INNISFAIL – Iggy knows best about budgets.
And in his child-like way he’s spreading the word in easy-to-understand language, without any complex bureaucratizing.
The five-minute video entitled ‘How the Municipal Budget Works’ was presented to Innisfail town council on May 1 by Erica Vickers, the town’s corporate services director.
And Iggy and his big adventure received rave reviews.
“It's great for kids. But it's also great for some of us who need some kind of explanation at that level,” said Coun. Cindy Messaros. “But because it's done from a child's point of view it's not embarrassing for those of us who might not understand all of the ins and outs of it.
“I think it's fantastic.”
Coun. Dale Dunham added it was a creation that was “very approachable” for the public.
“I think you've allowed the information to come across in a way that people won't feel silly if they don't understand it,” said Dunham. “I think it's adorable.”
Vickers, who has an animated part as “the director lady”, said the idea for a budget video had been percolating with staff for the past few years; a different way to get this type of information out to the public.
“And then myself and Ken Kowalchuk (communications coordinator) sat down with other communications staff, and looked at some budget videos, and they're very long and unfortunately sometimes not the most interesting thing if you're not into that kind of stuff,” said Vickers.
“We kind of thought of a more lighthearted storyline, like a traditional story where you see a beginning, and there's something the character has to do to achieve,” she added. “And then at the end he’s achieved it and got to his goal.”
The main character is a Grade 5 kid named Iggy, slightly adorable and he’s got work to do to reach his goal, which is even more adorable.
Kowalchuk, the producer of the project, was responsible for character development, storyline and script writing.
“We worked through what we thought would be the best way to engage people in this subject matter,” said Kowalchuk, adding work on the video began last January. “We wanted to create something that people would enjoy first and foremost, and then be educated at the same time.”
The technical and creative components for the animated video were handled by 212 Creative, an American company from Michigan that manages the Town of Innisfail website.
“We sent them (212 Creative) the script, and they initially developed all the cartoon drawings. They sourced out different voice actors and gave us different ones to choose from,” said Vickers. “And even with Iggy’s face and likeness they sent us a whole bunch, and we got to choose what we wanted this kid to look like.”
Vickers said the total cost to the town to retain the American animated video expertise was about $2,000.
Following the council meeting staff chatted about the overwhelming positive council response to the video and the decision was made to release it on their social media channels, including on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
As for next steps towards another video, Vickers said the town will wait a couple of months to see how the first plays out with its social media audiences.
“Like what kind of traction it gets. I don't know what that success looks like yet,” said Vickers. “Once we give it a couple months and if we say it's successful then we would start planning another one.
“If these are really successful the idea would be to do two a year.”
The town’s current animated video can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTcag12InOw
