Can your weather reporter help with stormwater education?

Reaching a broad audience in your community, much less your region, to build awareness of stormwater issues and BMPs can be challenging and cost-prohibitive. In 2019, jurisdictions from Stormwater Partners of SW Washington and Oregon’s Clean Rivers Coalition took on this challenge by teaming up to buy a media package from local network KPTV – Fox 12 Oregon. 

The package included focus group research conducted by Magid on advertisement performance from a previous campaign,  six public service announcements (PSAs) produced by KPTV starring local weather personalities, two longer segments produced for the daily morning show, at least one social media post per month, and a website – www.kptv.com/water. All participating jurisdictions voted on which topics to cover and a steering committee determined schedules, wrote scripts and copy and approved final videos, social media posts, and website content. The package cost $70,000, which was split between 25 jurisdictions contributing between $500-$7000 in approximate proportion to their population.

Through this partnership, we’ve been able to utilize the trust and reach of local TV media to promote PSAs that address local water quality issues and schedule them to air when they’re most relevant. Results from the first three-quarters of the campaign entail airing over 500 PSAs that yielded more than 10 million TV impressions, achieving over 2 million digital impressions including 10,000 video views, and gaining valuable insights from market research.

These efforts have helped to meet public education and outreach NPDES permit requirements for general awareness in a cost-effective way. They also support behavior change programs. For more information on this project, contact Eric Lambert – Clark County Public Works [email protected]