Our Charge

The Saunders PR Group was engaged to lead the city of Columbus and Franklin County 2020 Census outreach and engagement efforts associated with generating awareness and getting residents to take the 2020 Census.
 

Our focus was on hard-to-count communities.

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TSPRG developed a comprehensive marketing, public relations and grassroots plan, along with a robust media buy plan using research data from the US census, the NAACP and the National Urban League related to messaging, audience engagement and channels to inform our efforts. Our target audience was 16-18, 19-44, 45-65 and 65-plus. TSPRG created all design and creative in house. We aligned our public relations strategy with a robust, hyper-local, hyper-targeted advertising media buy and leveraged diverse print publications (Somali, Spanish and African American). Our plan included a strong community engagement component, activating street team outreach at local events (We pivoted once COVID-19 hit to digital and online options.) We made posters for placement in stores and curated special events and weekly town hall sessions.

 

Our Results

Our viewership for town halls ranged from 1.1K to 5.6K viewers with over 2,300 engagements and reactions. Our efforts helped to increase participation rates for the U.S. Census to 68.4% compared to a 66% response rate in 2010.

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