Slinky the sausage dog has put council communications officers in line for a national award.

Head of the communications team at Swindon Borough Council Phil Avery told members of the authority’s communities and place overview committee that two campaigns run by Euclid Street have been nominated.

One is the campaign to get people to know they had to take their polling card with them when they went to vote at the local elections.

That campaign which saw Slinky the sausage dog achieve fame on social media channel has been nominated for Campaign of the Year in the 2019 Local Government Chronicle awards.

His owner Lewis Moran works at the council’s communications team on its digital communications.

He said: “We were brainstorming what we could do on social media over the voter trial, and we thought dogs always do well on social media. It was just a fun way of trying to get people to pay attention.”

Lewis added that if the campaign won an award Slinky, an 18-month old, dachshund might also get some treats

The Slinky campaign also won a silver award from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Pride awards for best public sector campaign

A winning gold medal in the same awards was given to an internal campaign to increase the number of staff at the council getting a flu inoculation last winter.

The citation for the winner of best internal communications campaign on the south of England last year said: “This was an internal communications campaign which made a real difference. Barriers to staff involvement were well known before Swindon Borough Council began. They knew that common myths and selflessness were the main stumbling blocks to their staff taking part and devised a well thought-out, costed and measurable campaign to change behaviour.”

Mr Avery said: “That was very pleasing to get the gold because we were up against several private sector companies in that category.

“The entire campaign budget was £112 and it resulted in 35 per cent more staff having flu jabs. It was as cheap as chips but really had the intended effect.”

Mr Avery told councillors of the upcoming campaigns the council’s communications team will use.

He said that the communications team were always looking to be creative when engaging with the public: “That’s where slinky came in during the voter id trial campaign. Another campaign is to increase recycling rates and we’ve run a competition to name our trucks. It’s about finding ways to get our message across.”