APS Group has used the following skills/services in the project.
When Merseyside Police were faced with austerity cuts, they proposed a strategy to ‘keep bobbies on the beat’ which streamlined police touch-points across the county. The proposal required continual involvement with the community, key stakeholders and the press to ensure its success, which meant that marketing had to address the salient issues sensitively, while generating maximum participation and achieving universal endorsement for the proposed changes.
Each audience would be affected by the changes in different ways, so it was important to take every member of those audiences with us. We believed we could alleviate concerns by communicating that the steps Merseyside Police were taking were fundamentally the right choices, for the right reasons. Choices that made sense, not just from a financial or logistical point of view, but from a human perspective. To win hearts and minds and overcome potential objections, we had to make everybody feel that they were a part of the consultation process.
Our ‘Taking the right steps’ campaign communicated the planned changes to the Merseyside police estate in a way that was positive, informative and inclusive. The underlying message also hinted at the fact that despite the austerity measures, the priority was to maintain a real police presence, providing accessible policing right at the heart of every community.
A multichannel campaign combining strong imagery with high impact copy was rolled out across direct mail, literature, posters, pop up stands, essence films and the website forum.
It opened a new conversation between the force and the community, allowing the public to ‘have their say’ in how their Police force would be run in the future and more importantly, making them feel that they had played their part in steps the force was now taking.