Manchester City Council Report for Resolution. Report to: Communications Subgroup 26 February 2015

Transcription

1 Manchester City Council Item 3 Manchester City Council Report for Resolution Report to: Communications Subgroup 26 February 2015 Subject: Report of: Communications process and structure Jennifer Green, Head of Communications (Content & Strategy) 1. Purpose The following paper outlines the process for a communications job using the example of the recent budget consultation. The paper walks through how a job comes into communications and is managed by the service. It also provides a communications staff structure, briefly describing their role in the process. 2. Introduction In August 2014, Communications started the planning process for the budget announcement, statutory consultations, management of responses and subsequent communications around the potential impact on the Council s services. Communications key role is to engage a conversation and engender responses to the consultation. Communications need to support the process of managing and minimising the risk to the Council, explaining the options for cuts and the Council s decision making process and timelines. It is particularly important to engage residents, staff, partners and other stakeholders in consultative decision making and to highlight transparency around the discussions for the budget options. This paper explains the process Communications goes through to deliver a job using the budget consultation as an example. Throughout the paper staff positions are referred to, explaining the role they undertake within the lifecycle of a campaign. Appendix one provides an overview of the structure and the posts responsibilities of the team. 3. A service request Activities in Communications, especially large campaigns, are mostly planned in. The team will be aware of the campaign requirements and will work with the relevant service to deliver a campaign. Work that is not planned in comes into the service either directly through to team s Communication Business Leads (CBL) or marketing officers. It is rare that the team has no knowledge of a request, but in some instances requests will come into the Communications inbox 1. These requests tend to be lower priority tactical activities such as free channels plans or operational requests such as setting a report or a request for business cards. 1 The communications address is communications@manchester.gov.uk 12

2 Manchester City Council Item 3 Given the importance of the budget consultation activity started months beforehand, with the CBL reviewing the previous budget setting process including the completed evaluation, researching the approach taken by other local authorities and drafting a communications strategy. Where Communications have not been substantially involved in the communications request or planning, the requesting service would be asked to complete a communications brief. (See appendix 2 for the briefing document). The briefing documents ask services for all the information required to start a job, this includes the objectives for the activity, target audience, and relevant insight, clarity about any mandatory or statutory requirements and an understanding about how the work would be evaluated. 4. Starting a job For the budget consultation, the work started with the development of the strategy and objectives. The CBL pulled together relevant colleagues from the Communications Department such as Digital Communications, the Press Office, the Creative Studio and the Marketing Team as well as key colleagues from across the Council. In this case, this included Legal Services for clarity of our statutory obligations and Performance, Research and Intelligence (PRI). Other campaigns would include other teams across the Council as appropriate. This mini team comes together in a kick off meeting. The CBL pulls the relevant knowledge and insight into a draft strategy and this core group will work together through the life of the campaign. For the budget consultation the strategy detailed the three phases of activity: Phase 1: Pre-engagement (Sept Oct 14) Phase 2: Engagement, Context & Cuts Proposals (From 10 Nov14) Phase 3: Consultations (From 26 Nov 14- Jan 15) Within each phase, the strategy outlines the objectives for any activity, the audience or stakeholders, the proposed key messages and the tactics to be used to help shape and communicate the messages and an evaluation framework. Finally the strategy will include the communications plan. This part of the process is essential; whilst messages can change and develop the plan provides the clarity of what we should and shouldn t say and to whom and when. For example, as a key objective of the budget consultation was to ensure transparency and openness, so it was vital that the language used reflected that. The strategy is then shared with appropriate stakeholders for approval. In this case, this included the Executive Member for Communications, the Executive Member for Finance and Resources, SMT and relevant Heads of Service. 5. Delivering a campaign Once approved the mini team starts the delivery process. The delivery of the campaign is managed using an Agile project management process, this includes 13

