KPMG – Citizen Experience Survey Launch

Turning citizen insight into action through immersive performance

Gold Winner – EVCOM Clarion Awards 2025 (Live: Innovation)

About KPMG UK Government and Public Services

KPMG’s Government and Public Services team works with public sector organisations to drive meaningful change, particularly in how services are designed and delivered for citizens. With a deep understanding of the pressures facing civil servants today, their mission is to improve trust, accessibility, and outcomes across the UK’s essential public services.

The Requirement

KPMG asked us to design and deliver an event that would launch their Citizen Experience Survey in a way that felt urgent, optimistic, and different. The goal wasn’t just to share data. It was to shift perceptions among senior civil servants and third-sector leaders, showing that KPMG truly understands both the frontline challenges and what citizens want from the services they rely on.

Crucially, the event needed to cut through. It had to avoid the fatigue of traditional panels and presentations, while creating space for honest conversations and real-world reflection.

The Solution

We developed a fully immersive, story-led event experience centred around “Andrew”, a fictional senior civil servant navigating the complex world of public service delivery. The event began with what appeared to be a conventional panel. But just minutes in, Andrew rose from the audience and challenged the narrative, frustrated by ideas that felt disconnected from reality.

From there, guests were taken on a journey. Blending live theatre with insight-led storytelling, the performance followed Andrew as he encountered citizens facing real challenges around mental health, disability, housing and social care — and explored how digital transformation could help.

The experience was crafted in close collaboration with KPMG’s team, drawing directly from the report’s real case studies and data. Writers, directors, actors, production designers and digital specialists worked as one unit to deliver a powerful, seamless experience — all on a fast-paced, eight-week turnaround.

The event’s bold format and emotional impact went on to earn Gold at the EVCOM Clarion Awards 2025 for Event Innovation, recognising its originality and effectiveness in delivering purpose-led communication.

Impact and Benefits

The event had a profound impact on its audience:

Over 83% of attendees booked follow-up consultations, far exceeding KPMG’s 50% target.
A senior official from the Department for Work and Pensions described it as “the best event I’ve ever attended” and went on to commission a bespoke performance for his team.
KPMG estimate the project has directly contributed to over £8 million in opportunity value, now being invested into improving public service accessibility across the UK.
Winner of the EVCOM Clarion Awards 2025 (Gold – Event Innovation), cementing the event as a benchmark in immersive, insight-driven experience design.

More importantly, it helped reshape how leaders think and feel about digital transformation, not as a technical upgrade, but as a human solution to some of society’s most urgent problems.