James Murgatroyd Communications

Congratulations go out to both Dominic Mishio and Karen Leibovici for running two successful campaigns this fall to win their respective civic elections.

James Murgatroyd Communications developed all of the campaign materials for Dominic Mishio who was elected Alderman in the city of Leduc. James also worked with CIS Communications to develop Karen Leibovici's campaing slogan, "Proven leadership for our growing communities"  to reflect the leadership role she has taken over the course of her previous years in public office.

James Murgatroyd Communications has now worked on four election campaigns all of them successful. 

James Murgatroyd Communications is please to announce the launch of the Dominic Mishio Campaign website for the 2007 Leduc civic election. JMC worked with Dominic to develop the look of the site. If you live in the Leduc area then take a moment to consider Dominic Mishio for city council.

Working with Brian Hetherington & Associates (BH&A), James Murgatroyd Communications (JMC) helped to develop a six-month communications campaign, the goal of which was to stimulate citizen input around the ongoing differences between the City and the neighbouring County of Grande Prairie.

This program was built around the JMC designed and developed website, www.gpregion.ca which was created as a key part of the other communications aspects of the program. These elements included the production and delivery by Canada Post of 32,000 copies of each of four distinct brochures to all homes and businesses in the region, supportive print advertisements in the Grande Prairie Herald Tribune and three flights of 30-second spots on the region’s two radio stations.

Discussions with City administration identified four distinct topics that would typify the range of differences between the City and County. The four examples were:

• Regional Integration
• Fire Services
• Recreation Facilities, and
• Arts Culture and Entertainment

These four topics were addressed, in order, in the four brochures, with related questions being posted on the website on a weekly basis.

Interest in the new website was almost instantaneous, with the first posted City-question generating more than 100 responses with little or no advance promotion, other than the reference to the launching of the site by the Mayor in his annual State of the City address at the Chamber of Commerce.

During the campaign – from February 8 – July 15 – the City posted 19 different questions, seeking public input on the four topics. With little promotion, other than the fliers and supporting ads, the questions received a wide range of responses, from a high of 792 on a question on the delivery of fire services to a low of 12 on an arts facilities question.
Interest in the site continued throughout the campaign, clearly illustrated by results from two search engines used during the process. These recorded 3,142 visits to the site, with 10,293 distinct page views, with each one averaging more than three pages per visit.

The City’s innovative approach in inviting public input resulted in 43 residents posting comments or questions to the site. Clearly, this number would likely have been higher if the topics had not been clearly addressed in the brochures and advertising. Indeed of the 43 questions/comments posted by residents, almost three quarters dealt with recreation facilities and only one of each for the other three topics.

An analysis of the strong opinions posted in comments and questions from the region’s residents showed that 69% were supportive of the City’s position or recommended greater City and County cooperation, while about 30% supported the positions of the County.

This innovative approach to community communications clearly generated significant public interest – and served to build public awareness of the background to key issues that had been the source of widely reported media differences between the two administrations. The opportunity for residents to post their own opinions to the website is believed to be a first for any municipality in Alberta, if not all of Canada.

James Murgatroyd recently acted as a web consultant and developer as part of a four-member communications team developing the planning and support materials for the Government of Alberta’s presence at the 4th World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, in Orlando, Florida.

Our team developed the strategy and support materials for the opening workshop at the Congress. Working with the government’s planning team, we planned the workshop, established the web-site – www.albertaoilandmore.com – developed a promotional brochure and created and produced communications support materials.

Marcus Gurske and Brian Hetherington also traveled to Orlando, with the Government team, to coordinate the workshop, including the production of support visuals for the presentations, set up the Alberta stand at the exhibition, and deal with national trade media attending the Congress.