The Census Project Blog

by Phil Sparks

When the 1990 decennial census rolled around, the Advertising Council of America, representing most of the big New York ad agencies and most of the TV and radio networks, produced so-called Public Service Advertising (PSAs) for hundreds of stations across the country urging the American public to participate in that year’s census. The Ad Council had been doing PSAs for the Census Bureau’s decennial census for 40 years up to that time. The problem was that the PSAs, playing on donated airtime by radio and TV stations, most often aired in the middle of the night or early in the morning when “dead” time was available for stations to insert the PSAs into their schedule. As a result, the ads reached a very small part of the total population and almost none of the traditionally hard-to-count populations across the country.

For the first time in 2000, the Census Bureau spent several hundred million dollars on a paid advertising campaign. The result was a “campaign” that targeted both mainstream white populations as well as hard-to-count African-American, Asian, Hispanic and other audiences. The message was that hundreds of millions of federal dollars each year were disbursed for such vital community services as health care, education, transportation and job training, and that these dollars were also based on decennial census information. The paid advertising campaign was credited with helping spur the decennial mail response rate in 2000, saving many millions of dollars.

Over the past decade, lots has changed in the nation’s media. It has become more diverse, reaching dozens of racial and ethnic groups in-language with sophisticated messages. New media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc., have become specialized social platforms attracting millions of voices each day. Cable television has actually overtaken network TV, with larger combined audiences in prime-time programming each night. The Census Bureau has noticed!

Starting on January 17 the Bureau will roll out one of the largest paid advertising campaigns in the nation’s history in support of Census 2010. Compared to the initial paid advertising effort in 2000, this year’s decennial census advertising campaign is light-years ahead. The ads have been produced in 28 different languages, compared to a handful in 2000. Almost half of the overall advertising budget will be devoted to local media outlets, as opposed to a heavy emphasis a decade ago on national advertising. New media will be a central part of the campaign, with the www.census2010.gov Web site expected to draw tens of millions of visits. The site will be promoted in the advertising. The Web site itself will answer questions about how to complete a census form and what the census data are used for. The Web site will have information in 58 languages. Finally, and most importantly, a majority of the advertising dollars spent by the Bureau will be targeted to the hard-to-count communities of color — in their languages.

For example, there will be eight different versions of advertising targeted to Asians, with various Asian groups appearing in each ad. Even culturally sensitive “scenes” will be changed in each spot. In one ad targeted to Filipinos, the rice maker will be recognized by that audience. But, in the same ad targeted to Koreans a different rice maker is used, in addition to a Korean spokesperson.

Some ads for different racial and ethnic groups will focus on particular issues picked up in the Bureau’s extensive survey research done in late 2008 (see my blog of Sept. 22, 2009). The Hispanic-targeted ads will stress the confidentiality of the census forms and data, while some of the Asian-targeted ads will trumpet that proud community members are participating in Census 2010.

Census advertising will also move and change with the various phases of the decennial this year. Supporting first the mail-back effort and then the door-to-door program. Hard-to-count areas from the previous census will be especially targeted in the initial phases of the ad effort. Then, because of extensive real-time data collection information, the Bureau will be able to increase advertising in areas where the response rate is low as the decennial proceeds.

Lastly, the Bureau is not forgetting a tried and true PSA effort. Spots featuring 100 key public figures, celebrities and sports figures will be part of the PSA campaign to garner free advertising on behalf of the census.

Overall, the Census 2010 advertising campaign represents a quantum leap over the effort a decade ago.