City of Seattle

City of Seattle, Office of Emergency Management

The Situation

In May of 2015, the City of Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management asked us to develop a multi-dimensional campaign for Seattle's new emergency notification system, AlertSeattle. Tasked with developing the branding, messaging, collateral, earned media, media strategy and an introduction video for the program, we worked under a tight deadline to launch this vital safety project. 

The Approach

Soapbox developed a logo, tagline and established branding guidelines – ensuring that messaging was clear and could be easily translated for non-English speakers, as well as conveyed a sense of urgency and emergency. Team Soapbox also produced an informational video that aired on KING 5 (both a 15- and 30-second video), social media, and the AlertSeattle website. 

Once the media buy plan was developed, Soapbox worked rapidly to execute the buy from outdoor placements to negotiating bundles to producing web ads. All ads were monitored to ensure they were running as placed. For social media and AdWords, Soapbox performed A/B testing and monitored results, adjusting audiences, keywords and creative as needed for best results in the limited timeframe.

From there, we set forth with designing several marketing assets for AlertSeattle – everything from large-scale print materials like banners, posters and billboards, to web graphics and social media buttons, to informational flyers that were translated into 14 different languages. Much of this material focused on informational and instructional visuals with simple graphics, to make the campaign easily-digestible. 

The Results

Alert Seattle successfully launched on August 4th and by year-end had met and exceeded the original registration goal of 6,000. By the end of 2015, the Office of Emergency Management recorded more than 17,000 individuals had registered for AlertSeattle. The graphics we created are still used by the City of Seattle and our informational flyers are available at public libraries and community events on preparedness.

Seattle Department of Transportation

Seattle Department of Transportation | Play Like a Parking Pro

Creative Campaign Development |
Video Production | Design

The Situation

Parking. Just about everyone deals with it and talks about it. Team Soapbox was hired by the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to educate drivers about planned changes to on-street parking hours and rates in select neighborhoods around Seattle. Our challenge was to get drivers to pay attention before they get a parking ticket because they weren’t expecting the changes.
 

The Approach

SDOT charged Team Soapbox with developing a well-rounded and targeted public education campaign. Team Soapbox led the team that developed the visual concept and brand, messaging and tagline and created a multi-layered campaign that included a large advertising buy, production of a video that ran as a television ad and lives on the SDOT website,  as well as community outreach and grassroots marketing.

Playing off the notion that Seattleites like to be in the know, we created a theme related to knowing the rules of a game with a Monopoly-like graphic. Soapbox created three different graphics to be used in different areas of the city that would be seeing different changes, directing people to the SDOT parking website for more information about the changes.

Additionally, to raise awareness of the parking changes, Soapbox coordinated and managed the placement of ads with more than 20 major print, radio television and ethnic media outlets in Seattle. We dispatched street team members to farmers' markets and the International District to hand out postcard describing the changes. We also distributed postcards to retail locations in all of the areas where hours and rates would be changing.

The Results

Team Soapbox evaluated the success of the ads based on impressions, reach, and other metrics. We analyzed feedback received at community events and during street outreach, and feedback from retail locations. Additionally, SDOT received few complaints about the parking changes, which was an indication that people were getting the message and understanding the changes ahead of time.

This campaign was recognized with a PRSA Certificate of Excellence in 2018.