The power of cut-through: how Bronwen Clark made the NGAA impossible to ignore
What’s the key to getting your message heard and acted on in today’s crowded media landscape?
For Bronwen Clark, CEO of the National Growth Areas Alliance, it comes down to one thing: cut-through. Representing 22 outer-suburban councils across Australia, NGAA advocates for communities that are growing fast but often left behind. With a team of just three, Bronwen knew they couldn’t afford to be loud — they had to be sharp.
“We weren’t there to whinge and complain,” she says. “We were there to paint a picture about opportunity and equity.”
From overlooked to unmissable
Rather than leaning into deficit narratives, NGAA reframed growth areas as electorally powerful, economically vital and full of untapped opportunity. With support from ImpactInstitute, the team launched a campaign ahead of the 2022 federal election that combined new research, strategic messaging and perfectly timed media engagement.
“We were able to paint that picture of a very powerful group who had the potential to influence the next election,” Bronwen explains. “It was a mature message that we put out.”
The result? More than 900 media stories, seven meetings with federal politicians, and a shift in how growth areas are discussed at the national level.
Messaging that moves
Bronwen’s approach was simple but effective: don’t just tell people what’s wrong — show them what’s possible. “It’s that sense of being listened to and being heard and being visible, being seen,” she says. “We launched our campaign with new research… and we were able to create this evidence base that compared growth areas with more established areas.”
By focusing on opportunity and equity, NGAA’s message resonated with journalists and decision-makers alike. The campaign didn’t just raise awareness — it changed the narrative.
Lessons in influence
This episode is a blueprint for any organisation trying to cut through the noise. Whether you’re in government, not-for-profit or business, Bronwen’s story shows that with the right message, the right timing and the right audience, even the smallest team can make a national impact.
“We weren’t trying to be all things to all people,” she reflects. “We knew exactly who we needed to influence — and how.”
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This episode of The CMO Show was brought to you by host Mark Jones, producers Kate Zadel and Kirsten Bables and audio engineers Ed Cheng and Daniel Marr. This is an edited excerpt of the podcast transcript.
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Mark Jones
So you've got a great story to tell, and as an organisation, you think the whole world needs to know about it. The question then comes, what's the best channel to use? Do you do social? Do you do advertising? Do you do digital media or do you do traditional media? What if traditional media was still a great choice? Hello, I'm Mark Jones. Thanks for joining us. You're on The CMO Show, brought to you by Impact Institute and our partners at Adobe. Now today, we've got quite a fun conversation for an old journo like me. We're going to talk about the media, as in journalists writing stories and writing copy for TV and radio and all the fun things to tell a story. And it is one of the big goals for many organisations to get quoted in mainstream media or trade media and it can be a conversation internally that's fraught with complexities and feelings. It's like, "Well, why aren't we in this publication or that publication?"
Also, the other big part of this is that on this podcast, we spend a lot of time talking about digital marketing, about AI, sales conversations and so forth. It's really important to remember in the broader marketing communications landscape that the media, believe it or not, despite all the negative publicity, still has an important role to play, and in fact, remains uniquely powerful. So today, I'm really excited to bring to you an interview with our friend, her name's Bronwen Clark and she's the CEO at the National Growth Areas Alliance. This is quite a remarkable organisation, 22 local government councils that have got together to really tell a remarkable story about not just outer suburbs but growth areas. It's a really interesting case study in messaging, in elevating the conversation and achieving real measurable positive impact.
Mark Jones
Thanks for joining me.
Bronwen Clark
Thanks Mark. Thanks for the opportunity.
Mark Jones
Now, firstly, what is it? We've got to talk about what this organisation is, because even though you've had incredible success lately in the media, I don't think everybody will understand who you are.
Bronwen Clark
No, we are a quiet achiever, really. So the National Growth Areas Alliance is a group of 22 councils. So we represent local government and we're all located in outer suburban metropolitan areas. So they're all of those new developments, the new greenfield sites, the housing estates that have been built really over the last 30 years. And so this group of local governments got together to try and advocate for better policies and programmes and services and infrastructure in those areas, because even though that growth and double population growth average has been happening for a long time, it's still overlooked in a policy sense in terms of what people need to live a full life.
Mark Jones
And of course, the interesting thing about growth areas is that we have a high expectation that growth areas will help us to alleviate this housing crisis by, "This is where all the new homes are going on, many of them," but then the drama of course is infrastructure being underserved in so many ways across all the different sort of areas. I imagine that was a big part of the reason why this alliance was formed.
