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Driving citizen satisfaction and trust through a long term communications approach with Eddie Townsend

Eddie Townsend

Eddie Townsend works as the Director of Communications at London Borough of Waltham Forest. A London Borough is a local authority that owns and maintains nearly half a million homes, runs the libraries, deals with planning applucations, and are responsible for waste collection and licensing the capital’s pubs, clubs and restaurants. They also run homes for the elderly and support those living in their own houses.

In this session recorded during the 2nd Annual Public Sector Comms Leaders Summit, Townsend talks about knowing the people you serve, understanding their needs and aspirations, and making them the centre of your communication campaign. This way, you can drive citizen satisfaction, especially with a long term communications approach.

“As we all know as communications professionals, the most important element is that human element, making everything about people. And the biggest advocate of everything can be the human voice, not any organisation talking about how great they are, but actual businesses in the community reflecting back what they wanted to hear.”

So in April 2020, the London Borough of Waltham Forest launched “Choose Local. Support Everyone.” The campaign aimed to revitalise local businesses, taking advantage of the fact that everyone was going to be stuck at home due to the restrictions.

“We saw the pandemic as an opportunity because obviously, with the Amazons of this world and the massive out-of-town shopping centres, we know the high streets were struggling. This was an opportunity to reconnect with those high streets and revitalise them.”

Learn how Townsend and the borough executed their long-term campaign and the benefits their community reaped by filling the form below.

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Paulo Rizal
Paulo Rizal
Paulo Rizal is a content producer for Comms Room. He writes content around popular media, journalism, social media, and more.