INSI

DE

THIS

ISSU

EIN

SID

E TH

IS IS

SUE

Global Insights Magazine

2 4 6 7Lessons learned in inspiring kids to embrace democracy

An edgy awareness campaign in support of worker diversity

Starting points for a new era incommunication

Six challengesfor public sector

They don’t need no education?

Issue 5 - Edited by Recommended Finland 2012

Calling all citizens

e3 insights

Fresh perspectives on public sector communication

Challengingpreconceptions

Stay

eag

le-e

yed

on th

e ze

bra

cros

sing

!

2

You have an important message that the whole nation needs to hear. Borrowed Interest – the concept of using somene else’s fame – enables you to harness star power to maximise awareness.

Liikenneturva, the central organisation for traffic safety in Finland, aims to improve people’s traffic behaviour through communication, education and training. For decades, it has campaigned on issues such as wearing safety belts, reflectors and cycling helmets as well as the dangers of drinking and driving.

Traditionally August, when legions of new first-graders embark on their journeys to school, is the time to turn the spotlight to zebra crossing safety. Recommended Finland’s job was to help Liikenneturva first grab people’s attention, then guide their traffic behaviour.

Attention! When you really want to make heads turn, Borrowed Interest can offer a very effective solution.

Luckily, the Finnish game developer Rovio Entertainment was happy to lend Angry Birds, its globe-conquering characters, to drum up publicity for a good cause.

So why use these characters to advertise zebra crossing safety? Because they can get an important message across to as many people as possible.

Zebra crossings

guarded by Angry Birds

3

If you’re given a chance to tap into star power to make yourself heard, don’t be shy.

Facebook banner, class schedule template and poster for primary schools.

What’s more, the appeal of Angry Birds to both kids and adults made them ideal spokescharacters. After all, the task was not only to urge pedestrians to stay alert when crossing the road but also remind motorists to respect the zebra crossing.

Implementation!The campaign kicked off with roadside displays, back window stickers on buses and street wash advertising (see the sidebar). Red Bird and a flock of Blue Birds soon joined the action, appearing on ads, posters, desktop wallpapers and class schedule templates.

Further coverage was secured with drivetime radio spots and a tour of shopping centres, where children could have their photo taken with the Mighty Eagle and a Bad Piggy – but only after having practiced using the zebra crossing with the characters.

Angry Birds have undoubtedly helped lift the profile of traffic safety. If you’re given a chance to tap into star power to make yourself heard, don’t be shy. •

Streets are awash with messages

The zebra crossing campaign got down to street level with street wash advertising – stencilled messages pressure-washed onto streets and sidewalks. A wash will stay visible for a few weeks before wearing off by itself.

Twelve Finnish cities received 3–7 washes each along busy streets, on parking lots and near primary schools.

4

1. Clearly define goals to ensure effective communicationOUT: sending a press release out into the world to fend for itself. IN: commu-nication plans with carefully thought-out target audiences, key messages, delivery channels and phases of actions.

Detailed planning has self-evident benefits such as ensuring the consist-ency and continuity of communication.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

communication challenges for the public sector

However, what might be even more im-portant is that it encourages public sec-tor clients to rethink their communication philosophy. Instead of commissioning a brochure out of old habit, they are led to ponder the truly essential questions:

What do we actually want to achieve with communication? What is the most effective way to do that? How do we measure success?

Fundamental changes are afoot in public sector communication. Governmental, municipal and other organisations need to respond to societal shifts by learn-ing to navigate multiple channels, to not only communicate but also engage – to make themselves heard in an increasingly noisy world.

How to inspire people to tackle the vital issues of our time? How to communi-cate openly and interactively without losing control of the message? We present a few starting points – now put on your thinking caps.

5

2. Explore new ways to serve and engage citizensGovernmental and municipal budget cuts are not just a feature of uncertain economic times. As the dependency ratio – the amount of people of non-working age compared to the number of those of working age – gets higher, the public sector must find permanent solu-tions to doing more with less.

In many countries e-services have already made a lot of headway, saving countless (wo)man-hours of work and offering a time- and place-independent way to both get and submit information. The main challenges for the next gener-ation of e-services will be to offer a bet-ter user experience and interconnectiv-ity between public sector databases.

Concurrently there is a small revo-lution happening: using digital channels to enable interaction between the pub-lic and its servants and to make govern-ance more transparent and accountable. The active and the curious among us will take to the new services like fish to wa-ter, but for e-democracy to live up to its name, the public sector needs to find a way to sell online civic participation to the masses. 3. Use internal communication to turn strategy to actionThe public sector produces reams of strategies and programs in view of not just correcting societal problems but also improving its own operations. Not unlike in the private sector, it often proves difficult to translate the think-ing in the initiatives to daily realities, especially when profound changes to the accustomed way of doing things are required.

