Case studies

When Essex County Council needed to rebrand its community transport service and recruit drivers, it used the power of authentic storytelling and user insight to deliver a small campaign with a big impact on people’s lives. The Ugobus – more than just a journey rebrand and recruitment campaign was awarded a bronze at the 2019 Public Service Communications Excellence Awards.

An example offers an inclusive approach to communications, which centres around building trust and seeking to ensure all community members are informed.

When Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced the opportunity for London boroughs to compete for £1.35m of funding and the prize to be named the very first London Borough of Culture, Waltham Forest had their sights set on success. Lorna Lee, Director of London Borough of Culture 2019, explains how extensive digital campaigning and community engagement won them the title and a gold public service communications award.

Earlier this year, Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games handover and homecoming celebrations gave the world a glimpse of to expect from the city when it hosts the event in 2022. Eleri Roberts, Birmingham City Council’s assistant director of communications, explains how with just four weeks’ notice, the council and its partners engaged residents in Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games story and launched the city onto a global, live stage. Birmingham City Council was awarded a bronze award for this work at the 2018 public service communications excellence awards.

Lancashire County Council wanted to look for a creative and effective ways to help them convert adoption interest into action, winning a bronze public service communications excellence award in the process. Anne Woods, Account Executive, Communications Service tells us how she achieved the award.

The 22 May 2018 marked one year on from the devastating Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people and changed countless lives, and the city, forever. Jen Green, director of strategic communications at Manchester City Council, reflects on how Manchester came together to remember those tragic events and honour the city’s powerful community spirit. The Manchester Together memorial programme was awarded a bronze award at the 2018 public service communications excellence awards.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service wanted to challenge the view that firefighting is a male-orientated role and attract more women to apply to the service. Corporate communications manager Alex Mills tells us how they enlisted the help of serving firefighters’ children to create a social media recruitment campaign which delivered results and secured them a 2018 public service communications excellence silver award.

Mental health problems can impact anybody at any stage of their life. Many people are scared to open up about mental health issues but Hertfordshire Council and partner agencies from across the county made it their mission to help change this. They wanted to raise awareness and normalise speaking out about mental health, particularly among boys and young men. Jen Beer, children and young people’s health improvement lead for public health at Hertfordshire County Council, tells us how their campaign to get people to ‘Just Talk’ won a bronze public service communications excellence award.

As part of wider efforts to improve frontline services for customers, Wrexham’s County Borough Council’s customer service and digital teams worked together to tackle the challenge of helping local people remember their bin collection days. Digital projects officer Huw Ap Dewi explains how collaboration and technology helped make a difference for local people.

On 3 June 2017 London Bridge and Borough Market were targeted by a terrorist attack. With emergency services leading the initial response, Southwark Council had the vital job of keeping residents, councillors and the wider community informed.