Creative Media in Communication Campaigns
Creative Media in Communication Campaigns
Data proves your point. Storytelling makes people feel it.
We are inherently optimistic about the organizations, agencies, and issues we work with, and commit ourselves to learning everything we can about them—stats and figures and all. Observable results are always great in communicating that something happened or is continuing to happen, but the stats alone often miss why or how it happened. That’s the stuff that increasingly, we all want to know. What specifically did you try, and what did it mean to people?
Here’s what we’ve learned in the past ten years with our government and nonprofit clients when we incorporated creative media into our campaigns to tell the story.
Building Buy-in
Ultimately, the aim from the very start of a campaign is to build trust, to connect with individuals in a more effective way, and to make sure folks feel welcome to participate in the process.
For the Redesign of Montbello High School for Denver Public Schools and the innovative teams from Eppstein Uhen Architects and Eidos Architects, we documented the student and community journey, pre-construction, to build excitement. Our role as executive producer—managing script-writing, spokesperson pre-interviews and message development, location coordination and scheduling, and interviewing—was also a key signal to the community that we were asking for their collaboration. The result was a beautiful story that inspired several months of community feedback on the design of the future neighborhood high school.
Equity was at the center of this project, and as we’ve said before, when you’re re-establishing trust where it was lost, you can’t cut corners. To reinforce the message that a community-led process improved the redesign and renovation of the campus in Northeast Denver, we completed a project results video. This was done in collaboration with a highly skilled, Colorado-based production team to ensure videography and editing would create a story that met the moment.
Centering Projects on People
When the North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative needed to show the socioeconomic benefits of mobility projects, we didn’t lead with reports or charts. Just like we would have when we worked in TV news, we captured video and voices from the very people who had the most to gain or lose: moms, dads, their children, and the teachers and leaders of their neighborhood school. The result was real, resonant storytelling that mattered more than the statistics they represented. Decision-makers and stakeholders didn’t just see a transportation project. They saw opportunities, equity and hope of a future state, which was a safer, more resilient community.
Proof of Performance That Connects the Dots
Annual or project reports have their place in showing performance indicators, but we don’t have to tell you they often are neither innovative nor engaging. We’ve appreciated opportunities to either provide or receive project updates in video form. These dynamically bring key performance indicators to life, which makes the entire topic more bite-sized, easier to understand, and at least for us, stored in the brain differently than a ten page deck of data sets.
Reporting for the multi-year campaign, Simple Steps. Better Air., often included enlivening our annual program evaluation for board members, internal stakeholders, and the public. This approach allowed us to highlight key metrics and wins, celebrate the people behind the work, and set the stage for a deeper conversation among those present about the program’s annual objectives and outcomes.
Capturing Behavior Change in Action
Behavior change is a long game that is often won with gradual but undeniable statistical gains. Capturing what benchmark success looks like not only supports ongoing investment, but invigorates continued adoption of desired behavior. Enter video’s unrivaled ability to show rather than just tell.
The “EV Postcards” video series wasn’t about the quantity of community members switching to electric vehicles. It was a glimpse into the fun that people were experiencing by doing so. A small showcase, but a showcase nonetheless, that asking Coloradans to reduce air pollution by changing their daily habits was working, in a personal, relatable, and inspiring way.
Youth suicide prevention is often centered on confronting stigma. That includes a campaign that asks parents to talk to their children or teens about it. Rather than lengthy brochures or handbooks, we leveraged the popularity of YouTube to speak simultaneously to youth and parent/caregiver audiences. In “The S Word: How to start a conversation with your teen about suicide” we let youth voice be a beacon.
Delivering Tools to Build Capacity
We know sometimes your story isn’t one you shout from the rooftops. Strong local and state governments, nonprofits, and corporations alike need strong internal communication tools.
Internal-facing stories, even about processes, still deserve to be told in compelling ways. That was the mission for our team when creating well-produced training videos on Lean Management Principles for state employees under the Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting, and how to utilize a standardized assessment tool for the former Colorado Office of Behavioral Health, now the Behavioral Health Administration. Additionally, we supported educational videos for several community level agencies, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. In video form, processes become more accessible and effective for our clients and their workforces.
Take the Next Step
Whether it’s reporting that feels personal and dynamic, interactivity with your audiences, or being a thought leader using an innovative approach to showcase issues and ideas, if you’re ready to turn it up on your next project, we’re here to help. Reach us at connect@clermonteliot.com.