Bronwen Clark
Absolutely. It was around one of our more recent population booms and housing booms where, you're right, it was just seen that these open spaces were the perfect site for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of new houses and it solved the very first part of the problem, but created many more, as you said, with those infrastructure and services and all those other things. So I suppose from ... If I think about it in a broader perspective, I see this as part of a great ... It seems to be a great Australian tradition of putting people who are perhaps not like us, and by us, I mean elite decision makers and political decision makers. We put people who are not like us as far away as we can. That term of othering people.
So in this case, it's happened right throughout since settlement. And so what happens now is that people who are perhaps from a lower socioeconomic background or who are from a migrant background, we create places for them to live, which are far away and we, as we collectively as a government, almost feel that the job's done. And so that's one of the things that I'm really passionate about, is that we do seem to be continually perpetuating this sense of cities being for established, highly educated professionals, high-income earners, and yet, we continue to just create these new suburbs for people who are not like us.
Mark Jones
One of the things that I find fascinating about this conversation is that it's also cultural and we have all of these assumptions about where people live and what they must be like. And many of the infrastructure decisions that are made as you are indicating tend to reinforce that, right?
Bronwen Clark
Yes.
Mark Jones
And one of the narratives that I think is worth exploring a little bit is this idea that the developers are running this thing. There's a sense of it being out of control, that they're jamming as much house onto land as they can and we're not only othering the people, but we're othering the system and the other players that are actually cocreating this, I guess giant interconnected set of problems, right? So what's your take on how we've got to this point where there's such a heavy emphasis on needing to grow the collective community but really only doing maybe not even a third of the job well?
Bronwen Clark
Mm-hmm. It's things that people are not putting their hand up to own or take responsibility for. So you're spot on. We have a private housing market. Our housing in Australia, and from what I understand, it's quite different culturally than other parts of the world. Australians see their home as an investment, as a financial investment. It is created and sold by a fully privatised market apart from some community housing providers. And that is across purposes for, for example, local government and for some government policies around housing. Because we need to meet people's basic needs, as a country, we need to provide enough homes for everyone to have access to secure housing.
But when that's delivered through a privatised market, it is across purposes to that original intention. And so we do end up with ... And in some ways, you can't blame anyone in that equation because the purpose of property developers is to make a profit for their shareholders, to return value to their shareholders via the development of housing. And if that's their purpose, we can't blame them for that. It's what they're there for. And similarly, local government is there to provide a certain number of services and local infrastructure that is their purpose and is not always funded. It's not within their makeup to fund things like the major public transport or road infrastructures.
So there are so many players in this field and a lot of them are working across purposes. And so what we love to see is just some honesty around, "We do have this wicked problem ahead of us. Let's all actually just put our hands up for what we can change and influence and deliver and try and not just stop after the first box has been ticked of a house. We need to keep going." And in some instances recently, the house is there, but not even sewage is connected. It stops. The process stops as soon as the walls and the roof are on, but then people don't have connected sewage. They pump their sewage out each week. There are some areas with no potable water and let alone things like a library or a sufficient number of primary schools or secondary schools, let alone a sports field, let alone a museum or an art gallery or performing art space. Those things will come at least one generation down the track.
Mark Jones
It's amazing.
Bronwen Clark
Yeah, it is. We're out of sequence and we're working across purposes.
Mark Jones
And we're not developing communities with a holistic perspective quite clearly. Now how does a person such as yourself end up in this role? I think it's amazing that the NGAA exists, right? This is a good thing. How did you end up being the CEO?
Bronwen Clark
Well, through a bit of luck, I suppose, but also having grown up in a growth area myself. I had a long career in federal government and so got my head around policies and negotiation and the political aspect of how political decisions and policy decisions are made. I started my own business. I've moved around the world, and finally, when I was ready to come back to Melbourne, I saw an advertisement for this alliance and I looked into it and I thought, "Actually, that's talking about my area. That's where I'm from." And I happen to know some of those roads are still not made. And I did grow up with that cultural, bit of a chip on my shoulder almost of being from a particular area that meant in many ways, directly or indirectly, "I wasn't eligible for this," or, "These things weren't for me. And if I got out and went to uni, I was a great success story."
And there were those subtle inequities that growing up you don't realise what they are. And then as an adult, I come back to this area or this arena of policy and think there are things that can be changed to alter this experience, so that we don't have generations again and again going through," to bring it all back to me, to what I went through. And I'm just really passionate about trying to find the right policy levers to change that.
Mark Jones
Now you said there are 22 councils. I imagine the listener is wondering, is that herding cats?
