GovDelivery, the leading provider of cloud-based public sector communication solutions, today announced the federal recipients of its 2014 Outreach & Impact Awards, which the company presents to recognize organizations using digital communications to drive public engagement and action, increasing and promoting mission value and vision.
Presenting the awards at the 8th Annual Federal Communications Summit in Washington D.C., GovDelivery Senior Vice President of Enterprise Strategy Bobbie Browning said, “These agencies created exceptional ways to connect with and engage more people and get them to act. We hope their efforts inspire all government organizations, as well as our customers.”
Maximizer Award: Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
The Maximizer Award honors organizations that substantially build audience reach and online communities by utilizing digital marketing best practices.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), responsible for protecting the retirement incomes of more than 42 million American workers, wanted to work toward a frequent, tailored communication process for reaching and impacting their diverse customer base. By integrating multiple data sources to create a recipient list for a digital version of its “Retirement Recap” newsletter, it ushered in a new era of proactive communication about retirement security with all of its customers. Advanced bulletin design, campaign tracking, and advanced analytics provide greater insight into the needs and behaviors its customers. The organization is integrating this subscription list with multiple PBGC websites and applications to continue to grow its user base with each subsequent edition of the newsletter. The 12-point increase in customer satisfaction in the days following the mailing attests to the success of the emailed newsletter in improving PBGC’s information and service.
Designer Award: Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Information Network
The Designer Award honors organizations that highlight creative use of design and messaging to drive stakeholder action by influencing behavior or building public trust.
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN) is a trusted and secure system for collaborating on and sharing “Sensitive But Unclassified Information.” HSIN helps ensure the right people get the right information at the right time.
In 2013, HSIN had to meet three key objectives in a matter of months: migrate thousands of users to a new technology platform; improve the program’s reputation; and increase its user base. HSIN used “The Advocate,” a monthly PDF publication that merges creative design and targeted messaging to drive stakeholder action and reaches more than 38,000 subscribers through GovDelivery, some of whom are not yet registered users of HSIN, to execute on this campaign. The Advocate’s average open rate is 30 percent, far exceeding the 15-20 percent average open rate of commercial email marketing in the private sector. The newsletter helps the organization convince potential users to register and join the network.
Integrator Award: National Institute of Standards and Technology – Baldrige Performance Excellence Program
The Integrator Award honors organizations that integrate, streamline, or automate personalized messaging to increase departmental efficiency, ROI, and influence behavior.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Baldrige Performance Excellence Program wanted to recruit highly qualified volunteer examiners and promote registration for their Quest for Excellence® conference. So, in advance of the opening of the Fall 2013 award applications, Baldrige conducted an examiner recruitment campaign. Working through 40-plus state and sector programs that engaged with these volunteers, the campaign targeted candidates who previously had not been selected by sending out email and blog updates through GovDelivery.
The pre-Quest conference communications campaign helped meet the 500-person registration goal. Wide distribution of blog content through GovDelivery garnered an average click-through rate of 10 percent (900 readers) that helped grow the program’s customer base for other program offerings.
Collaborator Award: Department of Transportation – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA)
The Collaborator Award honors organizations that collaborate with others in the public sector to reach more people and incite action.
The Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) is the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) initiative designed to help employers in the trucking and bus industries make better-informed hiring decisions and, ultimately, improve the safety of America’s highways. Since participation in PSP is purely voluntary, FMCSA first focused on an educational campaign to encourage employer enrollment, which would ensure adoption and use of the program to put the safest drivers behind the wheels of large trucks and buses.
To accomplish its goals, FMCSA chose to partner with NIC Technologies for developing a website and an outreach initiative, and providing customer service on behalf of the agency. The agency chose GovDelivery’s communications platform for reaching employers, collaborating with public entities in and outside of DOT, and ensuring that data is imported into the PSP website on schedule. Since 2010, the PSP user base has grown more than 1,800 percent.
For more information about GovDelivery’s Outreach & Impact Awards or to learn about the individual agencies’ award winning campaigns visit http://govdelivery.com/resources/outreach-and-impact-awards.
