This year, environmental sustainability has culminated strongly in the climate debate. In order to make progress in solving the issue requires also actions. Vantaa, the fourth largest city in Finland, has taken actions needed and the city aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.
The four-lane Roadmap for Resource Wisdom summarizes Vantaa’s long-term environmental goals. The relatively fresh road map approved in 2018, has been well received by various units in the city. Vantaa has started actively carry out its carbon-neutral policies, e.g. in city planning, parking standards and improving its own property portfolio. However, well over one third of the goals consist of consumption decisions and everyday actions made by residents, communities and businesses. That is why the Environmental Center of Vantaa, which coordinates the roadmap work, wanted to inform the citizens in the spring of 2019 about the Responsible citizen of Vantaa -lane as part of the road map package. Manifesto was chosen to plan and to execute the communications campaign.
Multichannel communication guaranteed the visibility
The campaign was implemented through outdoor advertising. In the campaign’s steering group made up of representatives of various stakeholders, the issue of vast amount of communicative matters emerged. In Vantaa, among other things, routes for pedestrian and cyclers have been added and a decision has been made to build a tram service and a common circular economy model for food donations has been created. In addition, environmental education for children and young people has been increased.
Manifesto created a campaign that takes different perspectives and opportunities into account. The campaign was utilized in a multi-channel manner, which makes it possible to reach citizens with different media behavior. In addition to outdoor ads, the campaign was featured on city dashboards, social media channels, online banners and a press release.
The campaign began with a press coverage and it was continued with billboard and online advertising. In addition, Manifesto created a sitemap with imagery for the city’s various social media channels so that employees working with the city’s social media accounts could post information to the channels.
The future image of the city and well-known landmarks included in the campaign
A month-long campaign for Vantaa began in mid-May. The visual look for the campaign was created by Anssi Muurimäki, from Designer Helsinki. The ad visualized different actions Vantaa has taken when reaching the carbon neutrality now and in the future. Various landmarks in Vantaa, such as the old church, Heureka science center and the new tram under construction, make the visuals recognizable to the target audience. The green areas supporting communality and cycling paths encouraging cycling, are also on display. A sharp-eyed viewer might also notice a flying squirrel in the tree.
The main illustration in outdoor advertising was built in a way that parts of it can be cropped out for online banners and social media posts. For the press release, Manifesto interviewed the Deputy Mayor Hannu Penttilä.
The meaningful message reached the citizens
The multichannel campaign effectively directed the audience to the Responsible citizen of Vantaa website. In addition to a local media Vantaan Sanomat, the campaign received media coverage in, for example, Kuntatekniikka, a tech magazine for municipalities. Responsible citizen of Vantaa – themed social media posts created better engagement than the regular posts about the city’s news.
As the interview made by Vantaan Sanomat shows, many people are considering their environmentally friendly actions. The campaign and analytics from the Spring, on the other hand, confirm that important information reaches the citizens of Vantaa when it is directed to them. Communicating the Responsible citizen of Vantaa -campaign is a good starting point for approaching citizens in order to achieve the common carbon neutral goal.