Shape Your City

Engaging the City’s Youth

The City of Wagga Wagga Council Social Planning team is often looking for ways to bring their younger residents into the broader conversation and take an active role in how the city runs. In a new campaign to lead into their regularly run youth forums, the Social Planning team were looking to educate and motivate younger generations on how council works for them and show them how they can have their say.

The council reached out to me to create an explainer video with a ready-to-animate storyboard prepared by their internal communications and engagement team. They needed to package some dry but very important concepts about the role of the council, how they source and include community voices, and how a younger person could find their way into the process. Since they were engaging with a typically under-involved demographic, they hoped to deliver an informative, friendly and inclusive message without overloading their audience - and an explainer video fit perfectly.

Taking their project from a storyboard to a full three-minute explainer video that engaged with younger people required thoughtful consideration on how to keep the audience’s attention without sacrificing on delivering the necessary information. The approach was to keep the core motion simple and aligned with the voice-over before adding layers of animated embellishments to create further intrigue and delight.

The resulting animated explainer video was effective and engaging. Their youth forum event hit the mark, platforming 150 youths to share their thoughts with the council, including sessions in five local schools. Equipped with tools like this explainer video, the Social Planning team can continue their mission to reach youths in local communities and let them have a say in the future of the city.