OPDC Old Oak West Communications Materials

Old Oak West is an incredible development opportunity to deliver a desirable town centre and housing district of 9,000 new and affordable homes and a range of commercial, industrial, retail, leisure, services and amenities, to create a place that’s welcoming, accessible and inclusive and takes full advantage of the exceptional transport connections across London and beyond.

OPDC has been working closely with DLUHC, DfT and Homes England to prepare a Strategic Outline Business Case which was approved last year. As plans develop there is an increasing need to proactively engage key decision makers who can help make our plans a reality.

OPDC has been working with Place Bureau to develop a set of ‘golden threads’ to crystalise the vision for Old Oak West and our social, economic, environmental and placemaking ambitions through a series of internal workshops with colleagues and partners. The outputs of these sessions have formed the basis of a coherent and compelling narrative to communicate externally.

Over the next 12 months, OPDC has set up a programme of key engagements. This includes ministerial meetings, site visits, large scale industry events, as well as extensive public engagement including co-design workshops across the spring 2023.

To support these engagements, we require a suite of compelling supporting communications materials, that goes beyond our own in-house capabilities, to effectively convey the opportunity of Old Oak West and OPDC’s long term vision for the area.

These will include print, digital and multimedia communications collateral that are professionally prepared and designed to use as aids at key meetings and events, as well as to help profile the site online to the wider public.

Having this adaptable suite of communications materials will enable and empower a wide range of colleagues and partners – including from Homes England, DfT and DLUHC – to champion the project using one, consistent voice. It will be an essential tool in effectively profiling the scheme and its vision to wider audiences.

This proposal is for the expenditure of £29,500 to appoint suitably qualified designers and videographers to develop and deliver a range of communications materials, using the outputs of the visioning work undertaken by Place Bureau. This value is based on initial speculative quotes from a breadth of designers and previous similar work undertaken by existing suppliers.

OPDC will seek to appoint a designer, through requesting a range of proposals and quotes to establish best value for money, to prepare printed and digital materials, with a £15,000 budget. This will include designing bespoke maps, diagrams and infographics, advice and edits on copy, and includes budget for a number of rounds edits, updates and alterations based on feedback from OPDC officers and our project partners.

The digital materials with be editable by OPDC staff to allow scope for regular updates giving them longevity by ensuring they stay current.

OPDC will separately appoint Beagle Media to update its existing corporate video and produce several short videos with some new interviews and infographics, to be used in meetings and on social media, with a budget of £14,500. Beagle Media represents the best value for money for this piece of work as they produced the original corporate video, so have the existing reels and footage, as well as being well briefed on OPDC’s requirements.

The work will take place across January and February of 2023. Funding for this work will come from the Communications and Strategy budget approved for 2022/23.

Project governance, assurance and day to day management will sit within OPDC’s Communications Team but will be collaboratively developed between OPDC’s Head of Communications and Strategy and OPDC’s Head of Design.

The objectives of creating a suite of communications materials for Old Oak West are to:

• encourage political support and investment from national government, and attract development partners and investors from the private sector
• communicate the vision for Old Oak West, to be exemplar in social, environmental and economic development, addressing key issues, pioneering innovative ideas and championing high-quality placemaking
• create an understanding for how Old Oak West might take shape across the wider public and industry
• build a network support and advocacy with key decision makers and stakeholders by making the opportunity compelling, relatable and attractive
• enable a wide variety of colleagues and partners from OPDC, Homes England, DfT, DLHUC, HS2 and beyond to confidentially champion the vision for Old Oak West with one voice and consistent materials and messaging
• build our credibility as an organisation, cementing confidence in the scheme and OPDC’s ability to oversee it

The outcome of this work will be to have a range of accessible and compelling materials, building on visioning work already undertaken, that anyone can use and understand, that enables us to positively engage key stakeholders across a variety of channels.

