A campaign by Sovereign Housing Association to enhance engagement with residents by recruiting them to sit on influential new regional panels has won a prestigious PR award.
The ‘Make a Difference’ campaign scooped the gold award for the best ‘not-for-profit’ campaign at the PRide awards for the Thames and Chiltern area. The awards, organised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, recognise excellence and reward achievement in public relations and communications.
The judges said of the Sovereign entry: “This campaign used a brilliant creative platform as a hook for all activity. This ensured consistent messaging that was seeded through some very creative content that was generated across a variety of mediums. The results were benchmarked against objectives and highlighted some outstanding outputs.”
The campaign was a key part of Sovereign’s recent amalgamation into a single legal entity. While the business streamlined its governance structure, creating a centralised board, it also sought to give residents greater influence over the services they receive by setting up seven resident-led regional panels.
‘Make a Difference’ was aimed at motivating residents to apply for a place on these panels. “Residents were involved throughout the whole campaign, because we wanted them to feel ownership of the process. They were able to influence the consultation process, design and branding and the implementation phases,” said Cathy Parker, who led the communications campaign.
The campaign used a wide variety of methods to publicise the regional panels to residents, including letters and leaflets, information packs, posters, magazines, web sites, social media and publicity videos. There was even a ‘Recommend a Resident’ competition. This was accompanied by briefings and information to all staff to support the effort.
“In total, some 1,040 residents expressed an interest in being members of the panel, and 250 of these applied. We succeeded not only in filling all 56 regional panel vacancies, but also identifying a cohort of engaged and dynamic residents who not only want to make a difference to their lives and to those of fellow residents, but also better reflect the broad cross-section of our residents,” said Kevin Dey, who has managed the regional panels project.
This campaign was successful because of the clear, simple design and strap line that was taken from feedback from residents. They told us they wanted to “make a difference”. It was a really holistic team approach; as much energy went into motivating staff as it did on sending out information to residents. The campaign captured the imagination of Board members, staff and residents alike, and I’m delighted that the creativity and enthusiasm of staff has been rewarded,” he added.
Notes to Editors
- Sovereign Housing Association is a charitable body. It comprises Sovereign South+West, Sovereign Twynham, Sovereign Kingfisher and Sovereign Vale, which were merged into a single legal entity in October 2011. Sovereign Housing Association includes the non-charitable Sovereign Living Limited. Sovereign is one of the largest providers of affordable housing in the south and south-west of England. It owns or manages more than 33,000 properties, offering a variety of tenures.
- If you would like more information, please contact Roy Probert, Public Relations Manager for Sovereign, on 01635 277406 or 07827 356479, or email roy.probert@sovereign.org.uk
- For more information on the CIPR PRide awards, visit http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/events-awards/pride-awards
