Municipalities provide valuable services to their residents and businesses, making education and outreach a key component to their community engagement. When information or regulations comes from people we know and trust it's easier the resident or business owner to embrace the change.
Sometimes it's the simple promotions that are the most effective. Whether it's informational door hangers for public works or paper
picture frames for an educational event from a town department, there are a lot of ways
municipalities can use promotional products to better connect with their
residents and businesses about regulations and requirements.
For example, sharing information about issues with their water meters or the quality of well water, the municipality might insert information in the monthly utility mailers, send emails, put information on their website, share community texts and social media efforts. However grassroots campaigns not only put boots on the ground, but offer community engagement one-on-one by those effected.
In this example the water department for this municipality designed a custom door
hanger. The design included contact information, spaces to fill in the
customer account number, address, date, and time of visit, as well as
check boxes to inform of any issues. The door hanger was printed in
bright green to catch residents' attention. Advertising space could have been an option for a community partner such as a Chamber of Commerce for increased attendance for an event or merchant's association to drive foot traffic.
In this case study, the communication between residents and the water department over issues
like meter errors or payment problems were resolved quicker than when
just letters were mailed out.
If you follow our blog, you know we frequently highlight national dates. In this case study, a city was celebrating
National Public Works Week with events that
included an open house where community members could meet and talk to
public works employees. They hired a photographer to take pictures at the open house,
but they weren't sure how to best get the photos home to the residents.
The solution? An inexpensive, foil stamped paper picture frame. This would also have worked with photo frame magnetic or vinyl's; the punch out section could list upcoming events in the community, numbers for frequently needed services or to highlight additional weeks of engagement with town departments.
The frame included logos from the city and from a national public works
association. Between the logos read
"Public Works Open House" and
"Celebrating National Public Works Week." What was the outcome? Kids had a lot of fun at the event, and both kids and adults appreciated
learning more about how their public works department serves their
community. Public works employees were happy to educate residents at the
event, and guests enjoyed taking home a framed photo as a reminder of
the fun, informative event.
Frames are also a great way to save images from police officers handing out ice cream tickets to kids wearing bike helmets or photos of family with fire mascot or fire fighters that have checked their fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and car seats for properly functioning safety items.
Guess what else, paper, magnetic and vinyl items are almost always
Made in USA and we have
NC options too!
Our post tomorrow will focus on how creative the space beneath your feet can be for branding!
