Academy

Leveraging Communications for Public Policy Delivery

Shaping Behaviour & Driving Change

PPF Academy is not currently offering this program. To be added to the waitlist for a future session, please contact us.

From health and well-being to energy saving, changing people’s behaviour is key to achieving many critical policy objectives. Communication-based behavioural interventions are a vital tool for governments and organizations — often being faster and less controversial to implement than legal or fiscal changes — and attracting higher levels of public support.

In this course, participants will learn how to use communication as a policy tool that creates large-scale behavioural shifts. Through a combination of theory and practical exercises, participants will emerge from this program ready to harness the power of communication to achieve their policy goals.

This course is offered in partnership with WPP, a global leader in communications, marketing and consulting that has worked with over 70 governments worldwide. Led by WPP’s international faculty, participants will learn how to develop effective communication strategies that resonate with citizens.

Program cost

Regular pricing: $4,950 per person
Member pricing (15% discount for PPF members): $4,205 per person
Includes lunch Monday to Wednesday and breakfast on Thursday

Our partner

About WPP Government & Public Sector Practice

WPP is part of the world’s largest communication services group, working with governments and senior government leaders in over 70 countries, in both the developed and developing world, on the policy challenges where communication can have the greatest impact. WPP has particular expertise in behavior change, leading the charge in areas such as digital government, engagement and participation, public services recruitment, place marketing, and capability and skills development.

Who should attend

This program exposes senior government and political leaders to the best ideas and expertise in using communication for policy delivery.

Those who will get the most value from this program are public servants in EX-1 to EX-3 or equivalent positions. This includes those classified in both communications and policy roles seeking to ensure good policy gets properly communicated from a changing societal behavior standpoint.

This program has previously been offered internationally to communications and policy professionals through Oxford University and National University of Singapore.

Program highlights

The Context of Government Communications

Examine how the citizen–state relationship is evolving through global research on government communication before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants will grasp trust as a key governance metric, explore innovative citizen engagement methods, and recognize cultural shifts in government-to-citizen communication.

Setting Behavioral Objectives

Discover how communication advances public policy. Participants will learn to craft clear behavioral objectives for campaigns and see how the policymaking and communications cycles intersect with broader policy delivery.

Developing Strategy

Learn to build communication strategies that drive sustained behavior change. This session covers best practices for audience targeting, integrating behavioral insights, media planning and creating effective creative briefs.

Planning and Content Development

Understand multi-channel, real-time content production. Participants will explore how content interacts with various channels, adapt to digital trends, and apply these insights to campaign planning.

Adaptation and Optimization

Explore how technology enables real-time campaign evolution. Participants will identify adaptable campaign elements and learn how governments can access and use citizen data.

Evaluation and Risk

Master the art of real-time campaign adjustment to boost results and demonstrate return on investment. This session covers targeting, optimization, evaluation models and methods for anticipating and managing unintended outcomes.

Live Challenge

Learn to drive change! During the week, the Live Challenge empowers you to tackle a real-world policy issue and create a campaign for positive impact as part of a team. Teams will work with a mentor to put the course materials into practice.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of the program, participants will understand:

The role of communication in successfully delivering public policy;
The cycle of communication strategy, planning, execution and evaluation;
How to leverage psychology, behavioural science and effective messaging to shape public opinion and change behaviour;
How to craft compelling stories that build public trust and engagement;
How to craft a strategy, using technology and digital media, that amplifies your message and connects with your target audience; and
How technology and digital media are changing the context and tools of government communication.

Learning approach

Dialogic learning: Learning that takes place through dialogue. Contributions in the course are considered based on their reasoning, not the power or status of those who make them.
Learner centered: Our programs focus on skills and practices that enable life-long learning and independent problem-solving, e.g. through live challenges.
Cognitive learning: We encourage participants to apply prior knowledge and/or experience to increase both their performance and their ability to transfer learning to the workplace.
Multimedia learning: We teach using video and auditory case studies.
Practitioner led: All our programs are led by practitioners and experts to lead discussions. We also work closely with academics on issues such as accreditation and introducing relevant theory.

Speakers

Design and delivery team

Mark Pender

Mark leads WPP’s Government & Public Sector Practice for the United States and Canada. He advises government and public sector communicators on global best practice, innovation, capability building, and strategies to achieve best outcomes in procurement objectives. He works across WPP’s companies and its partners to develop systems and teams that most effectively deliver on government communications and policy objectives. A frequent speaker on government communications, Mark leads WPP’s executive education faculty at Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. Before joining WPP, he held senior communications roles with the Government of Canada and has worked in the private and not-for-profit sectors.
Laure VanHauwaert

Laure heads the EU Institutions team in WPP’s Government and Public Sector Practice. Leader of a team of specialist communications agencies, her role is to bring WPP’s best thinking, talent and experience to the EU public sector, by building on solid academic and social research to inform the development of effective strategies for citizen engagement, EU-wide integrated campaigns and policy communications, and behaviour change campaigns. She leads agency teams in the development of effective solutions to the major challenge of communicating the European project to over 500 million citizens in 27 different countries and 24 languages. Laure is a member of the WPP Faculty team teaching integrated communications at the Blavatnik School of Government (Oxford). She organizes regular inspiration sessions and discussions about best practice in communications for clients and colleagues.
Sean Howard

As CEO of the WPP Government & Public Sector Practice, Sean focuses on WPP’s growth efforts to deliver our company’s best talent and thought leadership to governments for their growing communications, technology, experience and commerce needs. Sean works with some of WPP’s largest government clients and strategic partners and supports the Government Practice regional hub leaders and agencies in Australia, Singapore, the Middle East, the EU, UK, Canada and the U.S.
Sara-Christine Gemson

Executive Director, PPF Academy

Sara-Christine Gemson has worked in journalism, communications and non-profit management.

She was previously Vice-President of Programs and Director of Communications at Teach For Canada, a non-profit that partners with remote First Nations to recruit, prepare and support educators.

Sara-Christine also worked as a TV, radio and digital journalist for many years, primarily for Radio-Canada in Toronto and Regina. She was also an Aga Khan journalism fellow in Kenya, where she wrote for the Daily Nation.

Sara-Christine completed a B.A. in philosophy and communications at the University of Ottawa and an M.Phil in comparative government at Oxford University. She is an Action Canada alumna.