Shared Success Media Event
Challenge
To celebrate and create awareness of a historic environmental cleanup of a future retail site on the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony (RSIC).
Nevada Brownfields Program, a land-recycling effort overseen by the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP), joined efforts with the RSIC on a site cleanup. The site, formerly a machine shop, a commercial printer and a sheet metal fabrication factory, was highly contaminated with lead and asbestos. NDEP’s Brownfield’s program awarded RSIC $950,000 in grant funds to restore the land, putting it back into productive use. The site now hosts a retail center that opened in late 2010. The project was the first of its kind in Nevada and the first on an Indian-owned site in the entire Western region.
The Nevada Brownfields Program is a resource for funds to be used by land owners and developers to allow contaminated or perceived contaminated land to be rehabilitated and reused.
Communication Goals
- To celebrate the historic event with invited guests, including local and regional dignitaries
- To garner positive local media coverage with major outlets
- To earn an average message analysis of 95 percent and an earned media value of $17,000 through media relations
Diagnostic Stage:
Discovery
We worked with RSIC, NDEP and the Environmental Protection Agency to determine the target audiences.
Prescribing Stage:
Strategy
We recommended and managed a press event format to illustrate and celebrate the collaborative effort needed to restore a once contaminated site. Attendees included all contributing agencies as well as regional media and local and state elected officials.
Implementation
A press conference was held at the site. We produced a media kit that was distributed to all major regional media outlets. We also pitched the story by desk-side meetings.
Evaluation
- Event attendees included many dignitaries including Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons
- Average message analysis score of 100 percent
- Earned media value of $26,454.24
