Recognizing Excellence in Government IT Marketing

The 2011 GovMarks winners were announced on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church Va. Winners were recognized in the following categories:

• Outstanding Federal Civilian Marketing Programs
• Outstanding State and Local Marketing Programs
• Outstanding Creative Marketing Programs
• Outstanding Interactive Marketing Programs
• Best Overall Campaign

This year's selection committee includes:

• Ken Allen, ACT/IAC
• Larry Allen, Allen Federal Business Partners
• Cindy Auten, Telework Exchange
• Suzanne Behrens, Microsoft
• Tricia Davis-Muffett, IPS Learning
• Dena McLaughlin, General Services Administration
• Mark Meudt, General Dynamics Information Technology
• Cori Minton, IBM
• Teresa Rivera, Department of Interior
• Josh Sawislak, Clio Strategies
• Tom Temin, Federal News Radio

Click here to view the full release announcing this year's winners.

The 2011 winners are as follows:

Outstanding Federal Civilian Marketing Program
Organization: Office of Citizen Services & Innovative Technologies, General Services Administration
Campaign: USA.gov Mobile Apps Gallery

Goals:

• Improve customer service to keep pace with private-sector standards
• Drive real-time service delivery in government
• Turn usa.gov into an interactive storefront
• Make information more accessible to citizens

Strategy:

• Launched apps.usa.gov - which provides links to more than 50 free, widely compatible mobile apps including:
• Product Recalls: Users type in a product name to see if it has ever been recalled
• My TSA: Provides information regarding items that are allowed in carry-on or checked baggage, ID requirements and liquids rules, tips for packing, and real-time operating status for U.S. airports
• IRS2go: Allows taxpayers to check on the status of their refund, sign up for helpful tax tips, and get the most recent IRS Twitter feeds
• Alternative Fuel Locator: Helps users find stations for alternative fuel

Results:

• Launched in July 2010, apps.usa.gov started small with about 20 apps available for download – today, there are more than 50 apps available

Outstanding Federal Civilian Marketing Program
Organization: NetApp
Campaign: 1,100: How Many Data Centers Does It Take

Goals:

• Engage government and focus conversation on areas critical to NetApp’s product offering
• Demonstrate understanding of government IT challenges and clearly underscore market commitment
• Generate new qualified sales leads and high-value relationships. Minimum of 250 qualified government IT end-user or system integrator decision makers

Strategy:

• In partnership with MeriTalk, NetApp developed the “1,100: How Many Federal Data Centers Does It Take…” event and invited government and industry IT leaders to engage in dialogue on how the Federal government can move toward rationalizing its data center operations
• NetApp positioned the 1,100 conference as a public-private event by engaging its partners as sponsors and working with government leaders via a Program Advisory Group. The Program Advisory Group consisted of government data center consolidation leaders, NetApp executives, and partner executives who worked together to build the program and drive attendee marketing
• The event agenda consisted primarily of government speakers – of the event’s 15 speakers, 10 were from government
• NetApp leveraged a variety of attendee marketing tactics to drive event registration including:
• Registration landing page on the MeriTalk Web site
• E-mail marketing
• Partner marketing
• Social media
• Telemarketing
• Online advertising
• Promotion via Program Advisory Group
• To extend the momentum following the event, NetApp developed a survey focused on Federal IT professionals and systems integrators’ perceptions of the administration’s consolidation guidance, key barriers, and recommendations to meet goals. NetApp fielded the survey at the 1,100 event. Following the event, NetApp and MeriTalk distributed the results to media, driving new and organic thought leadership, media coverage, and qualified leads

Results:

• Total event registration: 658
• Total attendance: 452 – exceeding the attendance goal of 250
• Total speakers: 15
• Overall event rating according to attendees: 4.19
• Study Downloads: 269
• Press briefings: 9
• Press clips: 40
• Sample coverage: DataCenterDynamics, Data Center Knowledge, The Data Center Journal, Green Data Center News, InformationWeek, Government Technology, Federal Computer Week, Federal News Radio, and Newschannel 8’s Federal News Tonight, among others

Outstanding Federal Civilian Marketing Program
Organization: RightNow Technologies
Campaign: Federal Customer Experience Study

Goals:

• Study the existing state of government customer service compared to that of the private sector and highlight opportunities for improvement
• Raise RightNow’s visibility in the Federal market as a customer experience thought leader
• Promote RightNow’s solutions

Strategy:

• Surveyed 1,000 Americans ages 18 and older to gauge their expectations and perceptions of Federal agencies’ customer service
• Compared “typical” and “best” experiences interacting with both private companies and Federal agencies
• Identified opportunities for improvement
• RightNow and MeriTalk published the study online and promoted it to an e-mail list of more than 54,000 contacts. Additionally, they proactively sought media coverage that would reach a predominately government audience
• Followed up on the study by hosting a Webinar featuring a panel discussion with:
• Sheila Campbell, Director, Center for Customer Service Excellence, Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, General Services Administration
• Scott McIntyre, Former Director of Business Development, Best Buy
• Kevin Paschuck, Vice President, Public Sector, RightNow Technologies
• MeriTalk founder Steve O’Keeffe presented the study at the 2010 RightNow Summit, which brought together RightNow’s clients, partners, and industry thought leaders for one of the biggest customer experience events of the year

