Digital Media Marketing Seminar - E Journal 3

Caroline Berryman talks about working in the Public Sector, Social Marketing and how York Region saved 69 endangered snapping turtles

The guest speaker for last week’s Digital Media Marketing seminar was Caroline Berryman. After working 13 years in retail marketing, Caroline transitioned to the public sector with a focus on social marketing. Caroline is now the Program Manager, Department Communications for The Regional Municipality of York. She leads the strategic development, management, and implementation of marketing and communications for the Public Work department at York Region. The Public Works department is responsible for programs and services such as public transit, the maintenance of roads, and working on safety initiatives with the local police department and environmental services.

Caroline mentioned how the work environment in the public sector can be different from the private sector. When working for government agencies you often have to work with smaller budgets and for someone coming from the private sector who was used to working with larger budgets, it was something she had to adapt to. This is why she focuses on digital marketing to target audiences to be cost-effective. In most cases, the main function of the public sector is to provide services, and often they do not make any profits at all; whereas in the private sector the majority of the companies are profit driven and therefore have surplus budgets. To be transparent, the private sector appeals to me more when compared to the public sector. I have never considered a career in the public sector as my interests lie in the private sector. Although the pay is better, I do realize that working in the private sector is stressful and there is no real job security. Generally speaking, some of the pros of working in the public sector are job security, less pressure, better working hours, and other benefits such as pension plans.

Today’s marketer must be agile and a person who can pivot into different roles. The challenge is to resonate with your audience and create a positive experience for them. This can be done by truly understanding your audience, using data, and most importantly bringing all of that together and telling a great story. Being a great storyteller and bringing the customer along for the journey is what will change their attitudes and behaviors. I would prefer selling a product as I will have something tangible to work with, which would make it easier to get more people on board.

Customers indeed tend to tell everyone about their negative experiences more than their positive experiences. For example, an airline such as Etihad Airways, which is considered a luxury and one of the best airlines in the world, can deliver positive customer experiences 99% of the time but when things do go wrong, nowadays the airline is instantly reprimanded on social media and the entire world can see what went wrong.

Activity time!

Think about any company, this could be your mobile network provider or the manufacturer that made your washing machine. Now log onto Twitter and type #companyname then search. What comes up? What are people saying about the company? Is it mostly negative or mostly positive? Let me know in a comment below. This is the first tweet that came up when I searched #Etihad

During the breakout session, our group discussed three main ideas for the case study:

1. Road Signages – Having staggered road signs leading up to the road closures. These signs could be a bit more eye-catching and creative as compared to traditional road signs.

2. Local & Community focused – Getting schools and children involved in informational sessions and contests such as having their artworks/signage outside of the school for other kids and parents to see.

3. Naming roads after local endangered species to showcase the importance that transportation and construction play in their local habitats.

The feedback we received from Caroline was mostly positive. She liked the idea of staggered turtle road signs which would be eye-catching and give drivers advance notice. She also approved getting schools involved but mentioned that York Region would be unable to organize field trips. Caroline explained that changing road names would not be possible on a regional level due to naming conventions and the history behind them. And finally, she liked the idea of sharing the projects and initiatives online and partnering with other local municipality groups, York Regional Police, the Fire Department, and school boards.

It was a pleasure listening to Caroline’s presentation and it was interesting to learn about some of the initiatives and work that the York Region municipality is involved in.