How to keep a strategy from be-coming just another stack of paper to be quietly filed away? Public sector organi-sations need to be able to motivate each

and every employee to commit them-selves to the objectives. Their internal communication must reach beyond de-livery of documents and inspire people to become agents of change.

4. Talk across the fence to synchronise effortsMinistries and other public organisations have a tendency to operate in isolation from each other even though the objec-tives of their programs often overlap. Open communication across boundaries would enable them to swap best prac-tices, synchronise efforts and eliminate duplication.

In external communication, the organisations working towards similar goals would all benefit from having a shared core message, which they could complement to suit their particular pur-poses. Co-ordinated and harmonised communication makes it easier for citi-zens to perceive the big picture – the vision the governing bodies have for their country.

5. Enhance employer image to secure a workforce for the futureAs populations are ageing all over the world, the competition for qualified per-sonnel gets increasingly intense. Public employers are waking up to the fact that, just like businesses, they need to boost their efforts to make themselves look at-tractive as employers.

Public sector organisations often fail to see employer branding as a contin- uous, long-term process, instead splash-ing out on ad hoc recruitment cam-paigns. Much work is also to be done with issues such as identifying distinctive and credible selling points for potential em-ployees, tailoring messages for different target groups and determining the re-cruitment channels with the best return on investment.

Spreading the good word via on- and offline social networks demands special consideration. After all, happy civil servants are the best advertisement for their employers.

6. Encourage innovation to improve public services and economy Finding ways to deliver public services – especially social and healthcare ser-vices – more efficiently has become a priority in many societies. In order to succeed, the public sector needs to per-suade the private and third sectors to join in the task.

The communication challenge is to change attitudes by putting a positive spin on the situation instead of gloom- and doom-mongering – to make entre-preneurs see social and healthcare ser-vices as potentially profitable business to which they should commit resources. Innovative services, products and meth-ods create a win-win situation: people get proper care despite tightening purse strings and the economy gets a boost. •

OUT: sending a press release out into the world to fend for itself.

6

clarify

activate

Democracy for kids

What to do when you need to teach rather than sell? Perhaps unsur-prisingly, the principles of communication remain much the same.

If you want to talk about political decision-making, people aged 15 to 17 are probably not the most immediately receptive audience. Some of them might be cynical beyond their years, others fail to see what difference it makes to their existence. Also, none of them are allowed to vote yet.

Recommended Finland was chosen by the Parliament of Finland to tackle the challenge. The brief was to create a website that would function as an inspiring tool for the teaching of Finnish parliamentary democracy in schools.

Here are some of the things we learned.

They don’t need no education?

Make it understandable and digestible There is no getting around the fact that law-making, the primary task of the Parliament, is a complicated process. However, there are ways to make it easier to absorb without cutting corners or trivialising the subject matter.

The usual tricks of the trade – clear and concise language, informa-tive graphics, breaking down the content into digestible chunks – provide a good start, but we also wanted to anchor the process to reality.

That is why the steps of the legislative procedure and the birth of an actual law are shown side by side in the “How a law is made” section. You can also watch live streams from the plenary sessions and video clips on parliamentary work by tuning into “EeTuubi” (“ParliamentTube”).

demystifyShow a connection to life as we know itDry legalese can cloud the fact that laws directly affect our lives as well as reflect the values of our times. We wanted to build a connection be-tween parliamentary democracy and our everyday experiences.

For example, the “See how laws evolve” application uses a time-line to show how legislation on issues such as animal rights or shopping hours has shifted along the years in response to changes in the society and the political culture.

Applying a human face to an abstract concept helps get a grip on it. The “Everyday work in the Parliament” section introduces the people working in the Parliament buildings – not only Members of Parliament but also the Speakers, the assistants, the civil servants and the journalists – and describes what they actually do in their working lives.

Enable learning by doingSome people find it easy to assimilate new in-formation by reading or listening. Others learn better by doing, which is why the website also offers interactive features.

The most popular of these has turned out to be “Make your own election poster”, a simple application that encourages you to think about the societal issues that are important to you and how to best communicate your views to other people. Thousands of posters have been created by budding politicos (and, inevitably, a few jokers). For those who get the bug, links to online channels of activism are provided.