Bronwen Clark
Look, you'd think it would be, but actually, I would say from my experience with other local government areas as well that it takes a particular sort of person to either be a councillor or an executive or a planning officer in one of these high growth councils because it's really not like any other local government. The challenges are fast and they're very rapid. The opportunities are fast as well. So no, we have a really lovely collegiate of sort of culture. We are all in it together and what I've been able to do with our messaging and our policy platform is to take things up to the highest level. So we are looking at federal government policies and programmes, which I think, if we were working on much smaller scale or more detailed issues, it could be more difficult, but we really have a great culture. And people, I think most all councillors really are passionate about their area, but the councillors I work with in this maelstrom of activity and you have to be in it to understand it.
Mark Jones
And I'm not in it. Obviously, I'm not in local council. Way back quite some time ago, I actually did some work as a journalist covering local politics and I got to say you get tired of arguing about roundabouts pretty quickly. But what you're describing at higher level is far more dynamic and it sounds like this is a unique tribe of local government people. Is that a fair way to describe it?
Bronwen Clark
Yeah, that's a great way to explain it.
Mark Jones
Yeah. What does it take to work in that sort of environment? And I think there's probably some interesting lessons here in terms of speed, complexity, passion, things are moving quickly, but also really not because of election cycles and all the usual dramas.
Bronwen Clark
It's that series of small wins, isn't it? And you're right, I've been in this organisation for nearly 10 years and you can probably look back and say, "Well, what has changed?" We're still doing this sort of mass scale development without supporting infrastructure, but within that, a lot has changed. And so I think working within a council or within our alliance, it's a similar thing. You really hold tight to that vision of what opportunity lies in building a brand new community. And so it's about learning from best practise across the country and around the world. It's looking into academic research and being part of that and trying to influence thinking at every level.
So whether it's your community trying to get them engaged and part of the conversation, whether it's local members of parliament or whether it's academics. It's really trying to get that consistent evidence-based message out to as many people as possible. And I think that's what the campaign did so well, is to actually shift the national story a little bit about, "Let's talk about these areas as opportunities, as influence, as having an impact on elections rather than just those vast areas where other people live that we don't want to worry about."
Mark Jones
Well, look, speaking of the campaign, and this is always quite fun, my colleagues worked with you on this campaign, the growth areas election. So this is going back to last year before the federal election, but in the wind up to it, if you like. So it's always fun to talk about my colleagues' work when they're not here. But for the listener, it's really important to note that it's been an incredible experience working with you and we won a Mumbrella ComsCon Award for Best Government-Sponsored Campaign. So it's not often here at Impact Institute and on The CMO Show that we actually speak with people with whom we work. We tend to cast the net a bit wider, as it were.
But the reason why I wanted to speak to in that context was this was quite remarkable to your point around the growth areas and changing in narrative. And I'd love you to talk us through the highlights of the work that was done and why. And in particular, what's it like when large parts of the community start actually using the words that you've intentionally sought to put out there? This is a ... It must be remarkable from your point of view.
Bronwen Clark
It's really exciting. It's that sense of being listened to and being heard and being visible, being seen. And so what worked really well with Impact Institute was our leading time to start with. So we knew there would be an election between ... I think it was between March and end of May, it had to happen. So we knew that our chance to influence public opinion media, which obviously flows directly into politicians inboxes, which is our ultimate goal with media and PR. We knew that we had to build up to it. As you said, not many people have heard of our alliance. We're a very small team. We're three people. We have to really plan this out. And we've done this a number of times.
So we knew that being ready six months out and really launching six months out was key because that would give us time in when the media wasn't heavily saturated with election talk. We could start the conversation and then to have that timing right and to launch our campaign with new research. So a new evidence base that was around some livability scorecards. So we worked with the Australian Urban Observatory at RMIT here in Melbourne to measure livability in terms of, "How far do you have to go to access a footy field or a library or a performing arts centre or a health centre, for example, or a public transport stop?"
And so we were able to create this research or commission this research that compared growth areas with more established areas. So we started off with, "Here's the gap and it's hard evidence."
Mark Jones
So that is really important because maybe an alternative way of thinking would be to whinge and complain, "We don't have this and we don't have that," right? It's not a higher level conversation. It very quickly plays into that cultural piece that we were touching on earlier about feeding entrenched narratives, right? And so I think the work that you did there with RMIT gave the media a new reason to look at some of these very familiar topics, right? So the research was done, then what did you do?
Bronwen Clark
Yeah, so once we had all of our new data, we sat down with Niall and figured out the messaging and it was really fantastic to have a team available to us that understood we weren't there to whinge and complain. We weren't there to paint the dire picture of how badly off everyone was in our areas. We were there to paint a picture about opportunity and equity.
