Over the last few
weeks the office has been buzzing with countless phone calls, interviews and
emails! And what has caused it is the government’s proposal for amalgamation –
reducing the number of local governments from 30 to 12.
The reasons as to why
the Kalamunda shire don’t want to amalgamate was because there would be an
increase in unemployment, fees and rates and most importantly the identity and
sense of community the shire has worked so hard to build will also be lost.
So in an attempt to
save the Shire, we started a campaign called “Vote NO, Save Kalamunda!” and
decided to run a poll. We needed at least 50% of votes for our voice to be
heard against amalgamation to present it to the state government board and the
way we thought to reach out to spread the word was through mass marketing
material and social media!
We designed brochures,
flyers, had balloons with the campaign title on it, t-shirts designed and a
whole range of marketing material made for the campaign.
One of my Fridays was
spent creating over 80 packages, which included a balloon, t-shirt, brochure
and sticker, and mailing it out to all recipients (schools, local clubs,
libraries, recreation centers).
Information booklets
and voting package were sent out to every household in the Shire urging them to
vote no.
On the local Kalamunda
Community Radio 102.5FM, my manager interviewed the Acting CEO at the time
Rhonda Hardy. The interview was meant to go for only 10 minutes however with the
numerous phone calls during the interview and all the questions, it stretched
to 30 minutes!!!!
As a PR student, I
understood the need for the marketing and how important it was for the residents
of the shire to vote no however one thing I wasn’t aware of was the cost of all
of it!
Here I was thinking,
yeah, OK… conducting a community poll… All they will need is a venue, a couple
of booths, some people to mark names down, paper, pens… Similar to what I see
when I’m voting for things like day light savings and local government
positions etc at the primary school down the road. However it was only
after I asked my manager how this poll affected the Shire financially that I
was actually shocked. This poll was costing the Shire $40,000 to conduct!
During the lead up to
the closing date of the voting, I overheard my manager talking to a collegue
saying that they weren’t sure if we were going to get enough votes in and the
only thing the Shire can now do is to keep up the public relations and
marketing and maximise the minimal opportunity and time we have left.
To cut the long story
short, the poll was conducted and the votes were in… Finally after months of
talk, countless media releases, marketing material, radio interviews and
numerous phone calls, we got the result that we wanted! 80% NO VOTES!!!
Everyone in the office
came down to congratulate my manager and our team saying that it was thanks to
all PR teams hard work and effort, our message got across to the Shire
residents.
I learned that
although you may be able to simply post information up online and perhaps make
an announcement or two over the radio – it is not always enough. The success of
this campaign was based on the persistence and perseverance of the public
relations and marketing team because without them, the residents may not have
fully understood what the consequences are and what amalgamation could have
potentially done to the future of the Shire!
- K
