We’re part of the PKH project. Unless you’re involved in it, you’ve probably never heard of it - though it’s a range of major, national projects using innovative, often digital ways to support hundreds of thousands of parents & families, run through the DCSF.
Every few months, the PKH partners get together to talk through shared issues. We had one of these meetings last week which was really interesting. Most of the projects have been going for a lot longer than us – and it’s great to learn from their experiences. One of the repeated problems that came up was….
….a lack of shared marketing/ PR. “No-one knows who we are!” the partners all said. ”They love us when they find us, but they don’t know who we are”. It sounded like this was an area that had been really overlooked, but the people from the Department said that they’ve put huge resources into spreading the word about the different services available – but it’s just not sticking.
You could argue that that’s just bad marketing. But it sounds like they’re doing all the right things. One Department person talked sadly about how they would attend an organisation’s conference, do a presentation, distribute hand-outs, arrange follow-on meetings and in 3 months time, they’d come across the organisation again and they’d say “Oh, we’ve never heard of you!”…
From a marketeer point of view, this is a nightmare. Particularly a marketeer working on a brand new website launching soon…. I guess the most practical lesson to learn is, that, particularly on the web, people only find you when they need you. They don’t remember you when they don’t. We need to make sure we really understand when people need us and then how, in those needy circumstances, they find us. But the next, crucial step – so that when they need you, they already know about you – seems much, much harder….
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Surely the secret is to get the balance right between what you are offering them and what they are offering you. People will not have forgotten you after three months if you are offering them the right opportunities.
The lesson from social networking is that people don't want any more initiatives which are only "top-down". Social networks allow "bottom up" initiatives as well, and also help to randomise contacts so people can draw on wider networks for advice on specific topic. Of course the issue is digital access, likely to be lowest amongst those groups who most need help with parenting, child care etc. But the Digital Britain agenda seems dominated by industry interests. Why aren't churches, leisure centres, supermarkets and playgrounds offering easy internet access. How about PKH setting up a voucher scheme for internet cafes enabling free access for parents of under-fives?
Churches, leisure centres, supermarkets and playgrounds are not offering easy internet access, because they are frightened away by the worries about the dangers often fuelled by industrial interests. Lowering the cost is fine, but the greatest barriers to digital access are still because people are frightened or lacking skills and not because they cannot pay for it.
I'm not sure that I'm properly tuned in to this discussion, but…… If this is basically a government initiative, could the government fund regular short information films on television, perhaps every 3 to 6 months, telling people the service is there. We see Childline films regularly, for instance, or that is my impression. I don't think I've seen anything about PKH, however. Even those people who don't have computers will almost certainly have TV sets.
I expect you've covered this in your launch plans by now. I look forward to hearing the launch date.