Gwinnett Transit Education Forum

Community Relations and Public Education Campaign for the 2020 Gwinnett Transit Referendum

Challenge
Gwinnett County, one of the most diverse counties in Georgia, is expected to reach 1.5 million in population by 2050. The County’s population crossed the 1 million mark in 2020, yet the existing transit system barely provides coverage beyond the main corridor along 1-85. In March of 2019, the Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners called a special election for a transit referendum that would be operated by MARTA. That referendum failed. The County listened to the citizens and revamped the proposed transit expansion system and decided to include another referendum on the 2020 General Election ballot on November 3.

c21 was hired by the Gwinnett Transit Education Forum, comprised of a group of concerned citizens, to manage an education campaign designed to provide voters with facts and statistics to illustrate the differences between the 2019 and 2020 Transit Referendum and to help voters choose their direction.

Solution
c21 developed the messaging and communications plan and managed email marketing, collateral development, video creation, website development, speaking engagements and media relations. We teamed with a public affairs organization to run social ads and conduct educational text and phoning campaigns.

Based on information from the County, c21 directed the messaging to ensure voters understood the key differences, which included that the proposed transit system would:

• Cover more than 90% of the County
• Be implemented more quickly (first 10 years vs. 20 years)
• Be managed and operated by Gwinnett County and that only the extension of heavy rail would be managed by MARTA (per state law)

The content depicted diverse individuals and a variety of messaging around transit, bus rapid transit, reduced carbon emissions and more. Two videos created by c21 were incorporated into the social ads as well as the website and email marketing. We built the website in two days, sent four e-blasts, managed media relations requests, scheduled multiple speaking engagements and held weekly updates with the committee.

Results

• Social ads were viewed more than 2 million times by Gwinnett County residents (impressions) and had 256K engagements tracked, where someone reacted, shared or liked the ad
• More than 60,000 Gwinnett County residents received educational phone calls and were receptive to the information in a 3.5 to 1 ratio
• 300,000 text campaigns were sent by hand
• Four e-blasts were distributed to an email list that grew from 4,000 to more than 18,000 with an average open rate of ~12%
• The educational videos were watched hundreds of times
• Media relations efforts resulted in 5 stories in local press, including the AJC, Gwinnett Daily Post, Gwinnett Forum and WSB-TV
• Media mentions resulted in a 4,629,385 audience reach
• The vote was essentially 50-50, with the referendum failing by only 1,000 votes. While it did not pass, the education campaign resulted in the closest vote in the history of the County with regard to transit expansion.