Student filmmakers create Department’s Value of Water Public Service Announcements

About the Program

Category: Civic Education and Public Information (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

It has become vital that the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD) educate and engage its customers and visitors through non-traditional media methods, going beyond routine press releases. WASD’s Public Affairs Division created the Value of Water Public Service Announcement Video Contest in 2017 to maximize three components of the division’s mission: engage underserved audience (young people), utilize non-traditional methods of message delivery (movie theaters) and promote a key department message (value of WASD’s drinking water). Miami-Dade County is categorized as an in-migration community, meaning a significant portion of the community has moved here from other countries where tap water was not considered safe to drink. The bias against drinking tap water is a mindset that WASD constantly battles, especially when the convenience and unlimited marketing budgets of commercial bottled water companies is factored in. Student film-makers filmed and edited original material depicting the Value of Water by Imagining a Day Without Water as their inspiration. The winning PSA was aired for five weeks at 14 area theaters to an audience of 445,108, which is budgeted out at a cost of 11 cents per person. WASD also gained value-added benefits through the implementation of this contest: nearly tripling its average added social media followers during a 5-week boosted ad on Facebook and Instagram and increased traffic to its website where new browsers had the opportunity to learn more about additional programs and services.