by Stewart Kennedy, Brighton Road Marketing
When Kym Fuller, Community and Economic Development Manager from Central Darling Shire, called me in 2008 to ask if I would like to be involved in helping inject a ‘sense of pride’ back into the Shire, it took me about ten seconds to say yes.
I had worked with Kym a few years earlier on another project, and found we had a lot in common in terms of our attitudes towards creativity in communication.
I soon discovered Kym’s new regional marketing project had many layers to it, both in terms of the objectives and the longer term impact sought for the remote Central Darling Shire, whose 2,000 inhabitants are spread around an area the size of Tasmania and count among the most economically worse off in the country.
Looking back on the project now, it’s not an exaggeration to say that we introduced new thinking that has since proved a catalyst for positive change in the Central Darling region.
Objectives and strategy
The purpose of the strategy was threefold:
- to help improve the way in which locals
thought of the Shire - to put the Shire on the radar screens of
Federal and State Government and position
it as the ‘Go-to Shire’ by demonstrating
successes achieved in difficult circumstances,
thereby encouraging continued support from
Government - to sow the seeds for a regional economic
turnaround in the Shire.
In essence, our task was to create a new ‘feeling’ among the Central Darling inhabitants about their own region.
Our strategy was to harness existing local enthusiasm, which would in turn encourage our target audience to take a second look at the region, and get motivated to support development and growth.
Most importantly, a new direction meant an opportunity to ‘rebadge’ the Shire in a more vibrant and meaningful way.
Rebadging Central Darling Shire
The Shire wanted a positioning statement – a strapline that captured what the Shire stood for, and what made the region special and unique.
We worked off these three truths:
- Central Darling is the largest Shire in
New South Wales, spanning 53,000 square
kilometres - the Shire has a rich heritage linked to its
historic place in the centre of the ‘Boom’
era of the Darling River in the late 1800s - Central Darling Shire offers cultural
diversity, embracing the Baarkintji
Indigenous people, settlers of European
descent that made the opal rich fields of
White Cliffs their home, and generations of
pastoralists and landowners.
The essence of the Shire was then distilled to an elegant descriptor: Vast lands. Rich heritage. Diverse culture.
The next step was to define the look and feel of the Shire’s graphic so that it resonated with, and had meaning for, all stakeholders in the Shire, including visitors.
Communicating the message –
use of local television
We then asked ourselves: How do we capture the energy already existing among Shire locals and their long term commitment to the region? How do we communicate the Shire’s new identity and our message to intended targets? And above all, how do we do this in a believable and authoritative way?
Our answer was to enlist local characters in a TV ad campaign based on the theme “Why do you love where you live?”.
Our spokespeople were a cross section of people emblematic of the Shire’s diversity cultural and personality mix. They included a teacher from Menindee, an Indigenous Elder from Wilcannia, and a hard bitten opal miner from White Cliffs.
The strength of responses to our simple question was surprising. In speaking to camera, our home grown ‘talent’ were animated, natural and, being full of genuine passion, authentic and authoritative.
We edited our footage to create a series of eight television commercials, combining to make an uplifting and striking campaign.
The intention was to play the ads on local TV, to remind viewers of the advantages of life in the Central Darling Shire and the positive lifestyle the region offered.
So how has it worked?
According to Kym Fuller, the ‘Why I Love Where I Live’ series paved the way for a package of initiatives undertaken by the Shire which has helped the region, and in particular the township of Wilcannia, rediscover itself.
“Government and business are now taking a second look at what we have to offer,” Kym Fuller said. “There has been new investment in the region and we have several companies looking at setting up locally”.
After a Shire produced report – Remote Control Communities – revealed the inadequacy of social services delivered within the Shire, Wilcannia was named one of the 29 mainly Indigenous centres to act as regional hubs for the Federal Government’s new Remote Service Delivery and Indigenous Housing program.
“Several historic buildings in Wilcannnia have received grants for refurbishment, there is new private investment in property coming through and there are signs that we are begging to tap the potential for tourism in the Shire.
“It’s very exciting and we’ve only
just begun!”
