Case Studies Tetratech

Tetra Tech and the City of Lansing

Communications, community engagement, media relations and governmental relations for Tetra Tech and the City of Lansing’s 30-year Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Control Program.

Objective

Influence public opinion on the yearly road construction around Lansing because of the CSO Control Program by preparing residents, business owners, patrons and commuters to deal with construction and increasing awareness of the positive results the project will have.

Geographic Scope

Lansing and surround communities

Target Audience

Lansing residents, commuters, business owners and patrons.

Brief Project Description

Summary: Motion Marketing & Media joined the City of Lansing’s team for the CSO Control Program in January 2008 at the request of Tetra Tech, the lead engineering firm of the Program. This required extensive construction work along major roadways and side streets throughout the city, and each year new streets must be torn up to separate the sewer lines and then reconstructed.

Situation: The project’s road detours and closures have annoyed residents, patrons of local businesses, merchants and commuters; its extensive duration had them feeling that construction would never end. Patrons were visiting downtown less, distressing downtown business owners. Individuals enduring the construction year after year were unaware of the environmental impact the construction was making. The CSO Control Program was dealing with stubborn negative preconceptions as old as the 18-year duration of the project.

Challenge: The campaign’s goal was to not only combat this negativity, but also reverse these feelings and create a positive association between the construction and its environmental benefits.

Research

• Conducted a city-wide survey to find out how Lansing residents want to receive construction information, especially the best media to use and what information was most important
• Reviewed surveys from previous years
• Reviewed media coverage of previous years to understand the negativity and challenges
• Studied the construction process for this and upcoming years and the technical basics of the project

Results

Over the 8-month span of the construction season, the project got 22 instances of media coverage. Of these pieces, 15 focused on the positive benefits of the program; only four pieces emphasized inconveniences such as traffic delays over the campaign’s green focus. Coverage spanned a variety of media from daily papers, television stations, city magazines, and even a few trade journals, giving the CSO Control Program high visibility and a positive face to the community. Of 1,200 Construction Discount Cards, which included a map with road closures and detours along with discounts to several downtown businesses to ease travel inconveniences and encourage downtown patronage, 90 percent were picked up at downtown hotspots. Many business owners reported that the cards were getting picked up quickly and that the discounts were getting frequent use in their stores. They also said the cards helped boost sales and that they would be interested in participating in this initiative again in future years.

A survey of residents took place at end-of-season block parties that were held to thank residents of high-construction areas for their patience. The results were a valuable source of information to measure resident attitudes, as they were the only direct feedback and reflected the opinions of those most inconvenienced by the project. The survey was designed to measure the effectiveness of communication methods. Of the residents who took the survey, 67 percent said the construction process was better than they expected; another 28 percent were neutral and only 5 percent felt it was worse than expected. Most residents appeared to have a general understanding that the project was necessary and that it would have long-term environmental benefits. Motion Marketing & Media won the PACE Award’s 2009 Pinnacle Award for public relations on this project.

Project Deliverables

• Weekly meetings with the PR team at City Hall for progress on various parts of the project
• Coordination with the Principal Shopping District to get the bi-weekly Construction Observer to merchants
• Brainstorming and development of a mascot to be the positive face of the CSO Control Program
• Brainstorming and development of Businesses for Clean Water so businesses could show their support of the CSO Control Program as well as encourage patrons to visit businesses involved
• Meeting minutes prepared for the City and TetraTech PR team
• Agenda and deliverables updated prior to each meeting and sent out to the PR team
  Attendance at some community meetings
• Review and updates of various PowerPoint presentations used for community meetings
  Coordination of media roundtables and other press conferences including press releases, media alerts and media kits
• Coordination of year-end block parties for areas where CSO construction was completed
• Coordination of booth for the Be A Tourist In Your Own Town event including creative, crafts, games and photo station
• Working with the Go Green! Initiative on various aspects of the CSO Control Program