Intro to campaign (10 min) Slides
A statewide water campaign has been called for in landmark water legislation, but hasn’t been funded by the state.
The Texas Water Foundation is developing the campaign, proving the need and providing the framework for a campaign that can be localized to fit the needs and priorities of local water efforts.
Ultimately, the mission is to help lead Texas into a more sustainable water future. We believe our campaign plays a role in that. And hopes to one day be partnered with TWDB and receive legislative funding
The campaign was built on the findings of the water IQ campaign, the tool to test your “water IQ” and learn your water source. Research showed that 70% of Texans didn’t know where their water came from, and if they did, they would be more likely to care for it
It’s market research also helped defined the target audience. Texans, it turns out, fall into one of 5 water personalities. They 1. Care about the environment and are concerned with “keeping it clean”. 2. They are generally aware of water and want to do their part to help 3. They’re worried it will run out. And the other less hopeful target either say it’s 4. Not their problem to fix or 5. They don’t see any reason to change their ways
This audience base and initial learnings were the building blocks of our campaign,
But what water IQ failed to consider is that Texans aren’t so inspired to even learn about their water source.
It was missing a behavior change element. How you get texans to care enough about water that they take actions to improve the situation?
The objective of the TROW campaign is to inspire Texans to value their water. And the theory of change is founded on the idea that if you tap into the things that we as people care most about - the people, places and things that we love most about our community - and connect it to water, that inspires people to protect it.
A formula of pride + action
We knew that to successfully develop this campaign, we needed this campaign to have the ability to be localized and compliment the work already being done in Texas communities. Because relationships to water are different across the state, and the challenges each of you are up against are different.
Thus, Texas Runs on Water was built as an umbrella campaign that could be tailored to a region, audience, or water use, and that has the potential to link water entities, brands, industries, cultural ambassadors, and Texan iconography to water. We love to say queso, beer, football, tech runs on water.
The initial pilot phase meant developing localized concepts and testing the model.
We partnered with a water utility, a groundwater district, and a grassroots nonprofit in developing each of these campaign concepts.
And we developed campaigns that spoke to each community we were in. With bilingual ads in grocery stores, airport ads in houston hobby airport, a news partnership, swag, reels, social media ads, and murals.
And we learned that the local campaign concepts were effectively working. We exceed initial goals and reached impressive brand recall
The initial phase taught us other important learnings in the time it takes to develop these campaign efforts,
But a major takeaway was; the more local the message the better.
We’ve achieved some other fun things, as we picked up the campaign.
Like going viral on Tiktok and getting a shout-out from Chet the Day Tripper.
What this next phase for TROW meant
Was to continue to build our localized campaign efforts
To partner with brands and corporate partners to support brand visibility and provide financial sustainability
To build on our statewide presence
And to develop the TROW toolkit
We were thrilled to be chosen as a Texan by Nature conservation wrangler, which provided us with tailored support from their team to help in these efforts
And we got a really cool spread in Texas monthly
Phase 1 - building partnerships, phase 2 has been about behavior change, allude to sb28
Why does all of this matter?
1. Its important to us at that you understand the brand you’re buying into, how it is designed, and what are objectives are. Invite you behind the curtain. It is a fundamental piece to serving as an ambassador for the brand.
2. We want you to understand how your partnership can help make a difference in building our campaign’s footprint and where there might be opportunity.
So, i think one final piece worth sharing is how we plan to get from building our brand’s footprint to measurable impact in our state’s water supply needs.
Between 2021-2030, we’ve set a number of benchmarks. We know that in the early stages, our primary objective is to grow our brand audience. But we have not yet tied action to the campaign. This is based on a strategy that in order to inspire behavior change, you must first instill brand trust.
We also know that on a statewide level, we would not be able to see impact in actions tied to individual water conservation measures. Moving the needle on our water supply challenges will include investment in water infrastructure, local and state investment, corporate participation, and more.
Zooming out - beyond inspiring Texans to value water and building a statewide brand around that, we want to be able to compliment the work that you’re doing.
We believe that our local partners will help us steer action on the local level that stems from residents value in water.
Intro to Toolkit (10 min)
The toolkit was developed as a means to get local partners on board
We received feedback from various water entities, including some on this call, that they often lacked the staff, marketing capacity, tools to effectively communicate their water priorities
And that the most useful way to build their own TROW campaign would be to have the ability to customize the campaign, and to have tools and resources that made messaging and content creation easier.
The toolkit was developed in collaboration with our team, our creative agency team, and the Texan by Nature team.
TxN supports conservation organizations across the state and has created many media toolkits for partners. Caitlin Tran (2 mins)- Effectiveness of toolkits for campaigns
Within the toolkit, you will find the tools you need to effectively build your own “Blank Runs on Water” campaign all housed within our website
It will all housed in a password protected region of our website.
I also want to note that this a “soft launch” of our toolkit. We invited the folks on this call to serve as initial users because we value your feedback, and hope to continue to grow and evolve the kit to fit your needs
Finally, before diving into a preview of the kit, I want to highlight the steps needed and commitment into becoming partner. We will revisit this process again after the walkthrough, But I wanted to tee it up for you.
To become a partner, you will need to sign a user agreement that outlines guidelines and brand principles.
This was designed to be a fee-for-service model, and would require payment at a discounted rate for pilot users
You would be asked to fill out the survey within 1 month of initial use
User agreement
Always include logo in any public outreach and follow brand criteria
You’re agreeing to follow the campaign architecture, tone, and persona. This means framing things in a positive framework
Not using the brand to endorse products, places or people
Getting approval if using toolkit is being used outside terms
You are agreeing to fill out a survey and provide feedback
Fee
$1,000 -
Our top priority is to test the toolkit, we want to prove a fee-for-service model, we are open to having conversations with each of you
Financing should not be a barrier to entry
Survey
How often you used toolkit
What you found most useful
What tools you felt we could include
Impressions and metrics