Public sector comms doesn’t have to be beige. From the NHS’s viral social content to the rollout of the Bee Network, bold creativity proves that regulated industries can cut through without compromising trust. Here Jo Taylor, founder of BrandXYZ and former Head of Brand, Marketing, Design and Digital at Transport for Greater Manchester, argues that the real barrier to effective public sector comms isn’t governance but fear…
There’s a stubborn belief in public sector communications that everything has to be beige.
Play it safe. Don’t surprise anyone. Don’t push too hard creatively because somebody, somewhere, might complain. And if a bold idea got knocked back once before, don’t bother trying again.
But the public doesn’t really want beige. And increasingly, they don’t pay attention to it either.
Over the past few weeks, the NHS has quietly reminded the industry what good public sector comms can look like when teams stop get out of their own silos and start communicating like real people.
One post used a Harry Styles meme to encourage cervical screening appointments. Another leaned into a funny moment inside A&E to drive people towards eye tests. Neither campaign was reckless or controversial. But they were human, timely, incredibly self-aware and designed around the way people actually consume content online rather than the way organisations wish they did.
And most importantly, they worked.
The reported uplift in engagement and bookings matters because it proves that behaviour change starts with attention. If nobody notices your message in the first place, the rest of the funnel is irrelevant.
That’s why the idea that public sector comms has to be “boring” has always felt misguided to me. And, when you really dig into it, the issue usually isn’t governance at all. It’s just confidence.
Too many teams operate from a position of fear. Fear of complaints. Fear of senior sign-off. Fear that creativity somehow undermines credibility. So the work can too easily become over-sanitised.
But beige comms is its own risk.
Beige gets ignored. Beige wastes budget. Beige fails to change behaviour. Beige, let’s be honest with ourselves, is box ticking.
The most effective campaigns in regulated industries understand that bold doesn’t mean irresponsible. It means understanding your audience well enough to speak to them in a way that cuts through.
That was a huge part of what shaped our thinking during the launch of the Bee Network in Greater Manchester.
When I led brand strategy and rollout for the project at TfGM, we knew we needed moments that would make people stop and pay attention. Major public behaviour change needs cultural cut-through.
One of the most talked-about moments was the Bee Signal – CGI creatives showing the Bee Network logo projected into the Manchester skyline. People believed it was real. Media outlets picked it up and social media lit up. It generated exactly the kind of public conversation we wanted around a transformational transport project.
And what really mattered was that it achieved impact without requiring the budget of a large-scale physical stunt.
The same thinking sat behind rain-activated Bee Network posters. We only created four of them, not hundreds, because we understood that amplification would do the heavy lifting for us. The campaign travelled far beyond the physical media spend because it was designed with modern audience behaviour in mind.
That’s the part people often miss when talking about “brave” public sector creativity. The best ideas aren’t just bold for the sake of it. They’re strategic.
They’re grounded in audience insight, platform behaviour and an understanding of how people emotionally connect with information. Especially in sectors where trust matters.
The challenge is the same across healthcare, transport, utilities, infrastructure, legal, finance and other regulated industries, where communications teams are all navigating similar tensions. How do you remain authoritative without becoming robotic? How do you simplify complex messages without losing accuracy? How do you earn attention in an environment where audiences scroll past anything that feels overly corporate?
The answer usually certainly isn’t more beige. And budgets, corporate responsibilities and a heap of other challenges might make louder more difficult than ever. The answer is always smarter messaging.
It might sound easier said than done, but it’s why we’ve got to get out of our silos. That’s one of the reasons I launched BrandXYZ around a more agile “super agency” model after leaving TfGM.
Having spent years agency-side at Tangerine Communications before moving in-house to lead one of the North’s biggest public-facing transformation projects, I’d seen both sides of the pressure.
Clients want creativity, but they also need reassurance. Internal teams need bold ideas, but they need partners who understand governance, stakeholder management and the realities of operating inside highly scrutinised organisations.
That’s where experience matters. Our approach has never been about producing “viral” moments for the sake of it. It’s about helping organisations communicate important things in ways people genuinely notice and remember.
Sometimes that means using humour. Sometimes it means cultural relevance. Sometimes it means resisting the instinct to over-polish everything until it sounds like every other organisation.
What audiences respond to now more than ever is authenticity, confidence and clarity.
The NHS examples hit the spot with audiences because they felt culturally fluent rather than institutionally awkward. They understood the language of the platforms they were using. More public sector organisations need to stop underestimating audiences’ ability to engage with smart creative work.
Because the reality is that the public already consumes sophisticated, entertaining and emotionally intelligent content every single day. Why would they suddenly lower their expectations when they encounter a healthcare message or a transport campaign?
Public sector creativity doesn’t have to be beige. It can be sharp, funny, smart, emotional, unexpected, responsible, trustworthy and everything in between.
And the best work proves all of those things can – and should – co-exist.
About BrandXYZ
Founded in 2024 by former Bee Network brand lead and ex-Tangerine Communications associate director Jo Taylor, BrandXYZ is a purpose-led marketing, PR and communications micro-agency built around a flexible “super agency” model.
The agency works across transport, infrastructure, public sector and regulated industries, assembling specialist teams around each client challenge rather than relying on traditional fixed structures.
Clients include West Yorkshire Combined Authority and The Growth Company, while BrandXYZ also partnered with Glaisyers ETL to launch ComplyAI, an AI policy product for creative and communications businesses navigating governance and compliance challenges.
