Where does your audience ‘show up’?  Knowing how and where people want to engage in the planning process is vital to success.

Written by Max Camplin – Executive Director

Get Britain Building is top of the government agenda.  In every arena of the built environment – from pylons to New Towns – there is an urgency to get things done and the recent Spring Statement reinforces the critical need for development-led growth. 

With anti-development campaigners ready to mobilise, oppose, and delay critical building projects, the value in capturing the positive voices of the silent majority is vital.  If Britain is to get building, then we need more voices to come to the table. 

How do we find those positive voices and their fresh perspectives? 

The starting point is understanding where and how people want to engage. 

That’s why we’ve worked with leading pollsters YouGov to look at how we can reach those people.  The resulting report, drawing together the results of the polling, shows how people across the country want to engage with planning applications and provides a unique set of data for every local authority in Great Britain. 

Built into our proprietary Cavendish Insights platform, the new data drives better engagement.  We know who will engage, how they want to engage, and what they’re concerned about locally – and there are some clear general trends:   

• 62% of those who will engage want to do so digitally, either through a website or directly via social media.    

• From Gen Z to Boomers, every generation prefers to engage digitally.   

• Gen Z and Millennials – a key supportive demographic for new development – are the most likely to show up on social media. 

• For example, everyone who said they use TikTok or Instagram to find information in their area are Gen Z or Millennials. 

• This chimes with wider social media use. Gen Z and Millennials are far more likely to use visual platforms like YouGov, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat than any other generation.  

• Gen Z is also the only generation where less than 50% are active Facebook users.  

So how do you reach them? 

The answer is simple: by finding the right message and delivering it to the right platform. 

Our data allows us to shape our communications strategy around the channels we know are being used, with messaging that will resonate with your audience. 

Our market-leading digital survey tool, deployed directly into social media platforms, allows us to reach thousands of people normally left out of the planning process. 

Because we show up where they show up, we find more voices and more support.   

Combined with smart digital targeting and the best creative, we have seen our digital strategies increase engagement by over 200%, with huge growth in the key supportive audience of 18–34-year-olds. 

Find Out More  

To find out more about the unique data and digital tools we use to help shape the future of Britain’s built environment, get in touch here or download our full ‘Like, Comment, Build’ report here.