Why community engagement is vital
July 12, 2023 | 
Connor
When it comes to major development projects, it’s crucial that the public are kept informed so they know what’s happening, what impact it will have and how they can have their say.
At Mosaic, we’ve been fortunate over the years to be involved with a number of different community engagement projects, from managing the communications around a wind farm project, to running focus groups for the NHS, and creating websites for new property developments.
We’ve advised a council how best to communicate its Local Plan, filmed videos for a gravel extraction scheme involving the Environment Agency, and filmed numerous videos for UK Power Networks on projects that involve or support the local community.
“This experience has given us a really good insight into the importance of community involvement, getting useful insight or feedback on projects that have wider impact,” said Mosaic’s Managing Director Gemma Rawlinson.
“For example, when we ran a focus group for an NHS health promotion campaign for smear tests, we came up with the slogan of ‘Smear Today or Gone Tomorrow’ thanks to the brainstorming in the group, which then helped shape the whole communications programme going forward.”
Gemma also supported Newsquest Media Group, in running focus groups when it was trialling new layouts for its main titles and wanted to get feedback.
Steve Ainley, the Regional Head of Circulation, Audience and Marketing, said: “It was incredibly useful to hear what people had to say about our proposed changes as it helped shape our thinking about what people liked and what they didn’t.
“It takes someone with real skill, who knows how to ask the right questions and listen to the answers without imposing their own views, to tease out the responses. We were delighted with the results.”
Mosaic also delivered a number of community projects when DP World London Gateway, a new container shipping port in south Essex, first launched. This included recruitment videos to encourage more women to apply for jobs at the port, a project showing the relocation of 350,000 animals before the port was built, and a record of local schools and wider community involvement through site visits.
With a team of experienced former journalists, web and graphic designers and videographers, Mosaic is well placed to support any organisation undertaking community engagement projects, particularly as one of the 5Cs of Conscience Marketing, our unique marketing strategy, is Community!