Social Media Campaign for public consultation

Case study on increasing the reach of the draft strategy and engaging the audience in the feedback process

THE RESULT

Upon conclusion, the campaign had reached new audience segments previously unaware and unengaged with Project Phoenix activities. You can read the detailed metrics of the campaign in the Project Phoenix Public Consultation Report – Voices from the Australian Native Seed Sector.

PROJECT BRIEF

Initiated in January 2020, Project Phoenix is a 16-month national program, designed to be sector-led, guided by an External Steering Committee (ESC), and coordinated by Greening Australia. One of the key project deliverables was a 10-year Native Seed Strategy for Australia.

After completing the Planning and Draft phase, the Strategy Draft was delivered in June 2021. Project Phoenix had to get feedback from the sector stakeholders, for its Public Consultation Phase from July 2021 to August 2021. The feedback from the sector would inform the Final Strategy and increase awareness of the Project to a wider audience. Project Phoenix’s team sought social media communication advice from contentgroup for this Public Consultation phase. To gain effective and credible feedback, the communications had to be targeted to a niche audience i.e., stakeholders from the Native Seed sector.

An effective and agile social media plan was required to target a wide audience including those already engaged and current followers/subscribers. The initial draft of the Strategy (Titled: A Strategy for the Australian Native Seed Sector (Draft)) and Code of Practice Options Paper (Titled: Do we need a National Seed Code of Practice?) had been completed, the team’s priority was to encourage feedback from the sector and gauge the audience’s interest in the Final Strategy and implementation activities.

In summary, Project Phoenix’s team wanted to spread the word about the 30 project resources and reports and encourage feedback from the audience on the Draft Strategy and Code of Practice.

The client

Project Phoenix, Greening Australia

Industry

Australian Native Seed Sector, Agriculture

Duration of the project

February 2021 – December 2021

Services

Personnel

STRATEGIC APPROACH

The communications’ priorities were to enhance engagement, obtain feedback and broaden awareness from existing and potential audiences.

The existing followers on Project Phoenix’s social media and newsletter were relatively small. In combination with the declining reach of organic content on social media (as per the updated algorithm) would allow for a limited reach. As such, a paid social media campaign was recommended to engage the broader audience with an interest in agriculture (specifically the Native Seed Sector).

Social Media advertisements allow for effective targeting at a lower cost in comparison to traditional media. Using current social media audience stats reports, LinkedIn and Facebook were identified as the preferred platforms in Australia for the intended target audience.

contentgroup drafted a social media campaign plan with two campaigns. This was step three of five in our evidence based D2CCE framework. contentgroup worked actively with the client’s project and marketing teams to pivot the (design, captions, schedule, and audience demographics outline), as necessary based on feedback and performance metrics.

Instagram Post designed to highlight some of Project Phoenix Activities

TACTICAL STEPS

contentgroup developed a comprehensive social media campaign plan focused on encouraging stakeholders to engage with the Project Phoenix content and submit their feedback.

To align with the two objectives, contentgroup designed and delivered two sets of paid campaigns on Facebook and LinkedIn. The first campaign ‘Learn More’ was designed to direct the visitors to view the strategy document on the Greening Australia website, with effective CTA statements such as ‘Learn more about the National seed strategy’. The second campaign ‘Have your say’ encouraged submissions and feedback from the audience on the Draft Strategy, by directing the traffic to the relevant landing pages. To showcase Project Phoenix Team as approachable and inclusive, the creatives and captions for this campaign were drafted around the key message ‘by the sector, for the sector’ and ‘Every voice matters’.

The campaign was executed over 4-weeks on Facebook and LinkedIn. It included a total of 3 boosted posts and 3 image ads. The campaign approach and design were developed by contentgroup, while posting and reporting were managed by the Marketing Team of Greening Australia. These campaigns were also shared on the Project Phoenix newsletter which further increased the engagement to the campaign and Project Phoenix overall (Read more about how we grew Project Phoenix’s newsletter click-through by 179% here).

The social media campaign was developed to increase brand awareness of Project Phoenix, increase buy-in from the sector for Project Phoenix activities, gain valuable insights from the potential audience, and inform necessary decisions to update the Final Strategy.

Facebook posts designed to encourage audiences to provide feedback and engage with the Project Phoenix Activity Reports

DELIVERABLES

The key deliverable was a fortnightly mobile-compatible HTML Email template circulated through MailChimp, which included:

one video and infographic (per newsletter)
curated additional content from the sector
curated polls (as required)
A monthly metrics report with insights and recommendations to inform necessary improvements.