EP#66: Fostering care and compassion within community, with Lucy Ibrahim

Communications is about going with your gut. Our guest today, uses core values to create marketing campaigns that she knows will stand out. She understands when to use speed and when to be strategic and insight led. In this episode of GovComms, City Marketing Coordinator at the city of Ballarat, Lucy Ibrahim, joins contentgroup CEO, David Pembroke, to discuss the importance of delivering communications plans that connect with community members. Working in a city that shows genuine care and compassion for their community in the toughest of circumstances, Lucy talks about how to take those values and deliver effective communications solutions to big problems. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lucy has led her community by engaging with stakeholders and supplying the city of Ballarat with accurate and accessible resources. Today, we dive back to when Lucy delivered and launched a marketing campaign, Be Kind Ballarat, in less than 24 hours. The campaign was a kindness initiative launched in response to COVID-19, which she reflects on as one of the toughest and most rewarding campaigns she has worked on. Lucy Ibrahim has over 18 years’ experience covering brand strategy, marketing, events and tourism. Prior to working for the City of Ballarat, Lucy served as Head of Marketing at Visit Ballarat, and Managing Director of PLAY communications. Work produced under Lucy’s direction has been recognised at over 15 international and local awards. She has most recently been recognised for the 2020 Ad Campaign of the Year at the Mumbrella Travel Awards for her campaign Made of Ballarat. Lucy is passionate about insight-led creative, efficient execution and measurement to optimise outcomes. Discussed in this episode: Using core principles within government policies to develop clear communications plans Delivering an effective campaign in less than 24 hours Using communications to support residents and provide relief Responding and recovering from the fallout of COVID-19 The nature of work for a communications professional Using hard metrics to measure effectiveness within industry and media sentiment