research planning implementation

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County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report

RESEARCH The County of Marin did not publish an annual report between 2009 and 2014 as a result of expense cuts and personnel challenges related to the economic downturn. Every four years, the County had a track record of creating an extensive and exhaustive “report to the community” publication. That continued despite the economic downturn, but the County only printed a few hundred copies and placed a PDF link on the County website. The revival of the County’s annual report effort in 2015 stemmed from the public’s requests for more transparency in government and the County’s desire for more public understanding about how services get delivered with taxpayer dollars. However, internal focus groups and internet research showed that a long, exhaustive annual report would be less effective than a high-level, easily digestible overview of the County’s programs and services. The result was a webpage that contained an all-animated words video (no narration) and a collection of high-level stats and infographics from most departments. While the result of the effort was successful in reenergizing the annual report effort, it fell short in visually capturing the work of the County of Marin. Beginning late 2016, the County’s communications team adopted a focus of “humanizing” the County’s work: showing the employees behind the work, illustrating the residents impacted, and telling the story behind public service. This would drive the formulation of the 2016 annual report. At the same time, the report would follow the high-level overview, or “at-a-glance” format from last year, designed with the residents in mind: using compelling imagery and eye-catching infographics to help viewers easily digest the information without digging through mountains of text or charts. A multimedia report would be produced to capture each resident learning style: through text, illustration and audio/video.

PLANNING The goal of the 2016 Marin At A Glance Annual Report was to provide Marin residents with a high-level overview of some of the County of Marin’s accomplishments from the 2016 fiscal year (July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016), through a multimedia approach: (a) website, (b) brief, downloadable PDF report, (c) overview video. The objectives were (1) increase viewership rate (both in video views and website visits) from the previous year’s annual report effort; and (2) more than half of viewers (whether reading the report or viewing the accompanying video) state that they learned something new from the report effort through an online survey connected to the Marin At A Glance website and video. With minimal budget available, the decision was made to produce the 2016 Marin At A Glance entirely in-house and use available resources for distribution (in contrast, $11,000 was spent on the 2015 report). The most cost-effective tactics for distribution included media outreach, social media promotion, e-mails subscribers, and sharing with key stakeholders. No printed report would be produced, but the PDF report would be marketed as downloadable and printable.

IMPLEMENTATION The information gathering process began in November 2016. The statistics used in the video, on the website and in the PDF report came from Measuring for Results (MFR) statistics maintained by the County Administrator’s Office (CAO). Each MFR performance metric was created by a County department, so it made perfect sense to show off the progress that a department made on its goals. Rather than using every stat available, the CAO public information team prioritized stats by newsworthiness. In addition to stats, short narratives (mostly a single sentence) were formulated by reviewing the County’s news release archive and Board of Supervisors meeting results for the fiscal year. The stats and the top 25 narratives were organized into five categories that reflected the County’s five countywide goals: Healthy Communities, Safe Communities, Sustainable Communities, Environmental Preservation and Community Participation. The design of the PDF report and video began in mid-December along with the development of the accompanying website, marincounty.org/2016. The PDF report cover and the video capitalized on images that represented the best of

County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report Marin: its scenic beauty and its people, both residents and County employees. Using 3D effects in Adobe After Effects, staff created what looked like full motion video with only photos provided by County departments and the CAO public information staff. To help measure the success of the report, a two-question survey was developed featured on the website and linked at the end of the video via a YouTube card. The video was close captioned and the PDF and website, were all tested and confirmed to meet Section 508 accessibility standards. The 2016 Marin At A Glance Annual Report was launched on January 31, 2017, with a formal presentation to the Board of Supervisors, which was live on the County webcast and on two local public access television stations. The report was rolled out publicly on February 1 via news release, announcement to email subscribers, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn). In addition, the report video was shared with the public access TV stations for regular rotation on its government channel. Facebook and YouTube posts were boosted targeting Marin County residents. At various times throughout 2017, the annual report website and video assets were re-shared on the County’s social media accounts.

RESULTS / EVALUATION The 2016 At A Glance Annual Report achieved its goal of providing a high-level overview of the County achievements and successes from the 2016 fiscal year via a multimedia report. The product also met its planned objectives: • Increased viewership rate (video and web visits) over previous year: o Google Analytics shows that visits to marincounty.org/2016 were 14% higher than visits to the 2015 Annual Report website. In addition, the 2016 report garnered 49% more “new users” than the previous year. o On YouTube, the video received 14% more organic views as the previous year (1,200 vs 1,044), and a paid boost increased the total number of views over last year by 173% (2,945 total views). The average view duration increased by 20 seconds over 2015, even with a shorter video. o On Facebook, the material was not presented in the same manner from 2015 to 2016, and a more robust budget allowed for a greater number of paid video views in 2015, so it’s impossible to conduct and apples-to-apples comparison. However, the 2016 content generated 36% more shares than the previous year, even with a smaller budget. • More than half of video and/or web viewers learned something new: Eighty percent of online survey respondents indicated they learned something new after viewing the annual report, and 33% offered additional qualitative feedback about the subjects covered in the video, reinforcing their connection with the content.

BUDGET INFORMATION Hard costs for the 2016 Marin At A Glance annual report project totaled $150. Costs include $70 for paid social media boosts ($30 on Facebook and $40 on YouTube) and $80 for video production assets ($40 for music license and $40 paid voiceover talent). Soft costs included four staff members devoting time to the project. Two staff members spent about five hours each week for a seven-week period for data collection and prioritization, design review and editing, and preparing materials for the public rollout. Another staff member devoted about 30 hours each week for four weeks in designing the PDF report and video. Finally, a member of the Information Services and Technology Department contributed about seven hours of website design support.

County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report

ANNUAL REPORT VIDEO: Watch video online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfDtsN7cQes

Pop-up link at end of video, directing viewers to online survey.

County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report

PDF REPORT SAMPLE: (full report included at end of this packet)

County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report

MARIN AT A GLANCE WEBSITE (Online: https://www.marincounty.org/2016)

Mention of online survey

County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report

SAMPLE FACEBOOK POSTS

County of Marin, County Administrator’s Office Marin At A Glance 2016 2018 HERMES Creative Awards >> Category #148: E-Annual Report

SAMPLE TWITTER POSTS

Sample public response: