Over the past decade, social cohesion, community resilience and preventing violent extremism have been priorities for governments around the world.

When one of Australia’s largest state governments wanted to develop a campaign to respond to these issues, it turned to Civic. From conception to completion, Civic developed a campaign that brought together research, communications, media, stakeholder and community relations, web, social and digital, events, public relations, TV, radio and print advertising and issues management in to one integrated strategy built around the concepts of belonging and contribution.

Tracking research showed that following campaign implementation, there was a significant increase in the proportion of people who considered the contribution of multiculturalism and diversity. Pleasingly, there had also been a significant increase in respondents indicating they felt a sense of belonging.

Civic was the driving force behind a national advocacy campaign to secure increased funding for the treatments of one of the nation’s most common life-threatening diseases in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election.

The relentless advocacy of medical practitioners, patient advocates and local communities, supported by Civic, helped secure tens of millions of dollars to build treatment centres in locations across regional Australia.

Following the re-election of the Government, ongoing engagement with communities, doctors and members of parliament continued to help raise awareness of the benefits of therapy and reinforce the essential role it plays.

For the residents of one of Australia’s fastest-growing regions, the nearest public hospital was out of reach and out of space.

In the lead up to a recent state election, the council engaged Civic to develop a research-informed campaign to seek pre-election commitments from the State Government and Opposition to build a full-service, 24-hour public hospital in the region.

Research underpinned the development of a compelling campaign brand that raised awareness of the urgent need for a hospital, generated regular media coverage, more than 17,000 signed postcards and emails advocating for the hospital and helped forge a strong advocacy relationship between council and the community.

The campaign secured significant funding commitments and following the government’s re-election it progressed the planning of the new hospital.

When two of Australia’s largest public sector superannuation funds considered a merger, they turned to Civic for communications advice and support.

Civic worked with the funds’ management teams, boards and commercial advisers as they planned to announce the potential merger. Identifying, prioritising and mitigating risks was central to this work.

Creating a shared voice and ensuring all communications aligned with both funds’ brands, values, and protocols was a challenge that required significant consideration.

The impact on staff had the potential to incite union action, negative media coverage and an onslaught of resignations. As such, sensitivity was required. A staff engagement program developed by Civic and fronted by both funds’ CEOs helped prevent these events from occurring.

Ongoing communications with staff and unions as the merger negotiations continued was a priority. So too was the implementation of the communication strategy, ensuring internal and external stakeholders were informed of merger discussions at the right time, and in the right way.

As the communications adviser supporting a state government’s long-term lease of a major infrastructure asset, Civic was tasked with developing a strategy to communicate with stakeholders, communities, producers, growers, importers and financial markets.

Research findings guided the crafting of a sophisticated campaign which included a visual identity and brand, narrative and key messages, a detailed stakeholder matrix, website, international and domestic brochures and fact sheets.

The successful leasing of the asset secured an amount more than 50 per cent greater than the anticipated price.

In 2020, Civic was engaged by the prime contractor in a consortium bidding for the design and construction of the largest road transport projects in Victoria’s history. The goal was to strengthen the Milan-based contractor’s brand and reputation in the Victorian market in support of the consortium’s bid.

Civic designed and delivered Building Value for Victoria, a campaign that focused on highlighting the contractor’s commitment to hyper-local content and procurement, corporate social responsibility and workplace safety.

Campaign activity also included media relations, digital and social media, advertising and video and podcast production. Advertising directed people to a purpose-built website that housed campaign content. Media coverage highlighted the contractor’s investment in Victorian infrastructure and the establishment of its Melbourne office.

In October 2021, the Victorian Government awarded the $11.1 billion primary package to the contractor’s consortium.

In 2017, Civic was engaged to launch a new cooperative research centre’s (CRC) brand and develop a program of public relations activity to generate exposure, attract suitable participants for co-funding and provide platforms for advocacy and education.

Over the next five years, Civic helped the CRC secure coverage of media announcements and profile its executives, provided spokesperson training and place industry thought leadership pieces.

By December 2021, the CRC had catalysed more than $230 million of investment in collaborative research projects across Australia, with the chief executive and leadership team regularly contributing to industry forums, trade publications, media interviews, and government discussion papers.

Civic continues to work with the CRC on the development and placement of regular project announcements and thought leadership content.

In early 2020, an NDIS registered disability support services provider detected a cyber intruder had accessed two of its email accounts and potentially launched a phishing attack targeting more than 2,000 case managers. The provider’s legal counsel called on Civic to provide communications and issues management advice.

Civic worked with legal counsel to develop a communications and stakeholder engagement strategy that included a notification and recovery plan that would ensure the National Disability Insurance Agency, as well as those whose privacy had been breached, were notified of the incident and kept informed of the investigation. Care was taken to ensure emails, scripts, statements and customer service FAQs were drafted in a way that met the client’s legal obligations, mitigated reputational risk and aligned with the client’s brand voice and communication style.

Once the notification process was complete, Civic was engaged on an ‘on-call’ basis to provide ongoing counsel and communications advice on the client’s recovery and positioning strategy.

We use energy every day – to run our homes, businesses and lives.

When a state government sought to better understand why – and why not – the community was participating in a program that offered incentives to invest in new energy technologies, it turned to Civic.

Civic designed and delivered a research program that informed a report that identified communications approaches that would reach and resonate with target audience groups.

The report played a role in reframing how the program was positioned and promoted, helping to remove administrative complexities and make the program easier to participate in and benefit from.

In early 2020, Civic was retained to provide assistance in crafting messages and materials to be sent to all Australian public servants to keep them up-to-date on the impact COVID-19 was having on the public service and the changes being put in place to ensure Australians could access the services they need, when they needed them.

This work included developing messages for use by departmental secretaries and agency leaders and drafting a series of open letters co-signed by departmental secretaries.

Civic also conceptualized and developed an APS-wide newsletter, interviewing workers and crafting content for each edition and providing strategic advice on the development of editorial protocols to ensure future editions remained true to purpose.