New Forest District Council, working with Georgia Turner Communications, commissioned Byte Digital to run a focused digital campaign aimed at increasing resident participation in a consultation on the reorganisation of local government in Hampshire, commissioned by 13 of Hampshire and Isle of Wight’s 15 councils.
The central aim was to generate more survey responses across key community groups, making sure a wide range of residents had their voices heard.
We deployed a Meta campaign (Facebook and Instagram) between 16–27 July 2025, structured in three phases to reach different audience segments under a limited budget.
Phase 1: Targeted 18–45 year olds across selected districts to engage younger working-age residents.
Phase 2: Narrowed focus to 18–25 year olds, a group underrepresented in the consultation.
Phase 3: Broadened targeting to all adults 18+, driving maximum survey completions in the final days.
The creative assets, developed by Alive With Ideas and adapted for Meta placements by Byte Digital – reflected the character of New Forest communities and carried a clear call to action encouraging residents to take part before the consultation closed. Messaging was inclusive and urgent, ensuring the campaign felt local and relevant.
The campaign delivered strong results within a modest budget. Over the 11-day period, the ads were seen more than 190,000 times, reaching over 47,000 residents. More than 4,000 people clicked through to the survey, with 1,176 confirmed submissions recorded. On average, each survey submission cost less than £1 in advertising, making the campaign highly cost-effective.
Less than £1 per survey submission
Community response was also encouraging, with hundreds of likes, comments, and other reactions showing residents were actively engaged with the issue. While tracking limitations mean the true number of completed surveys was likely higher than reported, the confirmed results alone demonstrate the campaign’s success in boosting participation.
Adjusting the targeting provided clear insights: narrowing exclusively to 18–25 year olds significantly increased the cost of each survey response, while broadening back to 18+ reduced costs and drove higher overall participation. This shows that campaigns aiming for maximum civic engagement benefit from keeping the audience as inclusive as possible.
Results-Focused
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