Mark Jones
So that sounds a lot like messaging work. And for the listener, Niall Hughes is our head of brand storytelling here at Impact Institute. So messaging?
Bronwen Clark
So messaging and then a launch event that we held in Parliament House that really provided that opportunity for a lot of media coverage. I lived out my dream of talking to the media on camera in Parliament House, so I'm done.
Mark Jones
Well, you've peaked now.
Bronwen Clark
There's nothing more for me.
Mark Jones
No, no, we've got to do the next campaign, I'm sure.
Bronwen Clark
So yeah, we did a lot of that national media coverage from Canberra, which was fantastic in that it reached the specific journalists that we were after to talk about electoral issues. We also then communicated through formal letters to all of the politicians, our messaging and our material, our evidence base, and then we also got our members involved across the country. And again, Impact Institute was really helpful in connecting us and preparing people to speak to media in different states on those more localised versions of the messaging.
Mark Jones
What was the response from the media? I've seen some of the clips, but just to describe it for the listener, the interest areas. Obviously, it was around the growth areas, but what was the words or the ideas that really got them on the hook?
Bronwen Clark
Yeah, look, it was fantastic in that the words and phrases that were used painted the picture of missed opportunities of potential productivity increases. They told the story of the power and influence of 5 million people who live in growth areas as a voting bloc. And so while our public messaging may not have broken down all of those different voting areas and electorates and what the impact could be, our behind-the-scenes briefings did those. And so we're able to really paint that picture of a very powerful group who had the potential to influence the next election, which then changed the narrative really.
And so we were really pleased that our messaging wasn't about, "Poor old blah, blah. Poor old this area, poor old that area." It was around, "Hey, look, what we're doing here." It was as if the messaging had really ... It was a mature message that we put out and you could see other groups trying their hardest as well to get some attention during the federal election campaign. And a lot of it was, "Put us first. We deserve more." And I think times have changed enough that doesn't cut through. And so we presented in very, "Hey, here's this fantastic opportunity and there's 5 million people that everyone over 18 will be voting fairly soon. So here's your opportunity, politicians, to make a difference."
Mark Jones
Well, didn't you end up getting meetings with around seven different politicians on both sides of the aisle?
Bronwen Clark
Yup, absolutely. So there was strong interest, as you say. Yeah.
Mark Jones
Yeah, it was nothing like a swinging electorate to get their attention either.
Bronwen Clark
Yeah I know. And it was really interesting that some of the ones that we had painted and then taken up by media as well as being potential changing seats really became stronger for their incumbent. So it wasn't the outcome we're expecting, but it certainly got media attention for that and luckily for that whole six months in the lead up to the election.
Mark Jones
Interestingly enough, there was more than 900 media clips up to a thousand I think I saw on your website, which is a lot in this country.
Bronwen Clark
That's a lot.
Mark Jones
That's a lot.
Bronwen Clark
It's a lot.
Mark Jones
And so I'm not saying that just to be immodest, although it's fun to talk about, I'm not going to lie.
Bronwen Clark
I know.
Mark Jones
It's a lot. The thing that strikes me about this work is that, for those of us who've been in media, in communications and marketing for a long time, this is what we would otherwise say is a classic earned media campaign. It's a classic PR campaign where you do the research, you really think very carefully about how to position some strategic messaging and then you roll it out with the announcements that you spoke about. You create the supporting materials unit. You engage the people. And then it works, right?
Bronwen Clark
Mm-hmm, I know.
Mark Jones
And I think for me, that's one of the surprising things about it, not in the sense that I don't believe that it works. Of course, it works. This is what my colleagues and I do, but we do live in the AI age. We live in a very digital-centric, advertising-centric media and marketing environment and it's very much a pay-to-play dynamic. And to be fair, that is also valid and there's a reason why that side of the marketing world is growing in such incredible ways. When you reflect on this work that we've done here, it seems to me that not every message out there is going to work in the ways that we think it will work. So do you think it's fair to say that, and I know that your bias, you're sitting in the role that you're in, but there are times when you've got to figure out, "Is this a message that's really going to take off or should we just be spending money right on advertising?"
Bronwen Clark
Yeah.
Mark Jones
That's that sort of ... Because there's a lot of times, I certainly know in my experience, clients say, "We want a PR campaign," but they haven't got a story and it's really, really awkward. It's like, "Well, they're not going to write about it, right?" They being the journalist. What's your take on that dynamic? What's your sense of knowing when's the right time to really go hard on an editorially driven campaign versus something else?
