Hertfordshire Growth Board (HGB) – Communications Update
Report Authors
Patsy Dell, Hertfordshire Growth Board (Tel: 07949 887794)
Lucy Gravatt, Hertfordshire Growth Board (Tel: 07747 762698)
1. Purpose of report
1.1
At the last meeting, we reported that work on branding/place narrative has been reviewed in the light of COVID-19 and new actions identified allowing this workstream to progress with pace. This report updates on progress since the initial visual identity concepts were presented to the June 2020 Board to get the HGB branding and website presence established.
2. Update on Growth Board Communications and Branding work
2.1
Since the last meeting, the HGB new logo has been approved and is now in the process of being deployed across all marketing assets, including internal documents, external communications and digital platforms. This roll-out has been re-aligned to coincide with the go live date of the new microsite. Leaders will see a short presentation of the new microsite at the HGB meeting.
2.2
The new HGB branding guidelines set out clear guidance for brand use, tone of voice, with a programme lexicon to ensure consistency of messaging across all partner comms channels. This will be shared at a briefing session with all HGB member comms leads across the Hertfordshire partners to aid smooth brand roll-out.
2.3
The success of the brand roll-out and keeping up a steady drum beat of key HGB messages is contingent on HGB comms workstream leads (across the partners) beingable to fully commit to the on-boarding and training sessions and continuing to engage with HGB comms and engagement activity as it gathers momentum.
2.4
The website has been designed to meet new accessibility requirements being brought in this September. From 7 July 2020 onwards, all HGB Board Papers will be published on the HGB site as both downloadable files and searchable web pages.
2.5
As part of this first stage of stakeholder engagement activity, a series of Hertfordshire Growth Board webinars have been confirmed over the summer. The response from leaders has been very positive with an excellent up-take so far. All webinars will be facilitated by 3Fox with sponsorship from Morgan Sindall Construction and infrastructure.
3. Activities June-July 2020
3.1
Table 1 provides an update on the key operational activities identified in the last report and in section 3 a roll forward to July 2020. All milestones and work are being kept under review.
3.2
Priorities for the coming month are to move forward on the MHCLG engagement and the corridor projects feeding into the prospectus work.
3.3
Communicating this progress and next steps beyond the Growth Board will also be important. Briefing key stakeholders, and keeping other members and staff involved on the wider work in touch with what is happening will be needed. The communications workstream will be identifying actions to address that need.
4. Next Steps – July-August 2020
Commence roll out of HGB branding on internal and external print, partner and digital communications
By Mid-July 2020
HGB Microsite user testing if not competed by end June 2020
By Mid-July 2020
HGB Microsite go-live date; contingent on Hertfordshire County Council testing
By 10 July 2020
HGB Comms lead briefing sessions on how to deploy HGB branding guidelines
10 July 2020 TBC
HGB Webinar: Aims and Objectives
16 July 2020
HGB Monthly Stakeholder Bulletin
Third week of July 2020
HGB Communications & Engagement Strategy
End July 2020
HGB Webinar: Economic Recovery Planning
13 August 2020
HGB Monthly Stakeholder Bulletin
Third week of August 2020