A big country, diverse audiences and a pandemic
How do you segment and understand a huge and complex country? Every ten years, this is the challenge facing the U.S. Census Bureau. Trust in government is an ever-present issue in the United States, complicated further in 2020 by conversations around including citizenship questions on the census. Add in the COVID-19 crisis for even more hurdles to overcome.
So how do you get diverse audiences, many of whom have a low trust in government and feel outside the census system, to participate in the survey, during a global pandemic?
PSB and other WPP agencies were brought on board to identify comms strategies that would work across various audiences in the United States to help take on this task.
No stone unturned
A comprehensive comms strategy needed a comprehensive research strategy. PSB purpose-built a research program designed to penetrate the breadth of audience profiles over a number of years, tackling the problem from various angles.
We conducted a nationally representative survey of 17,500 respondents (mail and online), along with 42 focus groups (11 audiences, 14 locations). We then segmented the population by mindset and track, to better understand hesitancy and expected participation. The research uncovered motivators and barriers to census participation, and together with the targetable segments, informed strategic and media planning, creative development and directions, earned and social strategies, and tactical directions for a multi-faceted comms campaign.
For each underrepresented audience, PSB conducted multiple focus groups. These more difficult audiences had little trust in government (or research), making participant recruitment a significant challenge. The effort was large-scale—spanning 140+ focus groups—and uphill.
Finally, we custom-built a tracker to report on performance and optimize the campaign mid-field, monitoring dozens of data streams in real time to guide campaign decisions.
On the right track
This bespoke, multi-layered research program guided the creative development of a $700 million communications campaign. This included media planning and targeted outreach to specific audiences.
Aggregating multiple data sources for campaign tracking allowed us to respond in real time to underperforming audiences and course correct as needed. These insights led to a $5.7M increase in paid media spend to address low awareness and a reallocation of $240M due to changes in media consumption. It also reinforced the decision that enumerators should wear face masks.
scale
145,000
interviews over three years with nationally representative surveys
reach
140+
focus groups engaged across 12 languages
Success amidst a global crisis
The strategic comms campaign motivated a significant response, driven largely by 30 stories told at six national events around the country educating people about the census and explaining its importance.
Research informed media placements in targeted national and local outlets including Good Morning America, iHeartRadio, The Steve Harvey Show, The New York Times, Politico, and more. Advertising expanded to 45 additional languages by the end of the campaign.
Despite the pandemic, and because of the targeted nature of the communications strategy, the 2020 census saw higher levels of unassisted responses via internet, phone, and mail than in 2010 Census, a huge success for the Census Bureau at such a challenging time.
