The Challenge

Every hour, one football field-worth of coastal land along the Gulf of Mexico disappears because of coastal erosion. The Mississippi River Delta Restoration Coalition, which includes bipartisan stakeholders and state and federal agencies, was formed to address the restoration of the Mississippi River Delta. The Coalition selected Rockit Science as its Agency of Record to engage both the public and politicians in rallying behind the message and methods of long-term, large-scale coastal restoration.

The Coalition brought an additional initial challenge within their goal: Create compelling interest from both the public and politicians in order to ensure their votes would protect more than a billion dollars of earmarked funds from BP's Deepwater Horizon settlement that were being eyed for redistribution by state and federal entities.

The Approach

The core strategy was to influence high-frequency voters (Tier 1) to take action by pledging to support continued coastal restoration. Encouraging all candidates across the gubernatorial election at that time to publicly adopt coastal restoration support messaging was also a core mission. Over the multi-year engagement, Rockit Science employed both qualitative and quantitative research models to identify issues and priorities most important to each target audience. At multiple crucial points across the timeline of the gubernatorial election, the Agency examined datasets that gave feedback on all of the data-driven messaging variables under consideration. Coupled with concrete research, the Agency utilized intuitive insights and best practices developed during its extensive strategy process, which included a pilot campaign that was tested across traditional and non-traditional tactical landscapes.