United Way of West Ellis County
Counting on the Community
Building Interest and Participation for the 2020 Census
The Client
The United Way of West Ellis County is the local chapter of The United Way, located in Midlothian, TX. This organization strives to improve the quality of life of all people by responding to priority health and human service needs through gathering and distributing community resources in an efficient and accountable manner.
The Challenge
UWWEC was responsible for a full census campaign to build interest and participation from the entire community.
The census in Ellis County typically had a poor response from low-income and undocumented families, so getting the word out that the census was secure and confidential would be key.
Not having an internal marketing team, UWWEC partnered with 1558 to develop the brand, marketing materials (rack card, posters, flyers), social media graphics and messaging to be shared throughout the campaign, and four :30 sec animated commercials.
The Strategy
With the goal of reaching the largest number of Ellis County citizens possible, we created a toolkit for local nonprofits, businesses, chambers, and organizations to help spread the word about the importance of census participation. The toolkit included marketing materials, social media graphics and messaging, and videos that they could easily use in their own marketing efforts. By providing this toolkit, we were able to establish a clear, consistent message to each sector of the population.
To build this toolkit, we began by developing a visual identity for the census that stood out on its own and differentiated itself from the political campaigns that would be running at the same time. In addition to the visual identity, we crafted messaging that was unique to Ellis County, while also incorporating important information and details provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
After the visual identity and messaging were created, we then focused on a variety of marketing materials that would make up the bulk of the toolkit.
Our marketing collateral included:
- Census Poster
- Activation Guide Flyer
- FAQ Rack Cards
- Yard Signs
The United Way of West Ellis County worked with 1558 Brand to create customized Census 2020 logos, materials, social media graphics & videos to be utilized by the county Complete Count committee, local organizations, county government & cities & trusted community partners. Their staff was extremely thorough & diligent to complete the project on time and delivered high quality materials to help raise awareness of the importance of filling out your census questionnaire. Throughout the entire process, I was highly impressed with each staff member's professionalism and overall systems to ensure the project timeline was moving forward as planned.