Victorian Government communications should be created so they reach all Victorians. You need to consider the needs of multicultural Victorians and regional Victorians. You must ensure your communications are accessible and achieve gender equality.
Reaching regional Victorians
Regional and rural communities should have equal access to Government communications. To ensure this, use regional media channels.
Regional areas include small cities like Ballarat and Bendigo. Rural areas are further away from cities and have smaller populations. They are generally reached via regional media.
Campaign expenditure requirement
Departments and agencies must spend at least 15% of their campaign advertising expenditure on regional and rural media. We track this via the Master Agency Media Services contract. We report on this in the annual Victorian Government advertising expenditure reports.
Regional media channels
Our Master Agency Media Services (MAMS) provider can work with you to find the most suitable media channels to advertise in to get your message across to regional Victorians.
Optimum Media Direction Pty Ltd
Contact: Gemma Lasenby
Title: Head of Victorian Goverment
Telephone: 0405 408 976
Email: gemma.lasenby@omd.com
Examples
- Communications such as bushfire and farm safety are best placed in regional and rural media channels.
- Messages around general health and road safety should appear in regional media at the same time as metropolitan media.
Communicating with multicultural Victorians
The Victorian Government is committed to communicating with all Victorians about government services and programs. The best way to achieve this is by communicating:
- in their preferred language(s)
- via channels that reach them
- in culturally appropriate ways.
From 1 July 2023, Victorian Government policy requires that departments and agencies must spend at least 15% of their campaign media spend on multicultural media. This means departments and agencies must work with the government’s contracted media buyer to book 15% of their media buy with multicultural media outlets.
The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) tracks government advertising expenditure via the Master Agency Media Services (MAMS) contract and reports this in the annual Victorian Government advertising expenditure reports.
When undertaking a government advertising campaign, you must:
- be aware of the preferred media channels and languages of multicultural communities
- consider multicultural communities throughout a campaign
- use plain English in your creative executions to ensure the messaging can be clearly and accurately translated into different languages.
More information and advice
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The Victorian Government purchases media through the Victorian Government Master Agency Media Services (MAMS) state purchase contract. The government’s contracted media buyer is Optimum Media Direction Pty Ltd (OMD). OMD can provide advice on identifying key multicultural audiences for your campaign and how to reach them in their preferred language(s) and media channels.
- The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH) has written a Better Practice Guide for multicultural communications to help improve communication and engagement with multicultural communities in Victoria, including through advertising.
- For general advertising queries, Victorian Government departments and agencies can contact DPC at advertising@dpc.vic.gov.au
Making sure all our communications are accessible
All government communications must be accessible and non-discriminatory towards people with a disability.
Basic tips for accessibility:
- use plain English – we aim for grade 8 reading level
- be aware of readability – consider fonts, text sizes and colour contrast
- provide captions on all videos
- provide a transcript of all video and audio.
Read our Accessibility Guidelines for Government Communications
Achieving gender equality in communications
People are often stereotyped in advertising according to their gender, age, ethnicity, religion, profession and more. We aim to achieve gender equality in all our communications.
- Ensure that the overall impression of any communication promotes gender equality.
- Don't use use humour, artworks or historical settings to stereotype people.
- Outdoor advertising has a wide audience, including children. Think about the location and who will see it. Make sure the messages and images are suitable for a general audience.
- Advertising should not use inappropriate and exploitative sexual imagery of women or men.
- Advertising should avoid the stereotyped representation of gender roles.
- Advertising should include diverse people, including people of different ages, appearance and backgrounds. It should not portray people in a way which discriminates against or vilifies a person or a section of the community.
- Avoid violent images in advertising. Violence may only be included if it is an integral part of a community education campaign (e.g. a campaign to reduce or address family violence).
- Use language that is non-offensive and inclusive of both women and men. Avoid language that is likely to insult or offend, unless it is used as part of a community education campaign.
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