Driving a Conversation about Parking Changes
Engaging a community and gathering feedback about parking changes in a growing city.
The Challenge
All cities face the challenge of juggling how to help people get where they need to go, while managing how much space is used for street trees, footpaths, parking and other things. After extensive input from the community, the council created a Draft Parking Strategy for Central Geelong to tackle just that.
Given parking can be such a contentious topic, council wanted to be sure that their approach was as consultative as possible. They engaged Sketch Group to promote the fact that they were seeking input from the community and user groups who would be impacted.
At a Glance
- Project: Geelong Parking Strategy
- Client: City of Geelong
- Delivered: 2023
- Duration: 3 months
- Category: Government, Explainer Video
Our Approach
When working with clients in local government, part of our approach to understanding their world is to ask the locals where the best coffee is. So, when we travelled to Geelong to meet with our client and discuss the script and storyboard, we happily took their recommendation on the most appropriate venue (Fuel Coffee + Food, for those interested!)
While we received direct feedback about what was working and what the issues were, we kept communication clear and caffeinated.
Our ability to draw worlds as they could be, as well as how they are, meant we were able to easily show the options for future parking solutions. We worked with council to craft an engaging script, created imagery that showcased the best of Geelong, and illustrated several possible new parking solutions.
Our Solution
An engaging, inclusive video that clearly outlined how the new strategy had been developed, what the proposals were, and invited the community to visit the ‘Have Your Say’ page on the Geelong City website where they could add their input.
We created a longer video that lived on the council website, and a shorter “cutdown” video for use on social media.
The Outcome
If you make a trip to the beautiful seaside town of Geelong you’ll see a handful of new approaches to parking in play. And you’ll know that it was implemented using an innovative approach to actively involving the local community.
