Clackamas County Vector Control District

Since 2017, Pac/West has been retained by the Clackamas County Vector Control District to develop a targeted outreach and awareness marketing campaign aimed at increasing residents’ awareness of CCVCD’s role in controlling mosquito and fly vectors. The campaign targets Clackamas County stakeholders with mosquito/fly problems, county residents with standing water on their property, and residents looking to prevent mosquito or fly problems in the future.

Our methods include research and analysis, communications and marketing strategy development, campaign development, stakeholder engagement, graphic design, public outreach, web development, and social media.

Partnering with the research firm Moore Information, we first conducted surveys for Clackamas County residents that helped to identify issues and barriers to our overall success. Next, we analyzed the data from the stakeholder interviews to find areas of improvement to strengthen our campaign.

Pac/West developed a multi-phase promotional mix for the target audience and made updates to CCVCD’s website to make it more user friendly.

During the first phase of the campaign, we began our outreach to local stakeholders by sending surveys to organizations, such as homeowners and neighborhood associations, equine groups, gardening clubs, chambers of commerce, and Parks & Recreation boards. Once the surveys were returned, we sent newsletter articles to those stakeholder groups to be included in their communication channels — publication content that organizations are always glad to receive. The articles included useful information, including the phone number and website to reach CCVCD, hours of operation, and what the CCVCD could do to help. This effort created awareness for Clackamas County residents who, prior to this, had no knowledge about the District. We continue to draft and distribute four newsletters throughout the spring and summer to those organizations to keep them informed of vector awareness.

Pac/West has worked with CCVCD to amplify its Facebook presence, posting pertinent news articles, and strategically promoting posts in key markets. In each case, we target existing fans to build up the base of likes, and reach into new markets by targeting geographic areas and “friends of fans.” Using digital advertising and print ads in the local newspapers, we dramatically increased website visits and calls into the District office for assistance. As a result of this awareness campaign, followers of the CCVCD Facebook page have continued to increase.

Targeted digital ads have been delivered to over 20 million people over the course of the campaign, with an average click through rate of .12%, which is two to three times the industry average for similar campaigns. We also advertise in all the Clackamas County community newspapers with print ads in the printed versions and digital ads on the media outlets’ websites. Based on our experience, we know that community newspapers tend to be read cover to cover and hang around in households since they cover local news and citizen profiles, youth and high school sports, and in some cases, police logs.

We also did a refresh of the District’s website fightthebites.com to ensure it is both ADA compliant and mobile device compatible. Two informational videos we produced, one on mosquitoes and the other on flies, are hosted on the website.

Another key component of our outreach for the District was to develop and implement an educational program to reach students and teachers. We retained an education expert who developed grade-appropriate lesson plans and exercises, which were then shared with area schools. Programs were also designed and offered to school-aged children through area county libraries. Collateral materials were developed and used in both the classrooms and in the libraries. Finally, working with a video game designer, an age-appropriate video game was developed that has received positive reviews and solid download rates.

Libraries, schools and community events have directly engaged over 800 community members in the Fight the Bites! education program.

We have produced a calendar every year for the District that is used for outreach to county citizens, using images taken by a local photographer. We then incorporated into the campaign an annual photography contest with county citizens submitting their pictures taken from anywhere in Clackamas County. Each year in July, four winners are selected and their photography images used in the following year’s calendar. This outreach with Clackamas County residents has been positive and contributes to a successful campaign. The latest calendar can be downloaded at 2024 Wall Calendar.

Pac/West created other collateral materials for CCVCD, such as a tote bag and a three-piece trade show display featuring information about the District. The collateral materials are distributed at local events like the Clackamas County Fair, helping to increase overall publicity and get Clackamas County residents talking about the District.