Bury Council
Changing behaviours and connecting communities
Healthy lives
Bury Council are an essential line of communication for residents within their communities. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, their role as an in-touch, relevant and credible source of information was vital in helping to protect and safeguard the health and wellbeing of the population.
The campaign aimed to increase levels of compliance, giving the community a much-needed boost of morale, heralding existing efforts, and inspiring the continuing resolve of Bury residents.
Challenge
With the boroughs of Greater Manchester enduring long and arduous lockdown restrictions - the iteration of rules disseminated by central government and mainstream media had led to a confusing interpretation of compliance guidelines.
Our challenge, here, was clear:
- Increase awareness of current COVID-19 compliance guidelines
- Encourage uptake of vaccinations
- Reinterpret national, COVID-19 Government-led campaign to be relevant and compelling to Bury audiences at a local level
- Engage with residents across the different town trajectories such as millennials, Jewish and South Asian communities
- Reduce the R rate across the six localities
Collaborate
Working in collaboration with the client, stakeholders, and local residents, we focused on re-energising efforts to remain compliant and boost morale during the roadmap to freedom.
Our qualitative survey asked, ‘Why are you staying COVID-compliant?’ with the answers used to combat confusion and ensure good virus-control behaviour.
Resident-generated footage, filmed during the lockdown on mobile, promoted positive morale-boosting answers to questions such as ‘What are you looking forward to most after lockdown?’ along with promoting a motivational message for their fellow residents. Our approach was to help shape and promote an authentic, mobilising community narrative that stood for:
- Showing rather than telling – that most people in Bury were compliant and understood that remaining so was vital to resume ‘life as normal’
- Positive behaviour – focusing on the good that most people do, to encourage others to do the same
- Collective action – harnessing the power of networks and social relationships in shaping our actions and setting norms
- Encouraging people to make a commitment to others – based on the insight that people are more likely to do things for others than themselves
Create
We conceptualised and developed the concept ‘Let’s Do It For Each Other. Let’s Do It For Bury’.
The implementation included a dynamic, impactful campaign logo, tagline, and visual identity that delivered:
- A badge of honour – recognisable, borough-wide
- A strong, community-focused, people led message platform
- Stand out local content against a backdrop of national messaging
- Shareable footage and photos of residents and towns that brought the campaign to life across video, social, paid-for, OOH, and toolkits
Change
Infection rates dropped dramatically across the five-week campaign with the R rate reducing to 43% - taking the borough from one of the highest-ranking localities within Greater Manchester to the lowest.
We presented at the regional Cabinet Office Communication Meeting – where our approach was considered best practice for future COVID-19 compliance and behavioural change campaigns.
The continued impact of COVID-19 has been unfathomable. People fell ill and died, fear and anxiety grew, businesses shut, freedoms restricted, economies broke, travel stopped. But out of the ashes came something. People together.
This campaign is a testament to that. A celebration of Bury residents and their commitment to protect each other and change their actions for good.
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7:0
Positive sentiment ratio
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308335
Total reach
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46.1
%
Engagement to reach ratio
