Diversity

diversity

The face of Britain is changing. Modern Britain is a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities. The 2011 census will show between seven and eight million people from Black and Minority Ethnic communities living in the UK. Businesses are waking up to the commercial opportunity. And central and local government are acutely aware of the moral imperative to communicate with communities that can be hard to reach.

Linstock employs a culturally sensitive approach and a mixture of traditional and non traditional communications tactics. Our team and our specialist Associates can develop and implement campaigns targeting diverse communities including the BME, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT), and Gypsy and Traveller community.

Linstock is on both the Central Office of Information’s (COI) cultural diversity framework for engaging with BME audiences and has previously worked with the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE).

Client case studies

  • Defra: Gypsies and Travellers

    Brief: The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) engaged Linstock in April 2009 to raise awareness among the Gypsy & Traveller community of new EU horse identity regulations. This was the first campaign that Defra had run targeting Travellers – a horse-owning audience that is extremely hard to reach.

    Activity: We used a mixture of direct engagement with Gypsies and Travellers at horse fairs, targeted media relations and outreach with stakeholder organisations and support groups.

    We created a simple leaflet explaining the benefits of the new rules. We also worked hard to get the message out through local authority Traveller liaison departments and Traveller support organisations as trusted sources of information.

    Results: Overall, we met or exceeded every one of our evaluation targets. Our attendance at Appleby Fair, Europe’s largest Traveller gathering and one of its biggest horse events, was well received by the community. We distributed thousands of leaflets and completed a survey of Travellers’ views, collating 131 responses.

    Balanced articles appeared in Travellers’ Times and Gypsy History Magazine, as well as regional press in areas with the greatest concentration of Travellers.

    We also built upon our relationships with local authorities and Traveller support groups, using these trusted channels to distribute a further 4,000 leaflets to Travellers in priority areas.

  • Stand up and be counted: Including Ethnic minorities in the 2011 Census

    Brief: The census is used to gather essential information for planning public services. Linstock was commissioned to design and deliver a campaign that would encourage black and minority ethnic groups to fill out the 2011 Census.

    Activity: Based on focus group research and community insight we designed a strategy and creative treatment to take advantage of the power of family values.  We used language specific ethnic media, implemented culturally sensitive outreach programmes and designed a music-led new media campaign on You Tube to reach the people least likely to fill in their census questionnaires.  In the course of our work we organised and facilitated community specific discussion panels, carried out a schools tour to target ethnic parents at inner city schools and staged a ‘family history’ photographic competition.

    Results: The first census results are due in the summer of 2012.  Media coverage generated during our campaign reached 12million people and the Ghetts video was viewed over 80,000 times.