our workLocal Government Association / Changing perceptions of working for your local council
Local government is suffering from a recruitment crisis. There are a lot of outdated perceptions around what working for your local council means – when the truth is, the range of opportunities, work patterns and development pathways mean it should be a serious consideration for more people.
In September 2023 we won a competitive open tender for the Local Government Association (LGA) to research, design, develop and deliver their first ever flagship recruitment campaign that performed 30.6% above target when it came to driving potential candidates to the campaign landing page, and increased job applications by almost 9%.
First things first - who is the LGA?
The LGA is a cross-party political organisation that works on behalf of councils to ensure local government has a voice at national government level. They represent more than 330 councils across England and Wales to support, promote and improve local government and deliver local solutions to national problems. And one such problem is improving the quantity and quality of people applying for roles.
Getting under the skin of our audience
We tendered alongside our long-term research partners, Habit5 who undertook a 2-phase programme of research. Firstly, to engage our target audiences, and understand their current views of working in local government. And secondly to carry out key creative message testing.
Habit 5’s research combined qualitative focus groups and quantitative online surveys during both phases of fieldwork – with a robust sample size of over 2,000 at first stage quant and 1,000 at second stage creative testing.
Their research helped us identify a ‘sweet spot’ within the broad audience, with those most likely to consider roles in their local council being aged 30-39. We knew the campaign needed to maintain broad appeal, but we used this segment of the audience to guide our visual development and imagery.
The proposition: making a difference
The research helped us understand which elements of working for the LGA appealed most to people. In order, these were helping their local community, flexible working, the range of roles available and career development.
After putting a number of creative executions back into research, all with very different visual and tonal approaches, one idea resonated strongly with all audiences. Our ‘Make a difference. Work for your local council’ creative proposition wraps up all of the strongest reasons to work in local government: you get to make a difference to real lives in your community, as well as in your own life.
Our bold, disruptive campaign creative challenges outdated perceptions of what working for your local council means. It’s bright, colourful and energising.
Watching the pilot take off
The North East was identified as the pilot region for the campaign, covering 12 local authorities. We therefore worked closely with the North East councils and combined authorities throughout the campaign development.
We provided core campaign placements against the paid media plan developed by the7Stars, including digital display, OOH, radio, social and search.
We also delivered a campaign toolkit with multiple placement, visual, writing and co-branding guidelines – to enable the pilot region councils to support the campaign across their owned channels.
The results were impressive…
Over 17 million impressions delivered over 100,00 incremental clicks to the North East Jobs portal, an amazing 30.6% above target.
Across the pilot region, councils reported an 8.96% year on year increase in job applications. The campaign had good recall, with residents reporting overall more positive impressions of their council and being more open and committed to applying for jobs.