Overview
Communication is the basic fabric of governance, especially in a democracy where citizens actively participate in decision-making. Yet, the basic essence of its policies and schemes is often lost in translation which becomes a barrier to the country’s growth.
Good governance requires audience-centric communication as only effective communication strategies are vital to spreading awareness about its citizen-centric policies and schemes. It helps you think through your audience’s psychology and choose the best way to deliver your message and get the desired results.
While working on government projects, an agency must consider intangible factors like mutuality, non-judgementalism, honesty and fairness as they are critical to creating a mutually honest and beneficial relationship between the government and citizens, which indirectly affects the efficiency of the scheme.
One must choose the best communication medium to transmit your message effectively. For example, awareness videos are the most popular medium of spreading information for their visual appeal and potential to grab viewers’ undivided attention.
About Digital Seva Setu
To make a digital shift in the state’s infrastructure, the Government of Gujarat launched a new digital scheme- Digital Seva Setu. This program became the first digital initiative launched by any of India’s state governments.
Digital Seva Setu portal is a digitised version of governance for the seamless disposal of citizen services at the village level through automation of workflow, backend digitisation, and integration of multiple applications.
Project
Government projects are primarily about informing citizens regarding the various schemes and policies or the accomplishments of a particular project. And to do so, every new initiative requires a full-fledged campaign to reach to the masses.
The Gujarat Government launched the Digital Seva Setu portal to enable the citizens of Gujarat access to public welfare services over the internet with a special emphasis on benefitting the rural residents; the initiative enables the citizens of Gujarat access to public welfare services over the internet.
For the promotion of the portal, the state government commissioned us to prepare 12 videos related to the Digital Seva Setu. Decode Mediacom had to prepare explanatory videos on the app’s features, emphasising the rural audience.
While most ad campaigns lose their cause to magnify a particular organisation’s stature, we wanted to adopt a balanced approach that serves its primary purpose. Our main motive was to bring utmost clarity to directly enter the minds of our audience without any pomp or frivolity.
Moreover, government ad campaigns are usually targeted to a large audience, educated/ uneducated, of different ages, backgrounds, income groups or living abilities. All these factors play a significant role while preparing the scripts. Therefore, the screenplay had to be direct enough to not to trivialise the use of the application and emphatic to assert an empowering tone.
We built a concept around these individuals taking advantage of the app to avail themselves of their necessary documents in the convenience of their homes. We created scripts in Gujarati explaining 12 different app features for 12 other videos.
Challenges
One of the major challenges an agency faces while making government ad campaigns is comprehending their schemes to set out the correct information. Due to the requirement of astute accuracy, the data kept oscillating back and forth in the verification process to ensure an error-free foundation of our scripts.
Moreover, the film was not about hailing a government but to reach out the right audience. As the campaign revolved around the rural audience, to set a concept that explains an intangible feature of the app to them required an understanding of Gujarat's rural fabric.
Finally, we had 12 scripts locked for production. A brief deadline, too, was a constraint for us. For example, producing twelve chroma films that consisted of a load of graphics is a time-consuming job. Yet, we successfully finished the project on time.
Opportunities
Governments are often booed for their un-updated mechanism. However, Gujarat Government is the first state authority to set up an entire ecosystem for digitised governance. The government's decision to upgrade its system by adopting advanced technology in this digital era benefits its citizens. This project helped us understand how perseverent our government is that it incessantly works on bettering the lives of its people.
Decode Mediacom is fortunate enough to be part of such an initiative that empowers the masses. As a result, millions viewed our ad films on television and social media platforms. This was one of the intangible gains we received through this project.
Impact
We produced 13 different films that explained each unique feature of the portal. As the videos targeted the rural audience, each video contained an issue relevant to them. The films articulated well, creating a proper understanding of usefulness of the portal.
Our films created the necessary impact that the newly opened portal required. It presented the portal to the target audience, creating awareness and encouraging them to use the portal for their convenience. It introduced villagers of such a portal and helped break the ice stimulate traffic on the portal.
Resultantly, the app is widely used for FAQs. The portal maintains a record of all the application and their current status through a dashboard which is commended on the national level.