7

listen

Nathalie may be blind, but she always keeps track of work. Kristoff is in a wheelchair, but as a lawyer he holds his own ground. These people work success-fully for the Flemish government. That’s something to be proud of. Because the government is working on diversity.

This is the campaign claim that the Belgian E3 agency BBC developed for the Flemish Emancipa-tion Affairs Department. A controversial awareness campaign.

In the leading roleThe Emancipation Affairs Department wants to achieve a change of mentality in the workplace with respect to people from disadvantaged groups. BBC’s assignment: work out an internal communication strategy for 50,000 civil servants. The approach was a testimony campaign, featuring people from disadvan-taged groups who actually work for the Flemish Gov-ernment. An appeal was launched to employees who wanted to be featured in the campaign. Eighty people voluteered to be profiled in the campaign. Six ‘mod-els’ eventually gave the poster campaign a face in all Flemish Government buildings. Organisations that support disadvantaged groups in the labour market were also involved in the campaign.

Talent and respectThe focus of the campaign is on the talents and skills of individual employees from disadvantaged groups. They act as role models. In a first series of posters, the campaign focuses on employees from ethnic minori-ties and with disabilities or chronic illness. Challenge: restructuring the – often loaded – equal opportunities theme into a surprising and sympathetic campaign.

Too bad about his colourRachid sits full of confidence at his drawing board. He is described as one helluva good draftsman. The head-line: ‘Too bad about his colour.’ In combination with the image, this headline evokes clichés about foreign people. The reader is misled, but the body copy plac-es the header in the right context. Rachid’s qualities are highlighted. And then the wink: Too bad about his colour. He could wear something other than black ;-)

Too bad he’s short-handedThat’s the headline on the poster which shows Wil-lem. As a helpdesk employee, he’s the helping hand at the Service line of the VDAB. Employees or employ-ers with questions? They can always count on him.

BBC puts Flemish Government on the right track

CHALLENGING PRECONCEPTIONS

TO SUPPORT DIVERSITY

Bodycopy: Too bad that he’s short-handed. But then at the Service line the telephone just doesn’t stop.

Next stepsFollowing the first poster series, the Emancipation Affairs Depart-ment decided to continue the cam-paign with gays (plus transgenders) and over-50s in the leading role. •

Get feedback from the target groupThe process of creating the website once again confirmed our view that you can’t commu-nicate effectively from an ivory tower. Feedback from people belonging to the target group was elemental in helping us fine-tune the verbal and visual style of the website.

For example, the name ini-tially proposed for the website – which the whole project com-mittee was very enthusiastic about – got a scathing reception from a test group, who thought it was the kind of name adults imagined teenagers would find “cool”.

The lesson: don’t underes-timate or patronise, but listen and learn. •

www.nuorteneduskunta.fi

“Too bad about his colour.”

“Too bad he’s short-handed.”

E3 N

ETW

ORK

E3 networkThe E3 Agency Network is a closely integrated coalition of independent brand strategy and marketing communications firms from around the world. With access to this wide pool of talent, E3 agencies give clients a real chance to make an impact nationally and internationally. Find out how the E3 perspective can help you.www.e3network.comAdministration: veerle@e3network.com

Calling all citizensWithin the E3 network there is plenty of expertise and interest in creating effective communication solutions for the public sector.

Please contact us if you want to talk about out how your organization can benefit from this international know-how: public@e3network.com

Recommended FinlandThis issue of E3 Global Insight Magazine has been edited by Recommended Finland.

For more information, please contact salla.halme@recommended.fi or tero.heittola@recommended.fi.

Recommended FinlandTöölönkatu 11 A, FI-00100 HelsinkiTel. +358 9 4154 2211, www.recommended.fi

Adsmith / ChinaAdvertigo / RomaniaAloft Group / USAAnsel-Möllers / GermanyAudacity / USABase One / UKBBC / BelgiumBernstein / GermanyBMLab / RussiaBruketa & Žinić OM / CroatiaC&COM Advertising / Czech RepublicCafé Design / HungaryDAG Communication / ItalyEpoka / PolandIgriega / SpainKirnauskis 2.0 / FinlandMaitri Advertising Works / IndiaMandate / SingaporeMedia Consulting / PortugalNetural / AustriaPreferendum / FranceQuarry / CanadaRecommended / FinlandRecommended / SwedenSPS Marketing / AustriaSanderWerbung / GermanySchindler Parent / GermanyTANGRAM / LiechtensteinTANGRAM / SwitzerlandTruly Deeply / AustraliaVan Heertum Design VHD / Netherlands