3 Manchester City Council Item 3 daily scrums very short mini team meetings to update progress, manage blocks and ensure delivery and fortnightly sprints a wider meeting to manage the entire campaign and all stakeholders. For every activity the marketing team would provide the service lead with a timetable for delivery. This will include a schedule for services to supply background content, approve and amend their work. These timescales need to be adhered to, ensuring that we meet the service deliverables. If there are a large number of amends or multiple changes to approved items, this may result in additional costs or issues with achieving deadlines. This is why the planning process and kick off process is so important, ensuring that there is absolute clarity for the brief so the team can make sure it s right first time. The marketing team produce a creative brief for the Studio, this outlines all the information that the Studio need to know before developing their creative treatment. The Studio produced the look and feel used for all budget consultation materials, from posters to paper copies of the consultation forms. In the strategy it was determined that an animation would be created to reach a wider, more digital savvy audience. The animation, produced in house, explains with simple graphics what people could do to help the Council s current budget position and encourages people to participate in the consultations. The animation has been viewed over 1,190 times and is the most viewed Council film produced to date. The film was also captioned and transcripts made available on the site to ensure accessibility. The channel planning team identifies plans and if required, purchases the appropriate media channels to promote the messages. Essential for many campaigns, and in particular for the budget consultation, is that messages reach directly into communities. The channel planning team maintains and continually develops the channels available, whether that s purchasing air time on local radio or ensuring that messages are included in partner publications. Increasingly, this includes more free and digital channels. Digital communications developed the online forms and content for the consultation. They do this in conjunction with services. The digital content team produced a plain English narrative of the budget and consultation process and summaries of all the directorate papers including links to the full committee reports. The summaries were produced to provide an outline of the budget options that is easier to read and digest. The digital team s content manual guided this process. There was significant social media activity, managed by digital marketing. This team push the key messages online and listen to and engage with stakeholders in a conversation about the budget options and encourage sharing. Social media sharing not only ensures that the key messages reach significantly more stakeholders, but it can also help to build trust because people tend to react more positively to content that has been recommended by someone within their own social network. Offline channels were also extensively used to ensure the messages reached all audiences across the city. Hard copies of each consultation were made available 14

4 Manchester City Council Item 3 including specialist formats (language, braile etc). Over 9,000 copies were available from all Council libraries, the Customer Service Centre, leisure centres, district offices and other appropriate neighbourhood venues and available at consultation events. The team also coordinate posters (over 300) to be distributed (over 50 locations across the city) to drive awareness and higher response. All the printed materials were printed in-house. The Translations and Interpretations arm of Communications were involved in the translation of all of the Children and Family consultations as well as the budget consultation into six languages including Braille. Face to face events (24 public consultations and 75 targeted events with key citizen groups) supported by people from within specific Directorates e.g. Children and Families took place across the city. And Communications organised feedback from business utilising free networks e.g. the Chamber of Commerce newsletter, Pro Manchester weekly newsletter, Business in the community newsletter, Business Solutions newsletter, Midas Mailing list, Growth Hub, Environmental business pledge members, CityCo members and distribution lists, Council Regeneration teams and ward co-ordinators. Finally, the press office ensure that local, and where appropriate national media, are fully engaged, with a comprehensive news releases which in this example provided the full budget context and explanation of the headline options and priorities. The press office is the first point of call for media enquiries and their involvement in the development of content and messaging is vital. Throughout the delivery of a campaign the team will monitor key metrics and listen to feedback to develop the campaign as needed. This includes more focused effort to reach a key demographic, for example in a previous consultation process it was identified that an area of the city was under represented in terms of responses. Additional targeted channels were activated in that area to increase the number of responses received. Communications also report back to the service area, Executive member and/or SMT as appropriate to ensure they are appraised on how the campaign was performing. For the budget consultation, weekly reports were sent summarising responses. 6. Evaluation Communications must ensure that key messages reach their intended audiences. This helps to ensure that activities deliver the results expected and the service gets value for money. With this in mind all activity must be evaluated, this leads to lessons learnt and improvements for future work. Often the services hold the data that helps us track how well a communications activity has performed and it is vital this is provided. If the communications activity is not measurable it proves difficult to demonstrate value for money/use of resources. Therefore, Communications may refuse to move onto the next phase of a campaign or start new work if measurements on success of previous activity is not provided. 15

