In the Fall of 2016, the Hunter|Johnsen team joined together with CV Water Counts, a nonprofit collaborative of the Coachella Valley’s five water agencies, to create and implement a comprehensive water conservation awareness program. The campaign “Every Drop Counts” was created. The program focused on educating and encouraging valley residents to be water-wise, both indoors and outdoors.
We knew that an awareness campaign with limited funds would be a challenge. The agency began with a redesign of the website and an overall re-brand which included the creation of a cartoon water drop spokesperson named Splash. All communications offered simple, easy-to-remember indoor and outdoor water-saving tips.
The agency then reached out to the local English and Spanish television and radio stations, Lamar Outdoor, The Desert Sun, The Public Record, CV Weekly and Desert Star Weekly to become stakeholders in this important community effort. By getting the local media on-board, the reach of the advertising more than tripled, with the media partners providing additional advertising at no charge. In addition to traditional advertising, a comprehensive social media and public/community relations campaign was launched, and was supplemented by a number of special educational events. Since the beginning of the campaign in February 2017, Coachella Valley residents have saved nearly 17 billion gallons of water. The campaign, including the five-time Telly award-winning television commercials, continues, and the program will be further enhanced in 2020.
