Victoria Law Foundation | Victorian Law Week 2023

Challenge

The Victoria Law Foundation (the Foundation) is a not-for-profit organisation striving to improve the justice system for all Victorians.

Each year the Foundation runs Victorian Law Week (May 15-21) as an opportunity for the public to engage with the justice system in an informative, educational and fun way.

The Foundation engaged Truth to help promote Victorian Law Week as well as key themes around ‘everyday’ law problems.

The Foundation wanted to balance broad awareness with community level appeal to ensure events were well attended and that information and ways to get help reached new audiences. In particular, it wanted to reach more people in circles outside their usual engagement (ie metro Melbourne).

The brief stated that PR efforts should focus on “75% grassroots” activity (ie across the regions) and that placements across Gippsland would constitute success for this campaign.

Solution

Truth’s approach aimed to create a groundswell of broad awareness about Victorian Law Week and its events, while generating interest in the specific themes to encourage community attendance and participation.

We wanted to ensure as many Victorians as possible understand that everyday problems can have legal answers. Truth strategically identified in-person events across Victoria’s regions that aligned with the five themes, including story angles that would resonate with key audiences.

As part of its approach, Truth:

• Consolidated a set of approved key messages – in plain English – that informed all media and communications.
• Identified the best story angles for media
• Developed a hyper-localised media plan including:
  • One “big hit”angle pitched to mainstream metro mastheads
  • Five media angles based on key themes and current events, pitched to target regional media
    • 4 x bespoke pitches based on VLW events.
    • 1 x media release with bespoke pitch for Gippsland media
    • Collaborated closely with the Foundation and its stakeholders to identify suitable spokespeople.
    • Drafted five native articles, aligning with the five themed media angles, for use across the Foundation’s digital channels.
    • Developed pitching materials informed by campaign key messages.

As an additional value-add, and to assist Victorian Law Week spokespeople, ahead of each interview Truth developed eight individual briefing notes with interview details and key VLW messages to prepare them for their interviews.