5 Manchester City Council Item 3 For the budget consultation all activity is in the process of being evaluated and reported to Councillors via the appropriate meetings with support from the PRI. Interim results as of 12 February, indicate that we have received 571 responses to the budget consultation, this is for both online and offline responses. The closing date is 18 February. In 2013, using less channels, the response rate was reasonably similar with 671 responses. However, whilst we may only receive a small number more responses by they have all collated, it is important to note a number of different factors in this year s activity. Although subjective, the proposals for this year have been largely for targeted rather than universal services, interesting smaller numbers of the population, the budget consultation was presented as one of a menu of 10 consultations to respond to, which may have also reduced the response rate. At the end of a campaign, Communications reflect on what worked and what could be taken forward for a future campaign, what wasn t as successful and what we shouldn t do again. Given that the Council s budget setting process is for a year this time, this whole process will begin again this summer and the lessons learnt from this campaign will improve the next budget consultation activity. 7. Conclusion The communications process has to be flexible, fluid and needs to develop over time, as was the case with the budget consultation which had to respond to the airport windfall and changes to the overall budget cut position and suggested savings options. By working in partnership with the relevant officers and key stakeholders and using the three phased strategy with a clear communications plan and an agile methodology, the team had a robust framework to deliver this city-wide consultation resulting in good awareness of the budget options (the budget options pages have been visited 41,400 times since 26 November). The team used activity and channels not used before in budget consultations including an option to sign up in phase two for an alert notification to highlight when the consultation started, the use of infographics, animation/films and live streaming of meetings, more social media and the inclusion of plain English summaries of all directorate papers to ease digestion of the information provided in committee reports. The following marketing steps were adhered to and although communications isn t a perfect art and there will always be areas that could have been done better and people who didn t hear the messages but through evaluation and having an open and continuous improvement approach the aim is to do the best possible job with the resources available. Diagram 1: Stages of Marketing 16

6 Manchester City Council Appendix 1 Item 3 Appendix one Structure The following structure charts are the current structures in Communications. Following the outcome of the VS/VER scheme Communications will make 304k in workforce reductions. Content and strategy Head of Communications: Content and Strategy G12 Digital Services Manager G9 Communications Business Lead G9 x3.7 Perm x2 Interim Press Office Manager G9 Marketing Manager G8 Content Lead G7 CMS Lead G7 Senior Press Officer G8 12 month TL Asst. Marketing Manager G7 x3 Digital Content Officer x2 Digital Content Editor x2 Press Officer G7 x4 One held vacant for SPO Marketing Officer x11 Interactive UX designer Asst. Press Officer G4-6 X2 x1 12 month TL Media Buyer x2 Marketing Assistant x3 Marketing Executive G4 x4 17 Marketing Trainee G3

7 Manchester City Council Appendix 1 Item 3 Head of Communications: Operations & Commercial G12 Creative Director G8 Commercial Services Manager G9 Communications Support Services Manager G8 Graphic Designer G7 x2 Print and Mail Manager G8 Operations Manager G7 Traffic Manager Proof-reader Data Manager G7 Document Services Manager Communications Support Officer X5 Artworker x5 Rich Content Officer Data Technician X4 Print Buyers x3 Digital Printer Business Support Lead X3 Rich Content Editor Mailroom Supervisor G4 Digital Print Mailer G4 x3 Business Support Officer G3 Rich Content Trainee G3 Mailroom operative G1 X2 Digital Print Mailer Asst. G3 x4 Junior Artworker G3 18

8 Manchester City Council Appendix 1 Item 3 The team The following provides a brief overview of the teams within the service. Communications business leads (CBLs): Each directorate has a Communications Business Lead. This is the strategic communications lead and the first point of call for planning, prioritisation and the strategic development of high priority communications activity. The CBL will work with key directorate leads and the Strategic Business Partners to develop the communications plan each year, ensuring that activity is priority, objective and insight driven and that it fits within a performance and evaluation framework. The evaluation framework leads to lessons learnt and improvement for future work. CBLs will write communication briefs for priority activity. Marketing manager and officers: this team will develop the marketing plans for business as usual activity. They manage campaigns activity, whether that s BAU or strategic activity, are the day to day contact once the strategy for communications has been agreed and subsequent activity has gone live, brief the creative design studio and implement channel plans across traditional and digital channels - managing the Council's social media channels including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. This team play a key role in coordination of campaigns and communications across directorates. The team will help with communication briefs for tactical or priority activity, however, services will be expected to write briefs for other work. Channel planning and media buying: this team identifies, plans and if required, purchases the appropriate media channels to deliver against the set objectives and to ensure communications reach the target audience. This team also plays a coordination role in the planning of all Council owned media channels to ensure that communication are prioritised and given the most appropriate level of coverage across the city. The team will also evaluate the channels within an evaluation framework. Digital communications: this team are responsible for the Council s website; they manage the site s architecture and content, work on improving customer journeys and user experience using the analytics and data on the site to inform future developments. They are also responsible for quality assurance across the site and offer training and support for the service based authors and publishers. Press office: promotes the Council via proactive PR, protects its reputation and responds to media inquiries, major events, operations and central communications (marketing and digital). Each Press Officer has an area of responsibility. Internal communications: Following the service s redesign (due to be completed by March 15), Communications will be able to provide additional support for internal communications. This is will include strategic and governance support for the intranet as well as supporting the delivery of the Engage for Success strategy, choosing and operating the appropriate channels and ensuring that messages are disseminated across the workforce. This function does not include support for the delivery of staff events, writing or coordination of award submissions for directorates or the content management of directorate intranet sites. 19