As we’re increasing the number of engagements with key decision makers, ministers, industry and the public – including the upcoming co-design workshops, a ministerial site visit and key events like MIPIM and UKREiiF, there is a requirement to procure external designers and videographers to support the preparation of externally facing comms materials, including presentations, brochures and multimedia comms. This DD covers all of the above, so the comms team can work with external suppliers to ensure that both the OPDC team and our partners have the right materials at their fingertips to effectively champion the project.

Ensuring that OPDC has compelling, engaging and accessible communications will support key strategic objectives for Old Oak West and further our development plans by raising awareness and building advocacy. It will:

• provide opportunities for OPDC to positively influence and build relationships with key, priority target audiences from across London and beyond
• enable OPDC to profile its ambitious plans for Old Oak West, raising awareness of the development opportunity and help to secure vocal, political support that will further OPDC’s plans
• positively communicate key Mayoral strategies and priorities that will be delivered for Londoners, including the environment, health inequalities, housing, skills and economic strategies
• ensure that communications are accessible and relatable to all, through use of plain English and engaging visuals

The Senior Responsible Officer for the procurement and delivery of the communications materials will be the Head of Communications and Strategy, supported and advised by the Head of Design. OPDC’s Senior Communications Officer will provide day-to-day support and quality control on the materials, ensuring that deadlines are met.

The Senior Responsible Officer will liaise closely with the Senior Management Team to provide overarching project and budget assurance. They will work with the Head of Design and the appointed consultant/s to devise layout, design and copy, providing approvals on drafts and revisions.

Risks and issues

Impact on programme

Although much has been done to progress plans and technical work, there is currently a lack of up to date communications materials for the vision of Old Oak West (despite an increase in requests for collateral from key partners and champions) to have supporting materials and visual aids at important meetings and engagements.

If OPDC does not have the appropriate communications tools and materials at its disposal to communicate its flagship development opportunity, it could severely compromise the programme for Old Oak West.

Creating understanding, raising awareness and building support for the proposals will help to avoid unnecessary delays by helping to efficiently secure a partnership agreement with government, attract the right potential development partners and increase a supportive consensus with Londoners.

Reputation and credibility

As OPDC is increasing its engagement with broader audiences and taking the Old Oak West scheme to market, it’s important to ensure that we have high-quality materials that reflect that we are a credible and serious delivery agent.

Without professional design capability and materials that reflect the importance and significance of the opportunity at Old Oak West, OPDC risks reputational damage amongst industry and political stakeholders, as well as missing an opportunity to showcase this scheme as being nationally significant.

Quality control

OPDC does not have in-house design and multimedia capabilities, therefore we are required to outsource these services to external credible suppliers with strong track records of producing comparable materials for similar developments.

We have requested quotes from designers and videographers who have successfully worked for similar organisations in both the public and private sectors, including for Royal Docks, Lendlease, the GLA and Argent.

That said, although we are outsourcing this work, our in-house Communications and Design teams will be working closely with the approved supplier on copy, accessibility, branding and layout to ensure that the materials produced reflect OPDC and the GLA’s tone of voice, accessibility guidelines and branding requirements, as well as maximising on visioning work already undertaken.

Under Section 149 of the Quality Act 2010, as a public authority, OPDC must have ‘due regard’ to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to the need to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

A key outcome of this work will be to ensure that the materials produced are fully accessible and inclusive to a diverse range of audiences. All materials will be written in Plain English, adhering to the GLA’s accessibility guidelines and also that designs, imagery and photography reflect the rich diversity of the community in Old Oak and Londoners.

The timescales for this work are very tight, with project completion targeted for February 2023. A key consideration when appointing suppliers will be to ensure they have the capability to complete this work, to a high standard, within the allotted timescales.

No one involved in the preparation or clearance of this Form, or its substantive proposal, has any conflict of interest.

The expenditure of £29,500 will be met from the 2022/23 Communications and Strategy budget, which sits within the CEO directorate.

Any further expenditure is subject to the Corporation’s decision-making procedure.

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