The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is made up of the ten Greater Manchester councils and Mayor, Andy Burnham, who work with other local services, businesses, communities and other partners to improve the city-region.
The ten councils (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan) have worked together voluntarily for many years on issues that affect everyone in the region, like transport, regeneration, and attracting investment.
The GMCA gives local people more control over issues that affect their area. It means the region speaks with one voice and can make a strong case for resources and investment. It helps the entire north of England achieve its full potential.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has high ambitions to make sure everyone has a safe and good night out. Within the city, there are a lot of resources to ensure we can all have a fun time while enjoying the night time economy, but not everyone knows about them. Unfortunately, this means people can experience minor to serious problems when they are supposed to be having fun. GMCA’s Good Night Out Campaign aims to educate people around the city and to empower them to keep themselves and their friends safe.
We have been working with GMCA on the campaign for a number of years. The aim is to ensure that students and those new to Greater Manchester are able to embrace Manchester’s nightlife and feel safe. We were asked to refresh the campaign, to ensure it retained its relevancy.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority carried out testing of the campaign this year, to get feedback from students to ensure that it was landing correctly. The feedback that they received was that the campaign was engaging, with the action of refreshing to ensure that the campaign retained its cut through.
We initially worked on three different design routes for the initial creative of the poster and overarching campaign identity, including photographic, typographic and illustrative.
GMCA’s preferred approach was the illustrative route that was inspired by a club flyer / billboard poster. They ‘felt that it was doing something different, and also felt very ‘Manchester’ or ‘Greater Manchester’, and that the tone would fit in and appeal to the right environments and target audiences.’ They wanted their key message to be non-political, soft and more positive (i.e. encourage people to look after their friends, rather than be warnings).
In the initial creative of the poster the text made clever use of the kind of language seen on a club night flyer and worked well with GMCA’s chosen narrative of a night out with friends . The playful graphic elements illustrate the message of checking in with your mates and making a group decision to look out for each other. We used the GMCA Festival Pink for this execution, but for the other campaign executions, we played with other colours from the GMCA brand guidelines and used them as the main hero colour with a slightly different look and feel. The further executions followed a similar narrative of being aware of your surroundings, and how you and your friends can avoid potentially dangerous situations.
We are really pleased with how the project came out. We feel the illustrative style offers a little playfulness. This really helps bring in the idea that nights out should be fun. Yet the campaign managed to be super direct with its messaging and straight to the point. It’s easy to read over the guides and posters and understand what it’s about.
“Thanks so much for all your work on this, the illustrations look fantastic, and the team is really pleased with them!”
Yvonne – Greater Manchester Combined Authority
“Whilst we know the majority of people will have a great night out in Manchester, sadly we know things can and do go wrong. We hope our Good Night Out Guide will equip students and others on nights out in Manchester with knowledge on what to do and where to go for help should they ever need it.”
Bev Hughes – Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Fire
“For thousands of students their arrival in Manchester will be a time of excitement and anticipation. We’ve a world-renowned nightlife in our city and we hope that as many students as possible get to enjoy it. However, things can and do go wrong on nights out which is why this guide is an important tool for our students to have. The Council is committed to keeping everyone in Manchester safe and will continue to work with our partners across the city to achieve this goal.”
Councillor Bev Craig – Leader of Manchester City Council
“It is great to see the Good Night Out Guide’s tips up across Manchester in time for students returning to the city. Building on the good work of other regions, such as Bristol, we hope people feel able to experience Manchester’s iconic nightlife safely.”
Sacha Lord – Greater Manchester Night-Time Economy Adviser