Results:

• Study downloads: 245
• Webinar registrants: 318
• Webinar participants: 118
• Press clips: 15+
• General Services Administration included the study’s findings as part of a presentation given at the 2011 Government Web and New Media Conference (http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/documents/transforming-customer-experience.pdf)

Outstanding Federal Civilian Marketing Program
Organization: Telework Exchange and Cisco
Campaign: National Telework Week

Goals:

• Demonstrate the tangible benefits of telework
• Encourage agencies to jumpstart their telework programs during a Telework Week from February 14-18, 2011

Strategy:

• Telework Exchange, in coordination with Cisco, launched the nationwide Telework Week initiative with a national press release on November 17, 2010, via the Telework Week Web site
• Individuals and organizations were prompted to visit www.teleworkexchange.com/teleworkweek to pledge to telework during the week of February 14-18, 2011
• Telework Exchange collected data for each pledge in order to calculate the total impact of the initiative on an ongoing basis
• Marketing efforts leading up to Telework Week included:
• Multiple e-blasts to the Telework Exchange listserv of more than 19,000 contacts
• Banner advertisements
• Social media outreach
• Telework Turf Awards contest
• Affiliate and partner promotions
• Blog posts
• Telework-focused Webcast series
• Outreach to agencies, organizations, and Congressional representatives encouraging them to back the campaign
• WTOP radio ads
• Telework Exchange released a post-Telework Week research report titled “Filling the Tank With Telework: The 2011 National Telework Week Impact.” The report was based on pledge data analysis and information gathered from a post-event survey covering benefits, challenges, and efficiencies realized by participants

Results:

• 39,694 employees across the nation teleworked during the week of February 14-18, 2011, with 86 percent of participants representing the Federal government
• Participants collectively saved $2.7 million in commuting costs and gained back more than 148,000 hours
• 1,818 tons of pollutants were spared from the environment
• The first Webcast drew a total of 477 attendees and 132 unique downloads
• The second Webcast was a media-only event held on March 29, 2011. Attendees from Federal Computer Week, WTOP, and other publications heard from Cisco’s Dan Kent about the results of the post-Telework Week report
• Telework Exchange and Cisco hosted the final Webcast on May 24, 2011, with a focus on lessons learned from Telework Week 2011. At the time of submission, more than 430 individuals had registered to attend
• Press clips highlighting Telework Week results: 65
• Sample coverage: Bloomberg, Businessweek, Federal Computer Week, Federal News Radio, Financial Times, Government Computer News, GreenBiz.com, MSNBC Radio, NBC-4, NextGov, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and WTOP

Outstanding State and Local Marketing Program
Organization: Rhode Island Interactive
Campaign: RI Recreational Saltwater Fishing Registry Program Marketing Campaign

Goals:

• Create a Web application allowing users produce a saltwater fishing license from home
• Create a Web application for vendors to produce a saltwater fishing license at their store locations
• Generate public awareness of the new law requiring a saltwater fishing license
• Create a platform that clearly explains the difference between the RI program and the Federal Saltwater Fishing Registry, which was free in 2010 and recognized in RI
• Sign vendors on to help sell licenses at their store locations via an incentive program

Strategy:

• Develop and support a licensing system allowing resident and non-resident fishermen to purchase a license online, permitting an individual to recreationally fish in marine waters of Rhode Island
• To foster public awareness, the RI Department of Environmental Management, Fish and Wildlife Division (RI DEM), under RII consultation, created www.saltwater.ri.gov. The site:
• Explains the specifics of RI General Law § 20-2.2-4 and the differences between the free Federal Registry licenses
• Confirms that the money collected from the RI Registry goes back to funding the Division of Fish and Wildlife programs
• Provides links to the licensing application and a list of participating vendors
• To further promote services, RII and the RI DEM issued a press release
• RI DEM demonstrated the licensing application at the 2010 New England Saltwater Fishing Expo
• To attract potential vendors, the RI DEM created an incentive program that allows vendors to retain a portion of the licensing fee for every license sold. RII facilitated the vendor system training along with authoring an accompanying user guide

Results:

• Even though there was a free Federal Saltwater Fishing License Registry that is lawfully recognized and the RI license carries a fee of $7 for the calendar year for resident licenses, a $10 per calendar year for non-resident licenses, and a $5 temporary seven-day license option; the new service was instantly popular – more than 275 licenses were issued online in the first 24 hours
• From mid-April 2010, when services launched, to the end of the 2010 calendar year, there were approximately 15,697 licenses sold. Of the 15,697 sold:
• 14,114 were from the online Web application
• 1,583 were from the seven vendors that signed up to participate in selling licenses in their stores
• 7,707 were the $7 resident calendar year license
• 2,845 were the $10 per calendar year non-resident licenses
• 831 were 5-day temporary licenses sold for $5 each
• The remaining licenses were free licenses for seniors over 65 years of age and active-duty military
• In 2011, the Federal Registry Program adopted a $15 annual fee with the majority of RI’s reciprocal states not recognizing the Federal license. The RI saltwater fishing license became not only a good cause for fish and wildlife programs in RI, but a cost saving option in 2011 as well

