Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen • December 2017 | Page 11
SUNSHINE 811 RESPONDS
TO HURRICANE IRMA
WITH SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC
AWARENESS CAMPAIGN
Hurricane Irma’s
unprecedented power
outages got a lot of press.
People knew what to do
when they encountered an
above-ground electric line,
but no one warned them of
underground lines.
So Sunshine 811 developed
an earned media campaign
that came together in less
than a week after Hurricane
Irma to take advantage of
Irma’s major news draw. It
ran Sept. 13 – Nov. 30 and
educated Floridians on
the need to call 811 before
any digging – even storm
recovery.
The move was necessary
after people started piling
up their damaged fencing
by the road. Recent damage
statistics show fence installs
are one of the larger causes
of underground facility
damages in Florida and the
hardware stores were busy
selling fencing.
We approached media
outlets to run free public
service announcements
and submitted letters to the
editor.
by Sunshine 811 at no cost.
We also partnered with our
member Spectrum Reach,
a digital media network, to
run storm-themed pre-roll
video and digital display ads
to customers near 113 Home
Depot stores in Gainesville,
Naples, Ft Myers, Sarasota,
Miami, Fort Lauderdale,
Jacksonville, Tampa, St.
Petersburg, West Palm
Beach and Orlando.
Finally, we developed a
campaign landing page
and toolkit of all outreach
materials related to Irma
clean-up and asked our
members to use them to
educate their customers.
Running Sept. 13 – Nov. 30,
this integrated campaign
that came together in less
than a week after Hurricane
Irma have been outstanding:
Banners and pre-roll videos
generated 856,437 highly
qualified impressions
(views).
Sunshine 811’s “After the
Storm” webpage, which
included the toolkit of
communications materials
for member facility
operators, was visited by
1,346 people.
Our website saw an increase
in overall web traffic of 18
percent and a 22 percent
increase in new visitors over
2016.
Total first time callers (15,157)
for the campaign’s duration
saw a 14 percent increase
over the same month in
2016; and October was a
record-breaking month with
6,014, up 35 percent.
Nearly 90 radio and
television stations (English
and Spanish) in all Florida
counties aired public service
announcements provided
DECEMBER 2017 • DITCHMEN
11