Census Bureau starts hunt for ad agencies for 2010 campaign

By Ira Teinowitz
AdAge.com
(February 9, 2006) The U.S. Census Bureau has started the hunt for advertising and PR agencies to help with its next once-a-decade survey of the American public.

While the census doesn’t take place for another four years -- the research will begin in April 2010 -- the Census Bureau is already gearing up for a “dress rehearsal” of forms and procedures in 2008. It has invited advertising agencies, public-relations agencies and “communication-related agencies” for a morning “talk” Feb. 17.

According to a notice on a government Web site, the meeting is an attempt to give potential agencies “a glimpse of the campaign’s possible objectives” and get “input … to obtain an understanding of current best practices in the industry regarding media usage, strategies, tactics, audience segmentation,” among other things.

Census Bureau officials said they want the conference to open a dialogue with the ad community on what’s needed for 2010. A request for proposals will come later, though the officials wouldn’t say when.

Lucrative business
The good news for the winning agencies is that the census contract is high-visibility and relatively lucrative work. Unlike most government ad contracts, which call for advertising over a long period, the bureau spends a lot of money spent in a very short time. The push around the last census was valued at around $100 million to the Young & Rubicam-lead team of agencies that executed it.

In addition, the agencies’ should find it easier to improve the rate of returns than in the past, because the unpopular long-form questionnaire that went out to one in every four households has been replaced by information the Bureau gathers through American Community Surveys.

The contract does, however, come with challenges. Getting households to fill out census forms -- the main task of the ad campaign -- hasn’t been easy in recent decades. (It was the poor rate of returns that prompted the Census Bureau to abandon its traditional dependence on public-service ads and switch to paid ads for the last census.) What’s more, increased publicity over breaches of consumers’ privacy present a new challenge for the bureau and its agencies.

“You don’t know,” said David McMahon, a bureau spokesman. “With people worried about things like identify theft and hacking, you don’t know how people feel toward privacy.” Stephen Buckner, director-public relations and events, said the question of how to deal with privacy issues is something that the agencies will need to tackle. “Certainly concerns about privacy have been raised. A lot of research needs to be done.”

Lower return rates cost millions
The campaign for the 2000 census was themed “This is your future. Don't leave it blank,” and included a Super Bowl spot. The bureau credited it with helping to increase return rates.

Those return rates are important because when mailed forms aren’t sent back, enumerators are sent door to door to collect information from missing households. Those enumerators are expensive. In 2000, the Bureau estimated it cost $30 million additional every time return rates dropped 1%.

The Census Bureau hasn’t said how much will be spent on the marketing push, but there are hints that the winning agencies could have a robust budget. The bureau said in its documents that the aim for 2010 is to reduce the costs of doing the census from the $12.3 billion that would be required to repeat the processes used in 2000. One way to hold down the costs: Get more households to submit their questionnaires.


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