers and oversaw the production to delivery.
Campaign tools used for direct engagement with school visits and community board meetings were also developed.
WDC were pleased with the roll out and resulting participation, with 174 members of the community contributing thoughtful ideas for action through the survey. A series of Instagram polls using the collateral attracted more than 300 responses from a younger audience. General community feedback was that the campaign was engaging, thought-provoking and provided for a good mix of quick responses and more comprehensive submissions.
Whakatāne District Council senior communications advisor, Sam Whittle, says the engagement strategy Frank Engagement designed provided a strong foundation for the community campaign.
“In particular, the campaign video came out better than we could have anticipated, and really captured how committed our community are to facing climate change challenges together.”
