Urban planning made audible through a podcast
Customer:
Sweco
Year
2020-2021
Solution
The city affects our well-being more than we believe. Sweco’s “Impactful City” podcast makes visible the significance of urban planning in the everyday lives of city residents.
How do cities and built environments affect our well-being? How are environments for good living created in practice? Sweco’s “Impactful City” podcast talks about well-being in cities, from the perspective of city residents.
Vapa is Sweco’s long-term communications and marketing partner. Finland’s leading expert in built environment and sustainable industry designs future cities and a more sustainable society. They want to advance the construction industry and stimulate societal discussion. For this, a fresh approach was needed.
In 2021, one of Sweco’s communication focus areas was urban well-being and health. Construction industry and urban planning solutions are not automatically perceived as part of comprehensive well-being, although many external factors, such as light, noise, pollution, and urban space utilization, affect our quality of life. Instead, we associate our well-being with things like food, exercise, and sleep.
Vapa conceptualized, designed, and produced a podcast for Sweco that aimed to bring positive visibility and convey the significance of Sweco’s work in every city resident’s life and daily routines. Vapa was also responsible for designing the podcast’s visual identity, image and audio production, as well as marketing planning.
Claustrofobia, in child’s shoes, travel fever
For the two podcast production seasons, episodes cover themes ranging from pandemics to water management and noise pollution. Two experts in their fields join host Riku Rantala as guests, but the topics are addressed from the perspective of an ordinary city resident.
For the target audience of 25-65 year-olds living in cities, the podcast brings an “aha” moment about how urban planning affects their well-being. For professionals in the field, the podcast helps understand the end-user perspective and increases professional pride. The podcast thus supports both Sweco’s expert and employer image.