ABOUT

Concept:
The Local Government Association (LGA) wanted to increase the awareness of the role of a councillor amongst the disabled community, raise engagement with the Be a Councillor campaign (via their website, social media or direct contact), and get people to consider starting their journey to becoming a councillor, or to recommend the role to someone they know. We worked with the LGA to create bespoke and targeted advertising for disabled people, which promoted the Be a Councillor campaign’s key messages, resources and assets.

Execution:
We took a look at the research the LGA had done previously and conducted our own so we could better understand the representation of disabled councillors and how we could engage them.

Using this research, we came up with the key headline ‘Disabled and Able.’ It’s designed to emphasise that a person’s disability doesn’t need to restrict them and they’re perfectly ‘able’ to perform the duties of a councillor. This headline was then incorporated in a series of images for social media channels and the LGA website that demonstrated the wide range of responsibilities a councillor has.

Image versions and plain text versions were created to account for the Purdah period and ensure images could be used year round. The LGA guidelines and colours were used throughout the images as well as photos of current disabled councillors performing their duties.

As part of our advertising approach, we also compiled a list of disabled influencers and organisations which could be encouraged to share some of the images. Effective messaging to be used when reaching out was also written and shared with the LGA. We reached out to a number of these parties and were met with gracious feedback.

Results:
The LGA have received great feedback on the campaign from their wider team, the disabled councillors currently serving and their contacts at organisations like Disability Rights UK.