How can we help?
Municipalities
Through our work with municipalities of all sizes, we have developed smart, strategic programs designed to meaningfully connect with residents. From public outreach and community engagement initiatives to recycling campaigns, our ability to reach and influence hard-to-reach populations has delivered measurable results for communities of all sizes.
We work where your work matters.
Our work, works.
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Bond & Levy
We support local municipalities and public agencies through their bond and levy processes. We understand the important details from campaign rules for public entities to voter guide submission guidelines. We apply our knowledge to support entities from initial research that guides decisions and strategies, to authentic communications and outreach, to the design and creation of informational materials during election cycles. Our team is proud to support public entities to secure critical funds that protect and improve the welfare of the community.
Our effective bond and levy plans can include:
- Public opinion research and polling or community surveys
- To means test for a go/no go decision on seeking a bond or levy
- To test for the most relevant and impactful messages
- To determine community funding priorities
- Communications audits and needs assessments
- Comprehensive communications plans with:
- Topline messaging
- Community outreach strategies and tactics
- Social media strategy – organic and paid
- Roadshow development
- Creative design including websites, videos, one-pagers, flyers and mailers
- Digital marketing
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Advocacy
We connect cities, counties and local public agencies with state and federal representatives to address pressing needs at the local level. Our team understands the intersection of local, regional, state and federal policy, and can help entities navigate towards resources through grants and earmarks. We advise clients on strategy and goals to set for their government relations needs.
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Public Engagement and Outreach
We help clients reach local communities and connect people with the priorities that matter most. Our creative and marketing team designs and delivers customized public information campaigns—from road construction updates and inclement weather services to recycling programs and more. We create campaigns that are clear, engaging, and actionable, ensuring information is not only seen but understood and acted on by the public.
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Strategic Communications
We help complex municipal organizations navigate the nuance and layers of information sharing across multiple audiences and through multiple platforms – both within an agency and to the general public. Our teams provide thoughtful plans, clear messages, and data-informed recommendations to push those messages out to the right audience. Our work helps public entities reach more people with accessible information that resonates for them. Our team also supports public entities with reactive communications support if and when a crisis hits.
Project Highlights
City of Seattle
Special Item Pickup
The Seattle Public Utilities Special Item Pickup program has been consistently underused, and faces a challenge with resident confusion or lack of awareness of services.
With our work on multiple accounts for SPU we were able to quickly understand the challenges with the target audience, and the lack of understanding of services. We first streamlined the process to sign up for the program and updated the language at every step of the process. Our campaign “For Trash that Doesn’t Fit In” reminded residents that there’s a special place for special trash. The integrated media strategy took advantage of every opportunity to reach residents, with weekly optimizations as we monitored the service requests from residents.
Our campaign had strong results, the Nextdoor click through rate continually performed 3x above average. The video completion rate hovered around 86%, 20% above the average. Our strongest channel was search that delivered results 5x over benchmark and gave us continued insights into what residents were seeking.
Cities of Bellevue, Bothell, Redmond, Kirkland
Bring Your Own Cup Campaign
We have a cup problem. Approximately 530 billion disposable cups are used globally each year, and fill up local landfills at an alarming rate. Local municipalities have begun to institute “Bring You Own Cup” campaigns to help put a dent in this problem.
With a lean budget and an incredibly collaborative team we got to work to encourage residents to remember their reusable cup. Our strategy was to include artists, baristas, and residents as messengers. We worked with local artists to create original artwork, we then had stickers made of the artwork. Every time a customer came in with a reusable cup they got a sticker, and were encouraged to post a cup selfie on social media to win local event tickets. Local baristas announced weekly winners on social, getting a boost for their business as well as giving our campaign an extra organic feel. Through a collaborative effort, local participation and an integrated campaign plan we were able to bring this campaign to life on the street and online with the “Cups Up” Campaign.
The first campaign was so successful that the city of Seattle had S360 create the same program two years in a row. The Cups Up Campaign has become an inspiration for other BYOC campaigns across the country, cited in industry publications as a best case example of strategic executions that deliver results.
City of Bozeman
Ballot Education Campaign
Bozeman’s growth has been substantial. There’s a tension between the newer residents as well as long standing residents who are starting to resent the growth and on the opposite side of this debate, there are many residents and individuals in the workforce that are in favor of more affordable and market rate housing options. A ward initiative was on the ballot that was confusing voters and creating frustrations.
Targeting the voters of Bozeman we needed to not ask residents to vote yes or no, rather educate themselves on the actual content of the ward initiative. Our strategy was to remind residents that they can all make good growth decisions together with real data & actionable plans.
The “A Livable Bozeman for All” campaign ran across all channels, quickly. Through paid, owned and earned media we were able to educate the voting public and share actionable data for them to consider. The final vote was decisive, with our client happy with the results. All of our channels performed above benchmark with our video view rate finishing at just over 276% higher than benchmark average on Youtube.
