The brief

The Design Council is the UK’s national strategic advisor for design. An independent, not-for-profit organisation incorporated by Royal Charter, it champions the ability of design to make life better for all.

The organisation was supporting the Government’s ‘Pathfinder Programme’ to help 25 councils to pioneer the development of design codes to shape their areas, foster community involvement and accelerate planning decisions – as an important part of the Government’s drive to deliver homes and economic growth.

The Design Council had developed supporting resources based on the programme to help councils to develop the most effective design codes. These were free to download from its website and were being supplemented by a series of seminars led by Pathfinder Programme participants.

We were appointed, following a competitive tender, to develop a launch strategy and deliver the communications aspects of this initiative.

What we did

It was clear that we needed to emphasise the importance of design codes – in a climate where there are many competing pressures on local authorities – and raise awareness of the resources The Design Council could provide.

To achieve this, we developed messages to appeal to local authority planners and senior officers, plus a communications strategy to build understanding of the initiative and encourage take-up of the support on offer.

We then put our strategy into action, delivering a phased media relations campaign targeting the local government, urban planning, construction and design press – first to launch the resources, and then to follow up by announcing the supporting seminars.

We also ran a stakeholder relations programme targeting relevant industry bodies to spread the word.

The results 

We were pleased to secure 17 items of positive exposure for the design codes and supporting materials, against a target of 10.

We achieved positive coverage in titles including Inside Housing, New Start Magazine, Building Design and Placemaking Resource.

We also gained inclusion on the websites, newsletters and social media accounts of a range of influential industry bodies including the Urban Design Group, the Planning Advisory Service, the Housing Learning Information Network and the Government’s Chief Planner’s Newsletter.

The client’s view

“Our new resources have an important role to play in making design coding as easy, effective and relatable as possible. We needed an experienced communications agency to help us launch them and spread the word, and appointed TK Associates because of their experience of working with local authorities. The team did an excellent job in delivering our communications programme and making sure planners throughout the country are aware of the ways we can support them.”

Nikki van Grimbergen, Design Council Programme Manager 

 

See more on our work in the local government sector.

 

Photograph: Aerial view of Barking & Dagenham, one of the Pathfinder Programme participants