AlertSanDiego, County of San Diego

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2014

1. Abstract of the Program The San Diego County Office of Emergency Services (OES) formed a partnership with Target to conduct promotions encouraging people to prepare for disasters. The County offered free tents provided by Target to the first participants who took disaster preparation steps, including registering cell phones with AlertSanDiego, the County’s mass notification system; installing the SD Emergency smartphone application; and completing a Family Disaster Plan. Campaigns in September 2013 and January 2014 prompted 9,625 new AlertSanDiego registrations and 10,222 new SD Emergency installs. Normally, the County would see only around 600 AlertSanDiego registrations and around 2,000 SD Emergency installs in a month; the successful campaign prompted a 700 percent increase in AlertSanDiego registrations and a 400 percent increase in SD Emergency installs. To collect their tents, people also needed to complete a Family Disaster Plan. More than 3,200 people claimed a tent and presented their completed plan. In wildfire prone San Diego County, OES is always looking for ways to encourage people to prepare for disasters. By forming a partnership with Target and using a creative approach—a contest with a “prize” that made people act fast—OES motivated the public to take important steps to protect themselves and their families. 2. The Problem/ Need for the Program San Diego County is prone to disasters such as earthquakes, flooding and, as recent history has proved, devastating wildfires. In 2003 and 2007, massive conflagrations burned a combined total of more than 4,000 homes, killed 27 people and forced hundreds of thousands of evacuations. San Diego County OES develops plans and procedures to help the region prepare for, response to and recover from disasters; promoting and supporting and individual and family preparedness is an important part of the office’s work. No matter how prepared government agencies and first responders are, a region is only well-prepared when then people who live there are also prepared. Individual preparedness includes having ways to get critical information in an emergency and having a plan for how members of a household will survive and stay in touch during a disaster. AlertSanDiego is one of the region’s most powerful public information tools. The phone notification system managed by OES is used to call residents en masse in emergencies to notify them to evacuate or take other urgent actions. In the 2007 wildfires, AlertSanDiego made over five hundred thousand calls. The system contains every landline, with the phone companies providing those numbers. But if people want to get notified on their cell phones, they have to register their mobile numbers and addresses online. With an increasing number of households giving up their landlines, and with people expecting to get critical alerts wherever they are, it is essential San Diego County residents with cell phones register with AlertSanDiego. However, motivating people to take emergency preparedness steps in time of calm is always a challenge. Before the tent campaigns, AlertSanDiego contained 224,633 cell phone numbers, significantly fewer than the actual number of cell phone number is the region. Likewise, though most households in San Diego say they are prepared for a disaster, according to a survey conducted by OES, it is unclear how many have completed a formal Family Disaster Plan. This planning template created by OES includes taking steps such as establishing a family reunification point, home evacuation routes and an out of state-contact family members can report in to in case local lines are jammed. It also has checklists to help a family assemble an emergency kit with a minimum of 72-hours of emergency supplies. The County also had a need to promote a powerful new tool, the upgraded SD Emergency mobile app for Android and Apple devices. During an emergency, the app will carry news updates and show shelter locations, road closures and emergency maps. Before an emergency, the app allows people to complete a Family Disaster Plan on their mobile devices and share the plan with other family members. The upgraded app launched Jan. 6, and County wanted as many people as possible to install the powerful tool. 3. Description of the Program County OES has a history of using creative partnerships with the private sector to encourage people to prepare for emergencies. In 2012, a local auto dealership donated 800 emergency supply kits; the County gave them away to the first 800 people to register for AlertSanDiego at one of the dealerships. Prior to that, OES formed a partnership with Papa John’s pizza, with the company giving away 1,500 free medium pies to people who registered with AlertSanDiego. OES finds such opportunities because it maintains a close and meaningful link to the private sector: OES heads and supports the ReadySanDiego Business Alliance, a consortium of local businesses who meet regularly with a focus on making sure San Diego’s business community is resilient through disasters. Target Corporation is a strong partner in the Business Alliance, and because of the partnership, the company is attuned to OES’s mission. In 2013 Target offered to donate 5,000 brand new two-person camping tents to the public to support OES’s work. OES, based on their past successful giveaway campaigns, proposed to Target that the company offer the tents as incentives in preparedness campaigns. In return, the County could make it clear the tents were offered by Target—a marketing and goodwill-building opportunity for the local stores. In September 2013, the County ran its first tent campaign as part of “National Preparedness Month.” In San Diego County, preparedness month is especially meaningful: October is our peak wildfire season, when Santa Ana winds that fan fires are most likely. Knowing this, the media and the public are more receptive than usual in September to calls for residents to prepare. The first campaign, called “Pledge to Prepare,” was announced in a press conference with two County supervisors. Supervisor Ron Roberts and Supervisor Dave Roberts appeared before a panel of cameras and reporters to emphasize the importance of registering for AlertSanDiego and creating a family disaster plan. A striking beige and orange tent pitched on the lawn beside the supervisors showed the public the additional incentive—beyond personal safety—to act fast! In this promotion, people were asked to register for AlertSanDiego online and to complete a Family Disaster Plan. The first 2,000 people to register online would be notified by email and given a time range during which they could collect their tents in person. When they picked up the tent, they