Local firm helps paint a portrait of America via census

Monday, Jan. 4, began early for the Weber Shandwick media relations team assigned to promote the 2010 census.

First there was an appearance they arranged on the "Today" show where Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Census Bureau director Robert Groves were interviewed on Rockefeller Plaza by the morning show's hosts, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker and Ann Curry.

Then it was on to CNN, CNBC, BusinessWeek and Time magazine.

On Tuesday, it was 30 back-to-back prearranged satellite interviews of Groves with local TV stations across the country, then a meeting with the New York Times followed by publishers of such magazines as Better Homes and Gardens and Ladies Home Journal.

The Weber Shandwick-engineered media blitz, dubbed the "Portrait of America Road Tour," was officially off and running.

The media-heavy launch was a success for the Bloomington-based team that has spent the past 2 1/2 years helping the U.S. Census Bureau get ready for the 2010 headcount, which officially begins Monday.

Weber Shandwick is one of 12 organizations working with a $340 million budget to spread the word about the census.

It's a plum assignment for the 150-employee outpost of the global public relations firm, which has offices in 77 countries, both in prestige and financially. Sara Gavin, president of the Bloomington office, won't disclose how much the agency is being paid for its work, but she acknowledged the relationship is "a significant engagement" that helped the office weather the 2009 recession.

"We're operating under a very simple proposition: We're trying to reach every person in the country," Gavin said. "It's an awesome job."

The office's current financial position is in notable contrast to early 2000, when it was laying off people and losing business along with other media firms.

Once an independent agency known as Mona, Meyer, McGrath & Gavin, the firm agreed to be acquired by Weber Shandwick with the hope that the global company's size would stabilize the workload. Weber Shandwick is a division of the Interpublic Group.

"There are only a handful of firms that have the resources to take on an assignment like this," Gavin said of the job with the Census Bureau. "It reinforces our decision years ago when we were wondering if the [new Weber Shandwick] business would take off."

The office counts among its clients prestige business such as the Federal Reserve Bank and Minnesota-based clients like Polaris as well as the Mall of America and the Prairie Island Dakota Community.

It has 25 members on its census team, which peaked at 40 earlier this year as the road tour was gearing up. Weber Shandwick Minneapolis, as the Bloomington office is called, is the lead agency on the census project, although some members of the team come from five other Weber Shandwick offices across the United States.

Randy Sands is the team leader. "We'll hit the media pretty hard between now and the end of April," he said about the effort to get folks to return the 10-question form that will arrive in the mail this week. "We'll also use Twitter, and the Census Bureau has a Facebook page and the census director is blogging."

Sands said the 2000 census was the first to purchase advertising time -- previously the government relied on public service announcements -- and participation rose for the first time in 30 years to a 72 percent response rate.

"We face some fundamental challenges up front," said Steve Jost, associate director of communications for the census. "We're a more complex and diverse population that we were just 10 years ago. Weber Shandwick brought a lot of expertise to the table that we didn't have including in social media and crisis communication."

Such social media, which didn't exist 10 years ago, are the best way to reach younger residents, Gavin said.

"This is the first time there's been a integrated communications plan," added Sands.

Similarly, the census message needed to be delivered in different ways to different communities to fit cultural and ethnic needs. Different colors, for instance, were used to convey more personal upbeat messages to certain segments of the population, Sands said. For Hispanics, he said, reds, oranges and yellows were incorporated into promotional material because those colors were associated with celebrations and joyful moments.

But the marketing campaign relies on some tried and true techniques, including the automotive equivalent of a whistle-stop campaign, this one with the name "Portrait of America Tour."

Since the Jan. 4 kickoff, 13 census-decorated vans and trucks have been criss-crossing the United States bearing the message "It's in your hands" in reference to the census questionnaire as well as a larger than life-size replica of the form.

There's a financial reason for getting as much mail participation as possible.

Folks that fail to return the census questionnaire will then be hand counted through personal contact from census takers. That costs $85 million for every 1 percent that has to be contacted in that manner, Gavin said.

Part of the message pushed by the Weber Shandwick team is that federal spending and programs are based on census findings and an accurate census means a state or a community won't be shortchanged when federal funds are distributed. Some $400 billion is at stake.

The census also affects representation in Congress where districts are based on population. Minnesota, for example, could lose a congressional seat if there is an unfavorable population shift between states.

Private industry uses census data as well.

Target Corp. for example, plans store locations and merchandise offerings based on census results. Joan Naymark, Target's director of market analytics and planning, said the Minneapolis-based retailer uses it "to make everyday business decisions."

"This is a once in a lifetime assignment," said Sands.

David Phelps • 612-673-7269