A Community Hero Rises to the Challenge
Save the Preston Market! It’s the heart and soul of the local community.
The Challenge for Gaetano Greco
Our client, Gaetano Greco, is the former mayor of City of Darebin and has served as a councillor for 14 years. One of the key issues for which he has long campaigned is to save the Preston Market.
As anyone who has visited the Preston Market knows, it holds deep cultural significance as a vibrant multicultural community hub. Being an Italian immigrant, Gaetano is in touch with, and widely respected by, the diverse multicultural community that makes up the Preston electorate.
The Preston Market is a community hub that has operated for decades, but exists on private land. The facilities are in dire need of an upgrade, but unfortunately the vision proposed by the developers is to demolish much of the market and rebuild in a way that prioritises the construction of luxury apartments and a soulless retail space. This is at odds with the community’s hope to retain some of the market’s existing footprint and its open-air layout—and give traders more certainty over their businesses.
Being at the forefront of this local issue, Gaetano announced that he would run for state parliament, with the goal of saving the Preston Market as a key policy. In the lead-up to the election, this issue looked to be crucial in the seat of Preston.
At a Glance
- Project: Gaetano Greco Campaign – 2022 Victorian State Election
- Client: Gaetano Greco
- Delivered: 2022
- Duration: 1 month
- Category: Community, Explainer Video
Our Approach to help Gaetano Greco
When we got chatting to Gaetano about why he was running as an independent candidate in the upcoming Victorian state election, we couldn’t help but want to help in some way—the Sketch Group office is located next to the Preston Market, and many of us live in the electorate in which Gaetano was running. Making an explainer video to support a candidate that was prioritising the interests of this community felt like the best way that we could contribute to the cause.
Our Solution to Help Gaetano Greco’s campaign
We prepared an explainer video that covered the key campaign points, amplifying the voices of the Preston community, focussing on the urgent need to save the iconic Preston Market. The script was crafted to reflect Gaetano’s personality and passion, including the fact that he had pledged to donate $100,000 of his parliamentary salary to the community, a selfless act that he had performed similarly when serving as mayor of Darebin years before.
And instead of engaging a professional voiceover, we knew that we would need to have Gaetano record his own voice to bring that additional authenticity to his campaign as if he were speaking to the viewer directly.
The Outcome from the 2022 Victorian State Election
While Gaetano’s efforts did not elect him to parliament (it was a three-horse race for six weeks as the seat was recounted multiple times!), getting elected was not actually the primary goal behind his campaign. The primary goal was to turn Preston into a marginal seat, so the state government would be forced to increase its attention to the area—spending on infrastructure, education, and investing in projects that are held as important by the community such as the Preston Market. And by this metric, the campaign was a wild success.
We’re extremely proud to have played a part—thanks to Gaetano Greco’s efforts, the future of the Preston Market looks brighter, and continues as a vibrant hub for locals and visitors alike.
Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth (and our Award) is
Our efforts at amplifying Gaetano’s message were recognised by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) when we received a Gold Quill for Gaetano’s video—the highest accolade possible for a campaign in the communications industry.
Additionally, we were proud to donate $4,000 to the Save The Preston Market Action Group for them to continue fighting for a market that future generations can continue to enjoy.
