#GrabTheMIC Client Journey Interview

In this #GrabTheMIC client journey we speak to Sofia Higgins, Equalities Lead from Manchester City Council. We were commissioned by the council and Pankhurst Trust to create the Strong Manchester Women podcast series.

We kick-off by asking Sofia what she loves most about MIC and what we do,

You’re very real! When we deliver communications to an audience sometimes they can be too polished, and corporate. MIC Media is not that. It’s very genuine and you have your feet on the ground. This makes it easier for people to connect to. It’s really authentic. There’s no pretense and Ieally appreciate that.

For example, when we first spoke about a podcast for the ‘Strong Manchester Women’ campaign I thought it’d be a great way to get the campaign ‘out there’, but in a ‘real’ sense, without it being stuffy, structured, or prescriptive. I’m really glad we did make it happen.

I had complete faith that you were going to do it justice. Absolutely. You got where it was coming from. You’re a good egg.

What is the Strong Manchester Women campaign?

It’s a Manchester City Council thing, around the time of International Women’s Day in March where we take a handful of normal everyday Manchester women, who do exceptional things and put them give them a platform. When we were planning Strong Manchester Women, we thought, wouldn’t it be great if you were at the bus stop and you saw a poster of a woman and you thought ‘oh my god I know her, she lives/works in my community and she does fantastic things.’ We thought that would inspire people, give them confidence, the self-recognition that ‘I am good enough, I could do this too, I have the ability, I could be like this woman’.

That’s the concept of Strong Manchester Women, to give normal, everyday Manchester Women a platform. Thankfully we then had MIC to talk to them about their stories for the podcast and allow more people to hear all about them and their work.

It’s great how the podcast has brought new, diverse audiences to these stories. Like how 96-year-old Dena Murphy from Moston, her story is being heard by people in India! It’s amazing how it’s been nominated for a British Podcast Award from all those thousands of entries – that’s huge!

Why did you get MIC involved?

I was looking for ways to amplify our Strong Manchester Women campaign. I knew that we had comms for it, but I wanted to create more social value and get more people to hear about it.

So as part of this I wanted someone or a company that had an interest in making it something big and meaningful. As an organisation, we can do lots of things, but they also end up being a bit samey. But when you have different people in the mix, they bring a diversity that you can’t create yourself. They bring their genuine selves.

When MIC came with the podcast idea I thought, ‘this is a different set of eyes, a different audience, a different person making it, amplifying it and doing it their way.’ This really resonated with me.

“I can’t stress it enough. You absolutely nailed it. You’re really good at what you do.”

How easy was it getting this podcast made, working in the constraints of a local authority?

You have to do a considerable amount of risk management. Someone might take this and create in a way that’s not right or suitable. However, having talked to you at the start of the project, we hit it off. I got a feel for what you were like and your creative energy.

How was it working with MIC?

You’re totally professional. You knew where we were coming from, what my vision for Strong Manchester Women was and you just ran with it. Even down to the artwork and social media content you created for us too. I can’t fault it, it’s spot on. I really enjoyed working with you.

What’s been the impact of the podcast?

For me, what hit home was that you absolutely nailed the essence of the campaign; which was for us to look at everyday women and see how exceptional they are, and how that resonates in our own very exceptional stories.

Like Denise who talked about her struggles being a teacher, Sharmila about coming to Manchester as a gay, Indian woman and finding her identity, or Lynne who talked about motherhood and bereavement. They’re all very personal stories and they’re very personal to us as women. They’re also intersectional and very much about the complexities that we bring.

The podcast was even used as an example in a workshop at Podcast Movement in Orlando…

That’s great isn’t it?

This is a legacy piece and because it came from funding through the Centenary Cities Fund, it’s going to be included in the archive of the Pankhurst Trust. It also gives those women involved a legacy of all the hard work that they’ve done. When you hear these stories it just gives me real satisfaction that we were doing the right thing by showcasing real women.

The Strong Manchester Women podcast has amplified the voices of Manchester women that you wouldn’t normally hear about. It’s something to be quite proud of. I remember when we first met – I didn’t think it would snowball into this!

Would you recommend other local authorities to explore podcasting?

Yes! The Strong Manchester Women campaign would not have had the same resonance with people had MIC not created the podcast.

So for local authorities or any other organisation looking to put out a campaign like this, where you’re putting people on a platform, there needs to be some connectivity between your audience and those people. Podcasts are the ideal way of doing that because they’re easy to access and you can listen to them while you’re doing other things. They’re just a really easy way of accessing a direct connection with that person that you absolutely wouldn’t get anywhere else.

The Strong Manchester Women podcast helped the audience connect directly with the women themselves, way beyond what our campaign did. So thank-you.

As local authorities we can try to engage our audiences, our people, our residents, but they still see us as the council. So when someone who’s fresh and is independent of the council comes in and does something like this, that helps the community to resonate with somebody or with whatever it is that we’re doing – I think that can only be a good thing because it’s that meaningfulness that we’re seeking. We can’t deliver that ourselves as corporates. This is why I’d highly recommend other authorities consider it.

You did all the hard work. You’re the one that sat down and interviewed the women. You’re the one that created the rapport with them and then got them to tell us these fantastic stories that were utterly fascinating. You have the skill to do that. Not everybody has that skill.

If you’re a corporate organisation and you are looking for somebody to help you to resonate with your audience, with your people, then MIC are absolutely the right people to do it.