The Challenge: The City of Victoria wanted to replace its Johnson Street (Blue) bridge. It would be a costly undertaking and it would disrupt citizens. Early polls suggested that about 70% of residents opposed the change despite knowing very little.
The Objective: A referendum would be held and the city wanted to explain the benefits of a new bridge while also getting the input of its citizens. Ultimately it hoped to provide enough information to sway public opinion on this contentious issue.
The Plan: The city needed to communicate its information sessions (so the ads would be copy-heavy). And as well, they wanted to provide a depth of information online so they would need to highlight their site www.johnsonstreetbridge.com. Finally, as this was a local issue, local media would deliver the right target.
To help determine which local media fit the criteria and was most effective, the city hired Ipsos Reid to conduct a survey asking residents what was their main source of information about options being considered for the Johnson Street Bridge. The front runner, by far, was the local newspaper with 68%, naming it as the key source vs. the next closest media (television) which scored 29%.
The local newspaper and its site were chosen as the primary communications tool for the bridge campaign.
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