I’ve spent the past three years as Chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) in the north east of England. Last night the group held its 2015 AGM where we heard from the CIPR’s new national President Sarah Pinch – she came, she saw, she delivered – really interesting.
Providing solutions outside the traditional PR toolbox is a fun and exciting way to broaden horizons. One of the recent projects I’ve worked on uses interactive mapping technology to keep people up-to-date about road and construction work in their area, and about how it might affect their daily journeys.
By blending traditional skills of communication with new technologies available to us on the web, we have helped our client meet the needs of an increasingly tech-savvy populace, more used to navigating with a smartphone than a road map.
The project in question is the Mersey Gateway bridge. A £2 billion landmark piece of infrastructure spanning the River Mersey. Work on the bridge affects the whole area of Halton Borough Council, and tens of thousands of residents, commuters and road users. It’s a massive project, with work across multiple sites, and with hundreds of people involved.
Using a custom Zeemaps overlay that works with Google Maps, we developed the ‘Down Your Street’ tool. It allows people to navigate at a street-by-street level to see how their daily journeys could be affected by project work. The tool is readily available on the project’s website, and works across mobile devices.
The interactive map is highly visual, simple to use and is broken up into nine main project sections. Visitors can click through each section to find out about construction work, road works, road closures, footpath diversions and tree clearance work.
Each map is illustrated with graphics of the work going on within that section, and visitors can select these to bring up even more information about what’s happening. The map is updated daily and provides our client, Merseylink, with an agile solution to provide people with information to help their day-to-day journeys.
The system is flexible and allows us to add information as and when we need to. Of course, to complement Down Your Street, we still provide information on road works to the public through traditional channels, such as press releases.
Ultimately, blending new tech, with tried and tested communication methods results in the end user – in this case the people who use the interactive tool – having a wealth of information at their fingertips.
I had the pleasure of being present at the Institute of Directors HQ in Pall Mall last night for what felt like a really important night for the public relations profession.
The CIPR held a special event to reach out to other professional institutions, recognise some outstanding contributions from a couple of industry legends and unveil its 2015 manifesto as new CIPR President Sarah Pinch officially took up the reins for the year.
The event also marked ten years since the CIPR received its chartered status – in my view that is a huge moment on the road for the PR profession as it moves to become a truly professional function that deserves its place at the boardroom table.
The CIPR’s 2015 manifesto
reflects that maturity. It highlights seven important challenges ranging from data protection through lobbying to the gender pay gap that the PR industry is actively tackling and to which government should listen.
There were also much deserved Honorary CIPR Fellowships for Anne Gregory and Stephen Waddington for the incredible contributions they have made to securing, sustaining and developing the CIPR’s chartered status. I’m lucky enough to have worked with both through the CIPR and their accolades are well deserved.
As our new President (and Stephen’s successor) Sarah Pinch said “I have big shoes to fill, but my shoes are better.” Good luck @ms_organised – I’m looking forward to the journey
Chris
PS – I am also delighted to have officially rejoined the CIPR’s national council in what I am told is the quickest gap between leaving and joining ever!
My role on Council is to represent the English regions, and no, that doesn’t make me a member of UKIP. Seriously though, if you are a member of the CIPR or just someone who takes a passing interest in all things PR, who has a good idea, a question or something you want to get off your chest, feel free to email me at chris@dtw.co.uk or catch up with me on twitter @dtwchris.
DTW has received two nominations in the prestigious PRMoment awards 2015.
In the Public Sector Campaign of the Year category we have been nominated jointly with Hartlepool Borough Council for our work on the “Hartlepool – A Vision for the future” campaign.
We worked with the council’s economic development team to create a communications strategy for the Vision which used a PR-led approach to inspire local communities to get involved.
The campaign used video and mixed photography with futuristic artists’ impressions to create an image of how eight different sites across the town could look following development.
In just five months, the Vision project has led to the direct creation and safeguarding of 300 jobs in Hartlepool and attracted £1.75 million of new investment.
We have also been nominated in the Best Use of Video category for the “I am Coast & Country” video for Coast & Country Housing. The video has been used extensively as the centre of Coast & Country’s induction programme, internal communications and in broader external communications work.
Coast & Country Housing is the largest registered provider of accommodation in the Redcar and Cleveland Borough, owning and managing over 10,000 properties.
The PRMoment awards celebrate excellence and recognise and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the UK PR and Communications sector. The awards attracted over 650 entries from 200 companies from across the UK.
#TeamDTW is looking forward to arriving in Manchester in style for the awards ceremony on 11 March.