Water, power and waste: public-service messages people act on

When the water stops or the lights go out, people want three things: to know why, to know when it will be back, and to know what to do in the meantime. Utilities and county governments usually answer with a notice: a newspaper advert, a PDF on a website, a tweet in formal English. Most customers never see it.

A short video on the platforms people actually use can do the job better, and cost less.

What utilities need to explain

• Planned outages: where, when, how long, why
• Billing and payment: how to read a bill, how to pay by M-Pesa, what a tariff change means
• New services: smart meters, new connections, online accounts
• Rules and safety: illegal connections, vandalism, meter tampering, dangerous wires
• Waste and sanitation: collection days, sorting, fines for dumping

Each topic, in under a minute, in the language of the area.

Faster to make than a press release

With Tari Studio, a communications officer can type /script with the length and the message, for example "30 seconds: water rationing schedule for Eastlands this week, and how to store water safely", and the AI director writes timed scenes with spoken lines and on-screen words. Every date, place name, number and rule must be checked before the video is made. Scripts are free. Scripts with /script.

Set the voice, dialogue and on-screen text to Kiswahili, Kenyan English or a blend of the two. A rationing schedule explained in clear Kiswahili reaches more households than one in formal English.

Consistency builds recognition

Set up the utility or county department as a brand in the Studio, with its colours, tone and rules, and every clip will look official and familiar. A recurring character, a friendly customer-service guide, can become the face people associate with reliable information. Brands and brand memory.

Accuracy and authority

Public-service messages carry the authority of the institution. A few rules:

• Never put words in the mouth of a real official without their approval.
• Label simulated scenes clearly where it matters, for example in a safety demonstration.
• Update or remove videos when the information changes.

Where to publish

Facebook remains strong for county audiences; TikTok and Instagram reach younger residents; WhatsApp groups run by chiefs, residents' associations and churches carry messages furthest. Publish to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok from the Studio, and download the video to share elsewhere.

Prepare for emergencies

Burst mains, storm damage and sudden outages do not wait for a script meeting. Prepare short template clips in advance for the emergencies you know will happen, with the safety advice already checked, so that on the day only the place and time need to change. A message out within the hour does far more than a perfect one the next morning.

Listen as well as speak

Public-service video works best with a way to answer back. A WhatsApp line where residents can ask questions, with a shared inbox for the customer-service team, turns broadcasting into a conversation. WhatsApp and leads.

Write your first public-service script.