We were asked by the Northamptonshire Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (made up of the 4 local councils) to devise a marketing campaign that fully engaged with its specific target market. We were determined to showcase our talent, but little did we know that we’d be making a star in the process (all will be revealed).

The partnership is made up of Northampton Borough Council, Corby Borough Council, East Northamptonshire Council and South Northamptonshire District Council, so we knew from the get-go that this was no ordinary project.

The brief was to…

Create a core message which encourages customers to adopt more efficient access channels and payment methods

The problem was…

Some customers are unaware of available facilities, unaware of their entitlements, and/or wary of change

To get the message across we wanted to create a campaign that was completely different than the audience is used to seeing whilst still remaining appropriate to all the various target demographics (an easy task this is not). We cracked out the coffee, switched on the strategic sides of our brains and started to develop a variety of potential approaches.

We had conceived ‘Jo’ (our star in the making). Jo, an illustrated stick figure, by his/her very nature is non ethnic specific and non gender specific. The idea was that ‘Jo’ would relate to ‘the people’, adapted accordingly to appear in a variety of scenarios and be easily accepted by all.

Our campaign message was…

Your time,
Your place,
Your way!

Jo would feature in all campaign elements including bespoke direct mail and micro-sites for each partner. At the crux of each communication was Jo in illustrated scenarios relating directly to the different specific tasks in hand, Jo played the role of the public whilst also helping to explain the solutions on offer.

Our new favourite stick figure had undoubtedly become the star of the campaign, next stop, ‘Jo’s T.V. Talk Show’.

Author Chris Anderson

Toxic Creative - RESULT DRIVEN DESIGN & MARKETING
We’re based in Northampton and are experts in all aspects of graphic design, website design and marketing, from dynamic websites and printed literature to logo design and brand development … we do it all.