INC NEWS - $400k for PR campaign on water

[TheOcean1 at aol.com]

Without commenting on the amount, the split between how much is spent to  
develop the message, and how much is spent to deliver it seems unusual.
 
Ask any ad agency. Would imagine the ratio would be more like $300k to buy  
the media, and $100k to develop the message and place the ads.
 
Bill Anderson
 
In a message dated 4/10/2008 4:43:45 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
bragin at nc.rr.com writes:

if  anything, $400K strikes me as a bit on the low side for developing a 
citywide  campaign and putting the message out for a period of, say, 6 months or 
so.  It's probably enough to do a half-assed job. Don't underestimate the  
difficulty of buying the right media exposure and measuring the impact of your  
media buys. There's plenty of research out there showing how many times  someone 
has to be exposed to a message before it even starts to register, let  alone 
to affect their behavior. But if we can get people to stop stuffing rags  down 
the toilet . . . 

That said, there's plenty of other things the  city should be doing with our 
money in addition to PR. Routine maintenance,  not only of the water and sewer 
infrastructure, comes to mind. (Major upgrades  to water and sewer are, of 
course, funded via bonds. But routine maintenance  of all the city 
infrastructure shouldn't be paid for with borrowed money. It  should be part of the budget 
process on an annual basis.) Don't know much  about the sustainability 
director position. I'd never heard of it before  today.

which may in itself be part of the problem.

Barry  Ragin
---- Melissa Rooney <mmr121570 at yahoo.com> wrote:  

=============
I was just told that, at today's City Council  work
session, no council member raised any concern about a
$400,000  contract to ICF for a public relations
program on conserving water. The  contract proposes
that the first task of ICF is to develop a plan.  The
goal is to create advertising that is simple and
focuses on one  simple message per ad. About half of
the money would go to buy media  placements of the ads
developed by ICF.

A friend and concerned  citizen offered this
perspective: "...there are few service contracts  for
this much money. Contracts in this price range are
usually for  construction or to buy equipment. For even
more perspective, there is one  Joint City/County
Sustainability Manager, just hired, and to just  keep
the $50k each from City and County government for this
was a major  struggle last year. The Sustainability
Manager has no budget, no staff, no  money for capital
improvements." 

I am interested in what INC and PA  folks think about
all this. Would this money be better spent on  true
ACTION to help save water -- not sure what that action
will be, but  having money on hand to quickly repair
and maintain current water pipes  would be a start (the
one feeding Creekside Elementary burst today).  

At first thought, it seems to me that we don't need to
hire a  contractor to market ads asking people to save
water. Couldn't this money  be given to the
sustainability coordinator and a position be  created
through that department for marketing our need to
conserve  water? Heck, there are enough citizens to
come up with an ad...and how hard  is it to arrange
posting on billboards, bus boards,  in
hospitals/doctor's offices, hotels and shopping
centers?

Very  interested in your  replies,
Melissa

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