entered by Doncaster Council

In March 2020, Doncaster was faced with a huge communications challenge – one shared by every local authority, government department, and media outlet across the country and beyond: how to make sure their coronavirus messaging stood out from the rest and engaged meaningfully with their audience.

The team could have played it safe and easy if they wanted. They could have put a local spin on the government messaging, and still have done their job – but they wanted to do more. Doncaster felt that there was a unique opportunity to reach further than their usual target audience as the messaging here was universal. The challenge, then, was to develop an approach which would connect and engage with a nationwide – and even global – audience by capturing the mood at the time.