A Strategy for Clean Air
In 2004, the organic growth of the The Clean Air Campaign (CAC) web site had devolved into a mess of tangled, unrelated, content threads, and an unwieldy, unintuitive, navigation structure. While CAC prided themselves on the breadth and depth of content and knowledge related to health, environmental, and business aspects of air quality and alternate transportation, the CAC web site obscured this knowledge behind organizationally compartmentalized structure and public relations-styled content that was impossible for commuters, researchers, advocates, businesses, or the general public to find and understand. The site was not easily updated and required coders to make even the simplest content changes. Additionally, CAC was using a home-grown and outmoded email management system that was cumbersome to use and required daily manual intervention by staff members. The Clean Air Campaign chose Matter to help them sort things out.
The Clean Air Campaign is a not-for-profit organization that motivates Georgians to take action to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion. They focus on both congestion and air quality because they are linked — vehicle emissions are a major contributor to smog formation. Formed in 1996 by government, business, civic, health, environmental and educational organizations, CAC is one of 10 organizations in the region implementing strategies that improve mobility, also known as transportation demand management (TDM). CAC also administers and provides marketing support for regional incentive programs that encourage commuters to use commute alternatives such as carpooling, transit, vanpooling, teleworking, biking and walking.
Matter understood CAC wanted to raise awareness, increase funding and sponsorship, increase program availability and usage, promote program success, and prove CAC effectiveness in their mission. To achieve this, Matter first developed an understanding of the audiences consuming CAC messages and services, and developed a communications and content strategy to make it easy for those audiences to understand the complex but valuable information and resources The Clean Air Campaign possess.
As a first step, to accomplish this goal, Matter designed a research approach to first identify the primary audience and their specific needs and motivations. With this research, we wanted to understand personal preferences around commute choices and habits, understand why individuals choose to participate (or not) in commute alternatives, explore available Employer programs and level of employee awareness about their existence, understand perceptions and usage behaviors of public transportation, explore perceptions of air quality and traffic, and understand the level of awareness commuters had of the Clean Air Campaign.
We did this with in-depth conversations with regular commuters, alternate method commuters, and employer partners conducted within the context of their homes and work environments. The participants described their commuting habits, preferences, and decision criteria. During our visits with commuters, our researchers “shadowed” commuters during a typical daily commute in order to better understand their activities and perceptions of traffic, air quality, commute alternatives, and awareness of the Clean Air Campaign. We also conducted four executive interviews with a variety of participants including Clean Air Campaign board members, an employee partner and PACE Award winner, and an Executive Director of a regional Transportation Management Authority. The following is a collection of findings from the research.
TRAFFIC FRUSTRATIONS
Everyone is frustrated by the traffic in metro-Atlanta, particularly during the prime commuting times or rush hours.
TELECOMMUTING
All participants were interested and willing to participate in telecommuting, primarily based on the idea of working from home and secondarily not having to commute into work. There is an interesting phenomenon around telecommuting in that it is not necessarily seen as a commute alternative; rather it is the opportunity to work from home.
LIFE SITUATION IMPACTS COMMUTE FLEXIBILITY
It is a simple fact that personal life and family situation will exclude certain commute alternatives as viable options.
ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS ARE LOWEST PRIORITY
While all participants voiced their frustration about Atlanta traffic and a desire to have something done about it, none of them voiced any concerns about air quality until prompted.
MARTA IS VIEWED NEGATIVELY
Both car commuters and alternate commuters view the public transportation system, MARTA, in a negative light. Alternate commuters, who have had more direct experience with MARTA, have the most negative opinions of the transportation system.
COMMUTE TIME
Traffic volume and commute time have a direct cause and effect relationship, but they are equal contributors to commuter frustration.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Current public transportation infrastructure is seen as the biggest hurdle for participation.
A PERFECT FIT
For commute alternatives to be successful or even considered, they have to be convenient and “fit” the individual situation.
EMPLOYEE PROGRAMS
To compensate for limited individual knowledge of available alternatives, it is key to provide programs and education through employers.
PERSONAL COMMITMENT AND BENEFIT
In spending time with alternate commuters it was found there has to be a certain level of personal commitment to make commuting successful.
Using the results of our research analysis and overall communications strategy, Matter created a plan of design for the web site. Matter took this new understanding and mapped it to the new website design including site navigation, appropriate content, and functionality. We selected and employed the right web site administration, content management, and email management processes and technology to enable rapid response to CAC constituent needs.
As we focused on the web site itself, we organized the site architecture, features, and function to support users’ ease of navigation, intuitive understanding of what content is available and how best to make use of the information. To convey an image of The Clean Air Campaign as professional, forward thinking, partner-attractive, and absolutely authoritative, we designed the site and content to project this image and rise above the noise of a hundred other “clean air” organizations’ web sites.
By fulfilling these requirements, Matter designed The Clean Air Campaign web site to not only provide its audiences a satisfying experience, but to become an appropriate expression of the organization’s status and values, and to become representative of the depth and value of the organization’s resources and information.
Good Clean Air Campaign experiences translate to increased participation in commute solutions and an increase in commuter desire to get involved to clean up our air resources.
“Too often communication consultants tell the clients what they want to hear. With the Matter team, I was always impressed with the way that their insights created the impetus for change. Working with Matter changed our approach, our way of thinking. If you want to fix a car, hire a mechanic. If you want to create a new dialogue, a new relationship with your customer, hire the Matter team.” – Michael Halicki, Communications Director, The Clean Air Campaign
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