Hitting public service targets

Norfolk County Council: marketing for success

In 2005, Norfolk County Council asked us to review its marketing activity to help it hit the only Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) target in the country on improving resident satisfaction, in partnership with the borough councils in King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth. At the time its BVPI rating for satisfaction was in the bottom quartile. And satisfaction with local government was falling nationally.

The County Council had a tiny marketing team. One district had a sole PR officer, the other had part of another officer’s time. We recommended creation of a marketing strategy, joint production of a range of publications, and developing a series of corporate campaigns to address key issues of importance to residents.

Over the next two years, the councils ran jointly branded pages in the county’s Your Norfolk publication, sent to 350,000 homes and revamped the district council magazines. They co-ordinated publication and delivery of an A-Z of council services to residents. They ran campaigns on waste, fly-tipping and cleaner streets. The ‘Don’t be a loser’ campaign on young drivers attracted media publicity across the county and won numerous regional and national awards. The ‘Bus Stop 39’ campaign to involve young people in local government involved a ‘blogging’ soap opera, devised with an East Enders script writer and won more awards.

At the end of 2007, they heard that they had hit their target of increasing resident satisfaction by 10%. Ipsos Mori confirmed that this bucked the national trend. Hitting the target has triggered the release of nearly £1m of government grant for the three authorities.

Christine Birchall, head of marketing at Norfolk County Council said of our work: ‘Thank you so much. We honestly couldn't have done this without your review and all the really practical help it gave us’. Her team were crowned Communicators of the Year at the CIPR Local Government Group Excellence in Communication Awards 2007 at which the judges said ‘we are stunned by just how many categories Norfolk has won, but in every case they were the best and their success is recognised through this final award’.