Overview
We helped launch a citizen-focused education campaign supporting the Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program and its efforts to restore, protect, and preserve local waterways for generations to come.
1,344
Page views in first two weeks of the campaign launch.
33,134
Social media impressions after 20 days of campaign.
144
Citizens “Took the Pledge” to help protect area waterways.
The Challenge
The Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary Program (PPBEP) was awarded a grant to drive a major marketing campaign as part of their efforts to be designated a National Estuary Program by Congress.
If successful, PPBEP would become only the 29th Federally Designated Estuary Program in the United States. More importantly, the program would be able to secure millions of dollars in ongoing funding for environmental projects to protect and restore the waterways in this important coastal area.
Approach
We collaborated with our friends at Hatchmark Studios to help PPBEP in developing a simple public education campaign to raise awareness and funds to support estuary preservation and restoration.
We worked with the PPBEP leadership team to identify campaign goals through several strategy sessions. Through those conversations we realized that the biggest challenge for the Estuary program was to narrow its focus and make the best use of their marketing dollars. The three goals we identified were to drive awareness of the program, build support from local businesses, and develop easy ways for citizens to engage with and protect their waterways.
The focus of our effort was Estuary101, a website hub to address these specific goals and translate the sometimes complicated world of environmental science into easy-to-understand actions. The site included educational facts about the estuaries, options for everyday behaviors to protect the waterways, and easily-accessible ways to learn more and support the Estuary program.
"The Impact Campaigns team did a fantastic job of capturing and conveying what we wanted for our new Estuary program: Simple, everyday ways for people to get involved and make a difference. They understand how communities work, and how to motivate people to support your cause."
Results
The Estuary 101 campaign offered multiple avenues for each audience to get and stay involved, including a pledge to take action to support estuaries, an interactive estuary explorer program (Estuary Explorers), a business partner program (Estuary Advocates), and event and member tiered financial sponsorships.
After an initial three-week launch, the campaign already showed promising results, with a tremendous jump in web traffic, media coverage, email engagement, and social media impressions and interactions.
Most importantly, almost 150 citizens “took the pledge” in the first three weeks of the campaign to do their part to improve the estuaries.
Want to learn more about how your community can engage citizens for positive change?
Click here to drop us a line and we will be happy to share what we’ve learned.
