The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has taken to social media to engage Australians in the 2011 Census, which is due for completion today. In an innovative move, Spotlight, a microsite with voiceovers by TV personality, comedian and author Shaun Micallef takes users through statistics from the 2006 Census which relate directly to data provided by the user. After entering gender and postcode, a representation is presented of how long it would take to shake hands with everyone in the appropriate state or territory. “If you wanted to shake hands with everyone in your state, this is how long it would take,” intones Micallef’s voice, “Plus your arm would get quite tired, you’d probably get RSI.”

Figures and timelines are extrapolated from the data, including how many MCGs would be required to seat all of the people in Australia who are the same age as the user, and volumes of ingredients required to make a cake to cater for those of their age, and its diameter. A personalised infographic summarising location, age, ethnicity and occupation statistics is provided for sharing.

It’s a tightly scripted, entertaining microsite, the result of collaboration between the Census public relations team and creative agency Leo Burnett, who are also responsible for the traditional advertising for Census. “We’re trying to take a slightly different tact this time around with the Census and we’re utilising social media like we never have before,” says  National Media Manager for Census public relations, David McHugh. “The Spotlight presentation dovetailed into that and it was a really good way of making Census data and statistics interactive for the community, potentially for the first time.”

McHugh says the response to the Spotlight microsite has been positive. “I think people have an expectation of what government should do and when anyone does anything outside the square; the reaction we’ve been getting is a really positive reaction. It’s just a slightly different way of doing things and it’s really complimenting the standard traditional campaign that was on TV and in the newspapers and on radio. It’s also really complimented the stuff we’re doing in the social media space, particularly on Twitter and Facebook and Youtube.”

McHugh says it was simple to attain support for the program from ABS executives. “We’ve got wonderful support from higher up for the Census program. They realise that we only do this once every five years, so let’s make it spectacular. We’ve got such great support for the social media and they’re fully behind the Spotlight application. If we can get different groups of the population aware of the Census and talking about it for the first time, and if we can do that through a clever application or humour or tweeting or Facebook, they are very supportive of that.”

A journalist by trade, McHugh moved to the Census program from the Seven Network. “I’ve got a degree in both journalism and public relations. It was a great opportunity to be part of a national program that everyone hears about and a great opportunity to run with some programs and ideas in social media. It’s really fascinating and to be honest with you, it’s fun coming into work to tweet sometimes.”

eCensus is available for the second time  in 2011. Just under 10% of the population chose to complete the Census online in 2006, and McHugh expects 30% of the population to use eCensus this year. ”We’re pushing it as a really simple and safe alternative to the traditional paper form. It’s been protected by the strongest encryption technology available. One of the really big selling points for it is that if you do it online, your collector is sent an SMS message and will not have to return to your address to pick up your form, so it’s basically simplifying it for not just the householder but also the collectors.”

Whilst McHugh has not yet decided on the fate of the 2011 Census and Facebook pages after the Census is complete, it is possible that they will used to communicate the results of the Census. “The results are not distributed until June 2012, so we’ve got this great lead in time to continue doing some really cool stuff on Facebook and in the social media space and then really kicking into another gear once the data becomes available.”

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Twitter role

Featured:

Census: @2011Census

Article by:

Lou Pardi: @loupardi, @smkapac