Cairns Regional Council

Our Water, Our Backyard Campaign Case Study – Cairns Regional Council

Brief:

MPC was employed by Cairns Regional Council (CRCW&W), following a competitive tender process, to develop a communication and education campaign to encourage behavioural change regarding excessive water use by residents and businesses in the Port Douglas and Mossman region.

The campaign aimed to engage the community at the local level to foster a genuine water conservation culture in the local community.

Audience:

  • Port Douglas & Mossman region residents and commercial businesses
  • Tourism industry, and commercial businesses
  • Tourists
  • School community

Strategy:

Develop a grass roots campaign to influence attitudes and the behaviour of residents in the Port Douglas and Mossman region thereby reducing water consumption. The campaign was developed to take effect over three stages – education and information; implementation phase; and final reaffirmation of messages and achievements.

Successful communication tools used to implement strategies include:

  • Direct mail campaign
  • Production of brochures to support campaign messages and initiatives
  • Staging of media event to launch campaign and generate publicity for Council’s initiatives and production of media releases to support editorial campaign
  • Print and radio advertising
  • Production of interactive website to provide easy access to information and a means to communicate with Council and track residents interest and uptake of initiatives
  • Production of a DVD to communicate messages and initiatives for use by schools and tourist operators
  • Production of displays to support public events
  • Recommendation for Commercial Door Knocks to encourage uptake of Commercial Water Advisory Service
  • Recommendation for public information displays at community markets

Outcomes:

As the campaign is still underway we do not have an overall outcome for the 12-month campaign, however very positive results for the take up of the Water Smart Home Service and the Commercial Water Advisory Service have been recorded.

Through the implementation of various communications tools, such as commercial doorknocks and direct mail initiatives, the registration for these services has far exceeded expected demand; at last count the Water Smart Home Service is at more than 880 homes and the Commercial Water Advisory Service was implemented in over 85 businesses throughout the region.

The oursustainablewater.com.au website has had to date had 602 absolute unique visitors since going live on 26th July 2011. The website has also been a portal for enquiries and registrations and is updated regularly with new adverts, press clippings and event photographs.

This is a very positive response to an issue that many saw as unnecessary in the Wet Tropics. Through the implementation of a Community Based Social Marketing Campaign, residents and businesses alike have been encouraged by campaign collateral to gain an understanding of the water situation in their area and take action to conserve water.

Take a look at what Cairns Regional Council Water & Waste had to say about MPC…