Rob Mansfield, Head of Communications at Brent Council, explains how they sought the creativity of George the Poet to communicate with a different audience.
One of the council’s biggest communications challenges is to create compelling stories that really engage residents and create a better understanding of what we do.
Some people are harder to reach than others and some subjects are complex and quite difficult to explain in a simple way. This means there is rarely a ‘one size fits all’ approach to our communications and we are continually looking to innovate and find effective ways to reach our target audiences.
We were approached by award-winning podcaster George the Poet earlier this year. Having grown up on St Raphael’s Estate, he was concerned about rumours surrounding the future of the area.
Following a series of meetings, we set a brief for George to produce a short creative film about the options for the future of St Raph’s. Its aim is to reassure residents about the council’s motives and increase understanding of the development process.
George put the short film he made with us out on his social media channels yesterday evening and it’s already reaching a wider audience than we would have done if we’d only focused on a more traditional council communications approach.