9 Manchester City Council Appendix 1 Item 3 The studio: The design studio is multi-award winning and brings your messages to life by providing creative treatments, designing web pages and content presentation / user journeys. There is also a rich media team in the studio who can create films and support in the production of animations. The studio is also home to the proof reader, art workers and illustrators. The process starts with a creative brief and the team will take into account the set objectives and context, any insight before they start their creative work. Translations: This service provides written translation and face-to-face interpretation services in all languages including British Sign Language. They also offer audiotape, CD production and Braille services. There is a charge for this service as the provision is self-financing. The cost depends on the number of words in a document, the language required or the time that an interpretation session may take. Print and mail: This includes support for business critical processes including the work of elections; printing invoices, claim forms payslips and cheques and sending mail. In line with the print strategy, this team is required to ensure control what s printed and posted as well as managing the contracts that relate to this area of work. Print and Mail lead on the print strategy Default to Save digital behaviour change programme to wean the organisation off paper and onto digital alternatives, ensuring that the amount we print and post reduces every year. Presentation and technical AV: Our presentations and audiovisual staff support several events a week, from high profile ceremonies to routine presentations. Services include technical audiovisual setup, presentation design, Quizdom live feedback and professional risk assessment. Commercial: Relationship management including income raised from advertising (e.g. CityLive Digital Screens and Manchester Evening News contracts) and income generation from commercialising the in-house services such as print with GMP and Oldham MBC, creative services, marketing strategy and support and press & PR support. 20

10 Manchester City Council Appendix 2 Item 3 Appendix 2 PROJECT NAME Date: COMMUNICATIONS BRIEF Client/Department: Departmental Commissioner: Job number: (will be assigned once approved) Communications contact: Feel free to type over the italicised explanations, which are only intended as a guide. TIMINGS Date the job is required: Any key dates or other timing considerations: Planned Activity or Reactionary (please indicate) if planned please provide evidence of plan. BUDGET (you don t need to fill this in if the project is being paid for out of the central communications budget) External funding/recharge (if any) Code to be charged to: Objectives What are the objectives? What is the business problem to solve or opportunity to capitalise on? What do we want the audience(s) to think and do as a result? Communications background What is the rationale behind this project? How is this job supporting the Council s priorities, vision and values? What other information do we need to know? What (if anything) has been done before? Client information Who is involved in this campaign and what are their responsibilities? Who needs to give final approval? Target audience What specific audience(s) should be targeted e.g. geographic area, age group, gender etc? Why are they the target audience? Do you have any existing means to communicate to the audience? Relevant facts and insight Please provide as much information as possible e.g. previous research, external insight, facts and figures. This can be attached as separate documents if required. Digital platform considerations How can this project be communicated effectively and innovatively via digital channels? 21

11 Manchester City Council Appendix 2 Item 3 Support/substantiation/proof points Think I am the target audience, why should I believe you what s in it for me? This should be based on fact not opinion. How is the success of this job going to be measured? If there is no measurement, then why are we doing it? Mandatories/considerations What statutory or other requirements should we know about? For example, national guidelines, partner logos, size of print, terms and conditions etc which should be supplied with this brief. Commissioner name: Date submitted: Please to communications@manchester.gov.uk 22

12 Manchester City Council Appendix 3 Item 3 Appendix 3 Communications Process maps Assessment Process 23

13 Manchester City Council Appendix 3 Item 3 Workflow for a Strategic Project Initial checks will be carried out with SBP and Executive Member in charge of portfolio 24

14 Manchester City Council Appendix 3 Item 3 Workflow for a Tactical Delivery Project 25

15 Manchester City Council Appendix 3 Item 3 Workflow for a Business Operational Project 26