Metropolitan Board Approves $14.7 Million Advertising Contract to Promote Conservation across Southern California

As part of a broad effort to urge Southern Californians to save water 365 days a year, Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors today voted to approve a three-year contract extending the agency’s culturally diverse, multimedia advertising and public outreach campaign for water conservation.

The board awarded the $14.7 million contract to the Los Angeles-based firm Quigley-Simpson & Heppelwhite. The new campaign, to be launched this summer, will build on the water-saving momentum that Metropolitan created over the last three years through its award-winning conservation campaign and rebate programs.

“These efforts have produced results. Our research shows attitudes toward conservation have changed, awareness has increased. But we still have work to do,” Metropolitan board Chairman Randy Record said.

The upcoming campaign will introduce new marketing strategies to promote the many water conservation rebate programs offered by Metropolitan and its member agencies.

During California’s recent record dry period, residents and business owners across the region demonstrated an impressive commitment to conservation. Since last year’s record precipitation, however, 2018 has seen an uptick in water use as dry conditions have returned.

Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said the new campaign will remind Southern Californians the need for conservation isn’t based solely on the weather, it’s a permanent lifestyle change everyone needs to make every day. And the campaign will help residents and business owners enact that change with direct guidance on how to make conservation a way of life.

“In the past few years, we’ve seen dramatic swings in hydrologic conditions, from the driest to the wettest periods in California’s recorded history,” Kightlinger said. “Those kinds of swings aren’t likely to end. Climate change will only add greater uncertainty and more challenges. Some of that is out of our control, but what is within our control is how much water we each use on a daily basis.”

For the first time since 2015, the upcoming campaign will include television advertising, allowing the conservation message to reach many Southern Californians in their homes, where sustainable behavioral changes need to happen. The campaign also will connect with audiences through radio and streaming radio, community newspapers, billboards and busses and social media.

Like its predecessors, the new campaign will include multilingual messaging to reach diverse audiences, a top priority for Metropolitan’s board. Quigley-Simpson’s experience working with Southern California’s diverse population is part of the reason it was selected for the advertising contract, said Sue Sims, Metropolitan’s external affairs manager.

The full-service advertising firm was chosen from among nine firms after an open, competitive bidding process. Quigley-Simpson produced Metropolitan’s award-winning Take a Turn and H2Love conservation campaigns.

“Not only does the firm offer this experience and understanding of conservation issues, it also proposes fresh, creative, and impactful approaches for the next campaign,” Sims said.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a state-established cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.