Bronwen Clark
Yeah, yeah. Look, I think a couple of things there. One is I've worked basically all of my career in either government or not-for-profit. And so the budgets for those big advertising campaigns simply don't exist. So I've always been really driven by that genuine, as you say, earned coverage because we've been always really focused on having a very tight audience or market segment that we're trying to reach. So as a contrast, when I first joined NGAA, it was just before the 2016 election, and back in those days, so nearly 10 years ago, online petitions were all a rage. So that was our big thing in that election campaign.
And so our audience was very different because that was a grassroots. We were trying to connect with the people in all of our member councils to sign a petition, which then went and annoyed all of the politicians. And so I would advise against doing that again because they don't really like receiving all those emails. But I think it's just as we matured as an organisation and with the right advice from organisations like Impact Institute, we got down to, "Who are we really trying to influence here?" So you have your end goal, is we want the politicians to fund programmes, fund projects, change their policies and what's our best mechanism to do that? Well, it's through the media because they will see every time. We're always careful to mention politicians by name, because every time you do it, it goes straight to their media clippings.
And that's how we can influence as a small organisation with a small budget. That's how we can influence. And so other organisations will have very different circumstances, but for us, it's really about being very clear about who our primary audience is, so the journalists, and who our secondary audience is, and that's the politicians who will be influenced by the journalists.
Mark Jones
And not to forget, of course, the whole community that you serve, which is one of the key stakeholders here, right? You're representing them and seeking the change there.
Bronwen Clark
Yeah, yeah, that's right. And in the past, we have run social media more of that community based as well, but again, we got to the point where all of our member councils do that. Part of local government is that community engagement and being available. So we figured, "How can we differentiate ourselves from that? We can't be all things to all people." And so again, I come back to our audience. It's great for those community members to hear about their situation in the media, but they weren't who we were trying to influence.
Mark Jones
Isn't that interesting? Yeah.
Bronwen Clark
Yeah.
Mark Jones
Look, as an ex-journalist, it's always heartwarming to hear stories that remind you of the positive power of media.
Bronwen Clark
Absolutely.
Mark Jones
So it's pretty exciting. Tell me about what's next. We've got a few years to go before the next federal election. What else is on your radar?
Bronwen Clark
So we're going back to try and change some of the foundational rules, not The Constitution. Don't worry about that. But we're now using all of this momentum that we've built up through the campaign to get some really significant change in policy around geographical definitions and around how growth area infrastructure is funded. So I think we're coming off a real high and we've already had ... Again, the doors ... welcome mat put out and the doors opened in political offices because we've had that momentum and that profile. So now we can go in and talk about this great opportunity for a government, whatever colour, to really implement change. And realistically, it's for six years. I doubt the coalition will be in a position to win back that many seats within a three-year term.
So this is the moment to really be bold in what we're asking for and what we're advocating for, and again, to try and be very closely across those policy developments that are happening with the second term of the Albanese government.
Mark Jones
Fantastic. Well, obviously, you've got to convert all those open doors and the warm handshakes into policy and actions and that's what I heard you saying there. I think that's obviously the impact that we want to see. So that's fantastic. Bronwen, thank you so much for your time and sharing your story. It's such a great one and all the best working with what sounds like a pretty amazing set of people in local government. I don't want to sound surprised, but I am.
Bronwen Clark
Well, I'm all about breaking down the stereotypes and it goes for council staff and councillors as well as outer suburbs.
Mark Jones
Absolutely. Well, they do a great job. There's no question about that. Well, again, thank you very much and we'll see you again soon.
Bronwen Clark
Thank you very much.
Mark Jones
So there we have it, my conversation with Bronwen Clark. I wanted to leave you with this last parting thought and we just touched on that in the programme. The question is, how good is your story? And this is really where you need a bit of mettle. You've got to be able to say to yourself, "Is this good enough to really get coverage in the media or is it perhaps something that we should just advertise?" In other words, "Go to my website and buy my thing," right? At a very simplistic level. And there is a role and importance for all these different channels I hasten to add, but the thing about a good media story really touches on some of the things that Bronwen spoke about here, is knowing your target audiences. Are you trying to influence the public or are you trying to influence the politicians or the other decision makers perhaps in the corporate space that are very important to you?
Getting some of those aspects of your strategy right is critical, as is your messaging, really this idea around a growth area, not just smart messaging, but actually has become part of the Australian vernacular, if you like, the way we think about our cities and how they're growing. So fun stuff and I hope and trust that it is some really good lessons for you to apply in your organisation too. So that's it for this edition of The CMO Show. Thanks for joining us. It is of course, brought to you by Impact Institute in partnership with Adobe. We'll see you next time.