would show staff their completed disaster plan. In addition to the well-attended press conference, the media and public were also alerted to the promotion through a story on the County’s online news site, County News Center, and through County Facebook and Twitter accounts. During the campaign period, Sept. 10-Sept. 30, 5,175 people registered their cell phone numbers with AlertSanDiego. At OES, a student worker sent notifications to the first 2,000 people, notifying them of a week’s window during which they could collect their tents. Ultimately, about 1,200 people came in person to collect their tent and show their completed Family Disaster Plan. The “Resolve to be Ready” campaign, launched January 6, followed the same steps as the “Pledge to Prepare” campaign, with similar success. Besides asking people to register for AlertSanDiego and complete a Family Disaster Plan, the campaign asked people to install the upgraded SD Emergency mobile app. This campaign also included a widely covered press conference with County Supervisor Ron Roberts, a County News Center story, and social media. Likewise, participants in the campaign were told the first 3,000 people to register for AlertSanDiego, download the app and complete a Family Disaster Plan would get a tent. People without a smartphone could still participate by registering for AlertSanDiego and completing a traditional paper Family Disaster Plan. The campaign from Jan. 6 to Jan. 26 resulted in 4,450 new registrations to AlertSanDiego and 10,222 new installs of the upgraded app. Some 2,200 people picked up a tent and showed their Family Disaster Plans created in their app or on paper. 4. Responding to Economic Downturn N/A 5. Use of Technology To conduct the campaigns, OES established webpages for each campaign with instructions, easy-to-use electronic forms, and embedded email links so participants could write with questions. Additionally, winners were notified by email. To promote the campaign, two County Facebook accounts and two Twitter accounts were used to encourage people to participate in the campaigns and to interact with participants who had questions. 6. Cost of the Program With Target providing the tents, the program costs were composed entirely of County staff time. OES staff time consisted of an Emergency Services Coordinator (ESC), a student worker, and interns/volunteers. The ESC spent around 20 hours per campaign planning the event, developing the webpages, and ensuring that the all aspects of the campaign ran smoothly. The Student Worker spent around 30 hours per campaign tracking and informing the eligible participants, scheduling staff for the tent pick up, and assisting participants with questions. The interns/volunteers spent around 70 hours per campaign staffing the tent pick up location. Communications staff spent about 20 hours per campaign coordinating the media event, County News Center stories and social media. 7. Results/Success of the Program People love free stuff. The partnership with Target meant a new twist on an old and important preparedness message. The success of the campaigns began with wide media coverage, garnered in part because of the fun and quirky nature of the campaign that invited audiences to participate in a giveaway. The Pledge to Prepare campaign news conference was covered by television, radio and print media including Fox 5, CW6, NBC 7, KUSI, Univision, Telemundo, KPBS TV and radio, UT San Diego newspaper, UT-TV, KOGO Radio and City News Service. The Resolve to be Ready news conference was covered by even a few more outlets. Some people who heard or read about the campaigns through the media did not ultimately participate in the contest, but a wide audience heard the message about the importance of preparing for disasters or emergencies. Some will have heeded the message; for others, the seed of intention is at least planted. Maybe the next time they hear about preparing for disasters, or after a few more times, their intentions will grow into action. The successes of the campaigns were also measured by the result of prompting thousands of San Diegans to take steps to prepare for disasters. During the Pledge to Prepare Campaign period, Sept. 10-Sept. 30, 5,175 people registered their cell phone numbers with AlertSanDiego. This was a 762 percent increase in AlertSanDiego registrations for the month of September. Additionally, about 1,200 people picked up a tent and showed their completed disaster plan. The Resolve to be Ready campaign from Jan. 6 to Jan. 26 prompted 4,450 new registrations to AlertSanDiego and 10,222 new installs of the upgraded app. This was a 641percent increase in AlertSanDiego registrations and a 411 percent increase in SD Emergency installs for the month of January. Some 2,200 people picked up a tent and showed their Family Disaster Plans created in their app or on paper. 8. Worthiness of an Award The County Office of Emergency Services is charged with promoting disaster preparedness in the region, including to the region’s residents. When families are prepared for disasters and able to get critical information during disasters, they are more likely to survive a disaster and recover from it more quickly. While it would seem families have an innate incentive to prepare—especially in San Diego County where we’ve seen two devastating regional wildfires and are prone to more—many people postpone family preparedness indefinitely, because it doesn’t seem urgent. By forging strong partnerships with the private sector, OES is able to partner with businesses to offer residents incentives to prepare. In this latest case, the Target partnership meant people were offered an enticing incentive—a free tent. The incentive of a tent, coupled with effective media and social media promotion, a clear and easy-to-use campaign webpage, and preparedness messages that resonated with the media and residents, resulted in tens of thousands of San Diegan taking steps to prepare. Through two campaigns, the region added 9,625 new AlertSanDiego registrants, 10,222 new app users, and at least 3,400 families with a completed Family Disaster Plan. These are all residents who will have better access to emergency instructions and breaking news to help them make decisions in a disaster. Those who completed a Family Disaster Plan will have an easier time finding and staying in touch with family members and being self-sufficient if necessary in San Diego County’s next regional wildfire or other disaster. http://www.countynewscenter.com/news/tent-giveaway-inspires-residents-prepare http://www.countynewscenter.com/news/pledge-prepare-win-tent http://www.countynewscenter.com/news/san-diegans-upgraded-disaster-readiness-improved-app http://www.countynewscenter.com/news/resolve-be-ready-sd-emergency-mobile-app-gets-major-upgrade