North Georgia Water Planning Issues Marketing & Public Relations RFP

The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District is seeking an agency to develop and implement an integrated marketing plan focused on water conservation and highlighting the District’s key regional messaging and resources available through the District’s website (www.northgeorgiawater.org) and My Drop Counts water conservation program (www.mydropcounts.org).

The District is seeking a firm with experience in public relations, social media marketing and program measurement and has an estimated budget of $100,000.

Since its creation in 2001, the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District (the District), which is comprised of 15 counties (Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Paulding and Rockdale counties), 56 water utilities and 93 cities, has implemented one of the most comprehensive regional water management plans in the country and is a national leader in water conservation.

Over the last 15 years, the District’s Water Supply Water Conservation strategies have led to significant reduction in water use across 15-counties of metro Atlanta. Since 2000 total water use in the region has dropped by 10 percent, even as the population has increased by 1 million. Furthermore, per capita water use in the District has dropped by more than 30%. One of the District’s important water conservation strategies is strong and robust education and outreach programming. The District supports the efforts of local governments and water utilities, while providing regional water messaging guidance and tools. Two of the main education and outreach tools of the District are the District website (intended for a technical audience) and the My Drop Counts website (information for residents of metro Atlanta). In addition, the My Drop Counts program includes print material, video PSAs, radio PSAs, movie theatre ads, billboard ads and internet advertising.

Key District Messaging

The District’s overarching regional message is that: Metro Atlanta has done a good job conserving water, which allows us to be resilient when dry conditions occur, but saving water is something we all must do year-round every year.

Important Insights from the District’s 2015 Residential Survey

In 2015 the District conducted a county level residential water survey across the 15- counties. The results of the 4,800 respondent county-level telephone survey provide insights about the water related knowledge, motivations and behaviors of metro Atlanta residents.

Below are several key insights that came out of the survey:

• 69.2 % of all respondents say they think water conservation is important and they try to conserve water on a regular basis.
• 80.9% of all respondents say that they are extremely or moderately concerned about water availability in metro Atlanta now or in the future.
• 50.4% of all respondents say they frequently track their water usage on their water bill.
• 32.3% of all respondents say they frequently check for leaks.
• 73.9% of respondents in single-family homes say that someone in household maintains the landscape and gardening.

Target Audiences

The integrated marketing plan should target two main audiences: 1) people who own single-family homes with yards in urban setting and 2) people who own single-family homes with yards in suburban settings. Because homeowners are able to make changes to the interior and exterior of their home more easily than renters, they can participate in permanent water saving strategies like installing irrigation controllers, high efficiency toilets or water saving fixtures. These target homeowners are self-identifying water savers. They care about doing the right thing, and saving water is part of that ethos. They may not have a good understanding of their current water usage or know how to save more water, or even where to go to find more information.

Project Tasks

Task 1 – Develop Draft Water Conservation Integrated Marketing Plan

The selected consultant will develop and a draft integrated marketing plan (the Plan). The draft Plan should include a multipronged approach of diverse strategies that may include social media, paid media, earned media, and public relations activities to be executed by the consultant in Task 2. The draft Plan must include a detailed description of metrics and milestones that will serve as the measure of success.

Proposal due by October 28, 2016 to:

Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District

ATTN: Kostoula Vallianos

40 Courtland Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30303

kvallianos@atlantaregional.com

PR Agencies with a large presence in Atlanta includes Jackson Spalding, M Booth & Porter-Novelli.