Engaging the Public: Marketing and Outreach Campaign

Here's a quick glance at the Wendnesday session: Engaging the Public: Marketing and Outreach Campaign

Three speakers provided their municipalities’ success stories when reaching out to improve recycling programs. Effective recycling programs require proper planning, outreach and marketing. All the speakers agreed that doing their homework helped them learn how to effectively communicate their message through an education campaign.

Heather Merchant with the city of Plano in Texas helped kick off a public awareness campaign called Living it Green in Plano. She had the desire to build support and increase participation with green practices among residents.

After securing grant funds, Heather started with market research and analysis, then a public awareness campaign, and an environmental expo to build awareness in Plano.

She found the best way to communicate her city’s message was getting to know the target audience through focus groups and phone surveys. She also discovered that the most difficult thing for residents to answer is the definition of sustainability. Most residents couldn’t name sustainable practices other than recycling.

Heather also discussed how she found success by campaigning a full year with several events, with the premiere event being a family-friendly expo with games, food and fun to promote their environmental message. The event also held workshops, sold native plants and compost, provided giveaways and incentives to expo attendees. About 7,500 folks attended the expo! Repeating a multi-media messages proved to be one of the most effective ways that the city of Plano continued to reach households.

Branding is also a way to make sure you build awareness. The more someone can recognize your logo, the more they will use the concept.

Another speaker, Dennis Guy from Hamilton Ontario shared his marketing success in a higher population city with more than 500,000 residents and approximately 165,000 households. He suggested not getting caught up in how the marketing looks, but more about making sure that the message it expressed.

In my opinion, the best message for municipalities during the session was using a multi-year media campaign because many cities have a small budget for marketing and this method allows the city to spread out their advertising dollars. By showing the media outlet that they'll have repeat business, they're more willing to work with the municipality to get their message out.