Case study: Busselton Water
Following a bitter and divisive community debate about Busselton Water’s decision to chlorinate the water supply and as corporatisation approached, Busselton Water needed to create a new image of itself and completely reframe the conversation about its work and role in the community to win back ‘hearts and minds’.
As a local provider that had grown with the community over 110+ years, Busselton Water had generally presented itself as ‘community owned and operated’, with a focus on supplying quality drinking water to local customers.
However, in 2012, Busselton Water’s operating environment changed swiftly and significantly when:
its longstanding, solid reputation was significantly impacted by an extended crisis following the decision to chlorinate the water supply. Elsewhere this would be considered routine, however the people of Busselton were angry, a powerful lobby group was formed and the local opposition and anger was such that staff and Board members could not go about their business without being abused and felt at risk of physical attack (bricks were thrown through windows).
within months of the crisis, it was decided that Busselton Water would make the historic transition from a statutory authority to a public corporation. This included changes to governance, administration, operations and business scope. It also introduced a Water Ombudsman to the complaints management process.
The situation created a pivotal opportunity to focus attention on Busselton Water as a leading authority on water management and a critical service, in areas beyond its traditional scope. It opened the door to re-positioning and re-launching the brand, creating a catalyst for change and a significant platform to highlight the organisation’s credibility, growth and success, and re-connect with stakeholders.
Busselton Water initially engaged Mills Wilson to help it diffuse the chlorination dispute (which was successfully achieved) and later asked us to prepare and execute a corporate communications strategy including community relations, that would reposition the corporation and return its strong and positive reputation.
In the seven years since, we have worked alongside the corporation to drive all communications activities including communications planning (including the development of community campaigns), media planning and media relations, localised engagement opportunities, strategic stakeholder engagement programs and the preparation of all communications materials.
The results have been outstanding, and our work receiving commendations at the state and national level of the PRIA.
Our work to reposition the business, improve community information and understanding about its role and importance, and win back hearts and minds have included:
reframing the narrative and translating technical policy and operations into simple, interesting stories;
drafting, editing regular news articles and blogs for the website and third-party publication
information sheets for customers – like this one
video productions – including scripting, producing and editing, including this one or this
planning, drafting and designing a range of electronic and traditional newsletters, including the quarterly Watersource newsletter
drafting and designing all corporate publications including annual reports, water quality reports, strategic documents,
a range of community engagement campaigns – including concept development, asset design and production, copywriting, promotion and more – as seen throughout Busselton Water’s Facebook page. We are moderators and content creators for the page.