Slicker cities

Town planning is a controversial business that affects many lives, which is why Surrey-based Reigate & Banstead Borough Council needed to engage its residents before it could launch its development plans.

The Council was well aware that the more feedback it got, the better the development would be for everyone.

Free thinking

It had to be easy. It had to be fun. It had to be free for respondents. And it had to be relevant. Online was the best answer. Based on the SimCity^TM model, we called our resulting game Play Mayor and invited all visitors to our specially-developed website to plan their own towns and complete an incentivised online questionnaire. By getting residents to think about their own virtual towns, they were able to make more considered responses when completing the questionnaire, increasing the quality of feedback as well as the quantity.

We generated awareness by placing print advertising through flyers and posters in high-density local areas at peak times.

The consultation response rate increased ten-fold, from 40 responses to 400. An unprecedented result for a local consultation.