CASE STUDY

Essex Highways – Safer, Greener, Healthier (Essex County Council)

How PLMR Genesis helped Essex County Council raise awareness of the Safer, Greener, Healthier campaign

Client

Essex Highways - Safer, Greener, Healthier (Essex County Council)

Services provided

The Situation

Safer, Greener, Healthier aim is to make it as easy, safe and fun as possible for people in Essex to travel more sustainably – walking, cycling, e-scooting or taking the bus or train – especially for shorter journeys.

The aim of Essex County Council’s sustainable travel team is to make it as easy as possible for people in Essex to travel more sustainably – walking, cycling, e-scooting, or taking the bus or train. The objectives included raising awareness of the ambition to make the county safer, greener and healthier i.e. the unnecessary use of the car especially for shorter journeys, as well as encouraging behavioural change within Essex residents to rethink their travel habits.

What we did

To effectively deliver the objectives, the campaign was split into three sub-campaigns: Travel Cheaper, Travel Healthier and Travel Greener on Google Display, Meta and LinkedIn. Each campaign ran for six weeks and promoted active travel in Essex encouraging walking, cycling, e-scootering and public transport. The ads encouraged resident engagement and a local ‘buzz’ with the incentive and use of transparent information, whilst implementing promotional and educational content to encourage behavioural change, with the long-term objective to shift active travel modes to walking and cycling and promote public transport alternatives such as bus services. The messaging also raised awareness of the safer, greener, and healthier initiative to educate residents on the importance and impact of more sustainable thinking.

The Result

The campaign is ongoing, with the final sub-campaign (Travel Greener) ending on 28th May. The first sub-campaign (Travel Cheaper) ran from 11th November – 23rd December 2022. In just six weeks, the campaign generated 2,465,672 impressions and 29,380 clicks across three platforms, promoting four modes of active travel. The second sub-campaign (Travel Healthier) ran from 3rd January – 12th February 2023 and promoted two modes of active travel. Across the chosen three platforms, the campaign produced 3,532,749 impressions and 37,078 clicks.

Add PLMR to your contacts

PLMR’s crisis communications experience is second to none, and includes pre-emptive and reactive work across traditional and social media channels. We work with a range of organisations to offer critical communication support when they are faced with difficult and challenging scenarios.