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Youth Worker and Consultation and Participation Officer Le N Ho had become frustrated with the negative perception of young people in contemporary society – particularly in her local borough of Newham; just next door to Idea Shop’s mother ship in Canary Wharf. After a submitting a winning application for a £3,500 grant to develop a community campaign, Le came to Idea Shop to see how to make the money work hardest.

Knowing that at the source of the misconception is a lack of understanding and awareness, Le had planned to run a series of workshops and develop a magazine to highlight the achievements of hard working young people. After discussing the benefits of intergenerational activities it became clear that in order for these to work the negative perceptions of young people must first be challenged. Rather than investing in the production of a single magazine, using newly affordable and flexible production services such as Newspaper Club would allow newspapers to be produced and distributed to a dispersed audience, especially one with varying access to the internet. Also collaborating with successful young people such as designers, photographers and writers would allow for co-creation and provide role models to draw other young people engaged with the project. By capitalising on the popularity of basic digital tools such as camera phones the idea of co-creation could be extended to the wider audience.

Successfully accessing and communicating to young people is a challenge major brands with multi-million pound budgets are struggling with, let alone individuals with money & time pressures. Involving young people themselves in the creation of the communications and activities will help draw in others and help further elevate success stories from local area – such its track record in providing successful sports professionals and cultural icons such as Jermaine Defoe and the late Alexander McQueen – eventually providing a reason for the wider community to reconsider their views.

Post by Keiran Bradshaw

Brixton Cycles, is a one-off. A workers co-operative at the heart of SW9 that sells and fixes all kinds of bikes from commuter, to racing to mountain bikes.  If you are part of the biking fraternity its a destination in its own right and celebrated its 25th birthday a few years back.

The Problem:

There were several things BC wanted to do

1. Keep their much loved customers up to date with all they were doing

2. Grow their community, be part of their community and introduce more people to cycling

3. Make sure that they were selling, stocking and buying the right kind of kit and bike gear

What we suggested:

Crowd Sourcing

Brixton Cycles has an irreverent, slightly anarchic take on life which is instantly recognisable in their branded clothing. To grow their community and engage with them better, we recommended a bit of crowd sourcing- asking their customers what designs they would like to see fronting next season’s cycling gear. We also suggested that the Brixton Cycles staff wear the merchandise while working on the shop floor or fixing bikes to help identify them to customers, and make it easier for people to know who to ask for advice and help in store.
Know Your Customer

We also suggested that Brixton Cycles establishing a database of customers and create a facebook page in order to send out email/newsletter bulletins and also post status updates letting people know about promos, events, sales and anything else the Brixton Cycles is getting involved with.

Taking it To The People

We wanted people to register that Brixton Cycles is really part of their community and something that is unique.  So we suggested setting up a chalk A board outside and use it as a megaphone/ means of sharing and writing down the staff’s witty, irreverent and politically flavoured thinking.  This was a way of taking the shop’s attitude out on the street and also creating something of a local talking point for the neighbourhood as well as putting a smile on the face of all those commuters cycling past everyday. We also thought it might be nice to make what ever was on the board that day the shop’s facebook status to keep all the Brixton Cycles community- local and virtual- in the loop.

Keeping Track of Sales

With a secret sale coming up for their valued customers, we recommended that Brixton Cycles pay close attention to every item rung up on the till that day- which brands and labels were the most popular and what price points proved to be the most popular with the shops loyal fan base. Gaining this information would help them stock exactly what people wanted to buy and ensure faster through flow of goods and even happier customers.

www.brixtoncycles.co.uk



Over the three days of Idea Shop we spoke to countless small businesses, charities and social enterprises with teeny marketing budgets and a need to reach more people. Where they had interesting stores or an area of expertise that could turn into an agony column in the local press we recommended they get in touch with Lambeth Life, and other local papers – The South London Press, The Wandesworth Guardian, The Mitcham, Morden, Wimbledon Post etc. As our PR guru Kevin say, journalists have space that needs filling with stories, to get in the paper you just need a good story.

Here’s an updated version of our original write up of our Idea Shop session with Lambeth Life. I’ve changed it a bit from the original post which said they had a ‘perception problem’. As Lambeth Life have pointed out, was a bit of an exaggeration.

Lambeth Life is a free paper, published by Lambeth Council. Their challenge is to get local people involved in producing the content of the paper, so they feel more like it’s their paper.

During our brainstorm we came up with the following editorial ideas.

Feature guest editors from the community.

A parenting column from Loughborough Children’s Centre.

Build on the successful letter page by giving the star letter a prize, donated by an advertiser.

Leave comment cards in the local cinema asking cinema goers to write mini reviews for the film they just saw. The reviews are then collected and published in the paper.

Make it easy for people to write to the paper: Get a mobile number for texting in views and photos: Use stickers in key public places to encourage people to text in views when they are out and about.

Offer key local bloggers columns.

Ask reader to pose the questions for the fortnightly councilor interview page.

Create a schools or young Lambeth page with content created by pupils from local schools.

The star letter tends to be something positive about Lambeth. Introduce a Big Moan letter to give the letters page more bite. Councilors can write in the next week to address the issue raised.