Do you listen to the radio daily? Drive past any billboards on your way to work or the store? Chances are you answered yes to at least one of these questions, and that’s exactly what a locally-led water quality campaign is counting on. Clear Choices Clean Water, an educational campaign started in 2010 to raise awareness of how individual actions impact water quality, has expanded this year to include radio advertisements and billboards.
The Clear Choices Clean Water campaign has a variety of supporters who aid in the program’s development, including the Upper White River Watershed Alliance, several local municipalities including the Town of Cicero, non-profit organizations, and others. These groups have come together to promote four simple choices individuals can make to have a positive impact on water quality:
- Use phosphorus-free fertilizer or no fertilizer on lawns
- Pick up pet poo regularly and dispose of it properly
- Use native plants in landscaping, especially in a rain garden or along a shoreline
- Properly maintain septic systems
To get these messages out through radio, the Clear Choices Clean Water team has become the sponsor of the WZPL/WNTR/WXNT 1 Thing campaign. The 1 Thing Campaign offers sustainable information content for homes, schools, work, and communities all around us. It works to promote the idea that whatever it is, if all of us just do 1 Thing, we can make our world a better place. Clear Choices Clean Water will be the 1 Thing sponsor during March, April, and May and will be featured in advertisements on the station webpages, a direct email to 35,000 interested listeners, internet radio commercials, Facebook posts reaching 17,000 fans, and much more. Clear Choices Clean Water was also part of the stations’ loyalty programs for four weeks, during which time 681 individuals answered our trivia questions, 392 answered our survey questions (leading 239 individuals to take our online pledge), and 1,177 people clicked through to the Clear Choices webpage from the 1 Thing site. These are exciting results so early in the year!
In addition to the 1 Thing sponsorship, the Clear Choices Clean Water team also purchased commercial spots on several radio stations: 99.5 WZPL, my107.9 WNTR, Q95 WFBQ, X103 WRZX and 1260 AM WNDE. The total number of listeners reached through this combine effort topped 1,244,200 each week. Commercials in March and April focused on fertilizer and native plants while commercials in May and June will shift to focus on pet poo and septic systems.
To further expand the reach of this important campaign, various billboards in Central Indiana will feature Clear Choices Clean Water messages from March through August. The current schedule includes two locations per month for six months, covering rural areas like State Road 38 in Sheridan and State Road 19 in Cicero in addition to more urban zones like I-69 at 96th Street in Fishers, 86th Street and Michigan Road in Indianapolis, and US 31 in Greenwood and Franklin. The billboard topic will vary depending on the location and time of year.
Keep your eyes and ears open! The Clear Choices Clean Water team hopes you will experience some of these advertisements and that you’ll be motivated to visit our website, learn more, and take a pledge to make a difference! You can also “like” us on Facebook to show your support for clean water.