In the world of government and public sector communications, simply “broadcasting” a message is no longer enough to cut through the noise. To build genuine community trust and inspire real action, organizations must learn to match the right message with the right medium.
Recently, we hosted a virtual roundtable to explore these exact challenges. Our session, “Mastering Public Sector Engagement with the Right Medium,” brought together three strategic communications experts to share their strategies for humanizing policy and driving measurable impact:
- Amanda McCuaig, Director of External Relations for Metro Vancouver.
- Brian Rosevear, VP of Public Affairs and Communications at the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC).
- Dani Vachon, our CEO and Founder of The Beacon Design Collective.
If you don’t have time to watch the video, here’s a detailed breakdown of the key strategic takeaways shared during our conversation.
Segmenting beyond the general public
One of the biggest hurdles in public sector communications is treating “the public” as a single, massive monolith. Effective engagement requires meeting stakeholders exactly where they already spend their time. Amanda emphasized that for a liquid waste management plan, this meant setting up at a local Dragon Boat Festival to connect with Metro residents who have a vested interest in water quality. Other examples of her “meet people where they’re at” strategy included:
- Setting up interactive booths at busy transit hubs to discuss regional transportation updates
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Hosting pop-up engagement stations at community gardens to talk about local biodiversity or composting initiatives
When the target audience isn’t immediately obvious, Dani recommended building detailed user personas that help predict whether stakeholders are scrolling TikTok or reading community bulletin boards. Brian also noted that for the NCC, focusing on specific segments like landowners or Indigenous partners is far more effective than trying to reach the general public. If uncertainty persists, Dani suggested running small-scale tests with UTM tracking to reveal exactly which channels are driving the most meaningful traffic.
Case study: Adult potty training
Audience segmentation was put to the test during Metro Vancouver’s “Unflushables” campaign. While their annual survey data had initially indicated they should target primary caregivers, that audience eventually got the message and the new data revealed that the new “offenders” flushing wipes down the toilet were actually men aged 20 to 40.
So when Metro Vancouver shifted the strategy to reach this specific demographic—including, placing ads in bar bathrooms, on soccer platforms, and even on dating apps—engagement skyrocketed. Amanda pointed out that while the edgier tone used for these communications might have felt crude to some office staff, those internal opinions lacked relevance because the people who shared them weren’t the target audience. This serves as a vital reminder: if a campaign is designed to please everyone, it likely won’t move the needle for anyone.
Medium vs. message
Once you’ve found your audience, how do you actually “stop the scroll”? Brian pointed out that NCC deals with three distinct audience types:
- Government policy makers: Because they’re motivated by logic and financial impact, this group needs to see the utility of land to be conserved. Providing technical framing and images of people active on the land helps satisfy this requirement.
- Community stakeholders: This group is motivated by community benefits and a sense of shared place, so they respond best to images that reflect their local environment and personal connection to the land.
- Donors: As the most emotionally driven segment, donors prefer high-impact visuals like vast, pristine expanses of nature or “cute” animals that correspond with their personal values.
To meet these different needs, NCC purposefully collects a variety of photographs for use in different communications. Further, by closely monitoring engagement data, Brian’s team discovered a surprising trend: images with pink tones perform significantly better on Instagram than any other colour. This insight has directly changed how they gather imagery in the field, as they now purposefully look for natural elements—from specific plants to sunrise hues—that hit those high-performing pink tones and maximize their reach.
Dani emphasized that successful campaigns should also consider how different people process information. Since people have varied learning styles—i.e. some prefer to read, others to listen, others to watch, and others to physically do—the most effective campaigns provide a suite of assets that address all of these ways of learning. For example, a single initiative might include a video for visual learners, an audio track for listeners, a written transcript for readers, and an interactive workbook for those who learn by doing.
Dani also pointed out that prioritizing cognitive ease should be the primary goal when selecting a format. Abstract or linear processes, like the inner workings of a city’s water system, are often best explained through a two-minute animated video. Conversely, information that a resident needs to reference later (e.g. “five signs of heat stroke”) is better served by a static infographic. Other effective medium-message matches include:
- Using a short, catchy “TikTok-style” reel to explain a simple recycling rule change
- Designing an interactive map for a multi-year construction project so residents can find the specific impacts on their street
Amanda added a brilliant analogy: think of your communications like a door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson. The cover should be simple and impactful; this will get the door open, and the customer on the doorstep. Once they’re hooked, you show them the back cover and the table of contents to pique their interest, and finally, the deeper chapters of the book to close the sale. The same basic steps hold true for effective communications.
Proving value: Success beyond vanity metrics
Perhaps you’ve heard the phrase, “a mile wide and an inch deep” to describe someone or something that lacks substance? In the same vein, in an era of information overload, high-quality engagement is defined by depth rather than width. Moving past “vanity metrics” such as likes or impressions allows organizations to measure real behaviour change. For Amanda and her team, the ultimate metric isn’t a digital click, it’s a physical reduction in the number of wipes entering the sewer system. To further measure meaningful engagement, Metro Vancouver also conducts an annual trust survey to gauge awareness and public trust in their services.
Brian mentioned that his team focuses on conversion rates within specific segments. Rather than spending millions trying to convince the whole country that NCC is great, they focus on the people who are already “halfway there” and interested in nature, and thus see a much higher return on their marketing spend.
At the digital level, Dani mentioned that the new gold standard for success is a 1:10 ratio—aiming for one substantive, nuanced comment for every ten likes. Measuring scroll-depth and time-on-page provides a much clearer picture of whether a message is actually being processed.
Balancing accessibility and strategy
A major responsibility for public sector organizations is balancing universal accessibility with targeted outreach. This involves creating “layers” of information that meet various legal and social requirements. The roundtable guests described several ways to layer approaches and remove barriers:
- Digital and print standards: Writing web copy specifically for screen readers and ensuring high colour contrast in print materials
- Chronological accessibility: Holding engagement events at various times to accommodate different work schedules or offering recorded webinars for those who cannot attend live
- Support for surrogates: Providing “engagement kits” to community surrogates so local leaders can host discussions within their own trusted circles
True accessibility also means identifying “hidden” obstacles. Examples of removing varied barriers include:
- Ensuring a community meeting isn’t held in a building with physical steps at the entrance (mitigating physical barriers)
- Translating key campaign materials into the primary languages spoken in a specific neighbourhood or community to ensure non-English speakers can fully participate (mitigating language barriers)
- Considering whether the “culture” of a meeting—such as a formal town hall—is intimidating to certain groups and opting for a more casual, conversational format instead (mitigating social barriers)
Wrapping up
As the session concluded, our experts agreed that high-quality engagement isn’t about being everywhere all at once to everyone, it’s about being in the right place, at the right time, with a message that fits the culture of that specific channel.
By segmenting audiences into real and specific communities, respecting the medium you’re using, and measuring the depth of your conversations rather than just the reach of your broadcast, your organization can build the trust required to humanize policy and make a lasting community impact.
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