Outstanding State and Local Marketing Program
Organization: Texas Department of Information Resources
Campaign: Texas.gov

Goals:

• Generate awareness of the new Texas.gov Web site and brand
• Drive traffic and transactions on the Web site
• Achieve broad reach across Texas
• Supplement paid media with the use of government-donated space
• Extend advertising reach, earn media coverage, and connect with Texans

Strategy:

• Developed a sustainable, versatile creative message conveying the wide array of services available on Texas.gov
• Utilized a variety of advertising media including online/interactive, outdoor, print, and radio
• Extended the campaign’s lifecycle and reach by scheduling ‘waves’ of media
• Supplemented earned media with unique, State-donated media including ‘larger than life’ exterior government building sign placements, location-based signage in elevators and stairwells, IMAX advertisements, and even a free, prime tailgate location for a University of Texas football game
• Extended advertising reach by filling ‘silent’ periods with public relations activities
• Targeted Texas residents, businesses, and professionals. Most campaign activities focused on the Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio metropolitan areas where 76 percent of the Texas population 18 years and older resides
• PR initiatives also extended into the Rio Grande Valley and focused on the Spanish-speaking population in the Harlingen/Brownsville/McAllen metro area

Results:

• Generated awareness:
• Achieved 227.4+ million impressions across advertising media
• Received 547,000+ PR impressions
• Drove traffic and transactions:
• 100% of the online services featured in the campaign grew in transaction volume
• Google Adwords campaign received 11,000+ clickthroughs and 26.3% conversion rate
• Texas.gov overall revenue grew 9%
• Achieved broad reach:
• Advertising/PR activities ran in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, and the Rio Grande Valley
• Online and radio activities extended statewide
• Supplemented paid media with government-donated space
• Exterior and interior building signs in State employee parking garages displayed for 113 days free-of-charge
• Texas.gov IMAX ad displayed for 3.5 aggregate months, during this time more than 200,000 movie tickets were sold
• Extended advertising reach, earned media coverage, and connected with Texans
• Conducted Texas.gov launch press event and Spanish audio news release
• 43 Texas.gov-related press clips
• Engaged with Texans via social media and football tailgate event

Outstanding State and Local Marketing Program
Organization: Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Utah.gov
Campaign: Utah Broadband Project Web Site

Goals:

• Develop an outreach strategy targeting industry and government leaders to cultivate support for the Utah Broadband Project, a comprehensive resource used to develop and execute broadband mapping and planning efforts within the State: http://www.utah.gov/broadband
• Set up speaking and public gathering opportunities to build project awareness and participation
• Utilize the Web site and incorporate social media technologies such as Twitter, Flickr, Slideshare, YouTube, and RSS blog feed to increase citizen awareness and participation

Strategy:

• Hosted numerous events, including the 2010 Utah Broadband Roundtable
• Issued several press releases covering project developments
• Speaking Opportunities: Key industry leaders were targeted locally and nationally to attend telecom-focused engagements nationwide
• Web Site and Social Media: Utilized the Web site and incorporated social media technologies:
• Twitter @utahbroadband: 194 tweets/207 followers/on 16 public lists
• Used SlideShare to make presentations public and downloadable: http://slideshare.net/utahbroadband
• Blogged project news, events, and updates on the Utah Broadband Blog
• Worked with several critical parties to develop the site (GOED, AGR, PSC, and Utah.Gov)

Results:

• Broadband Provider Participation Rate: 100%
• Site Visits: 6,000
• Speed Tests Taken: 3,000
• Press Recognition: Both local and national recognition, including MSNBC
• The Utah Broadband Mapping Project is considered extremely successful within the state and serves as a comprehensive model for other states as they map and plan their broadband expansion

Outstanding Creative Marketing Program
Organization: Kansas.gov (Kansas Information Consortium)
Campaign: “Final Piece to the Puzzle” Local Government Campaign

Goals:

• Create cost-effective marketing campaign, the “Final Piece to the Puzzle,” to generate awareness of the local government product suite:
• KanPay, The Payment Portal – Free online payment processing system to process both credit card and e-check payments via the Internet
• KanPay Counter, The Point-of-Sale Solution – Free payment processing system to process both credit card and e-check payments at the counter with swipe devices
• KanForm, The Form Builder – Free system to build simple forms to collect data and online payments
• KanSite, The Content Management System – Web page management system to provide easy-to-use and effective online services to citizens
• Generate awareness of overall organization brand awareness within municipal governments
• Initiate and further develop relationships with key contacts within municipal governments

Strategy:

• Marketing activities (direct mail, promotional Web sites, etc.) and tactics (mailings, phone calls, demonstrations, trainings, etc.) were applied to entice the customer throughout the customer lifecycle
• Delivered ride-along direct mail piece (with call-to-action to supporting campaign landing page: www.kansas.gov/puzzle) with fun tangram wooden puzzle. The puzzle pieces represent each product in the suite
• Participated in eight municipal government conferences throughout the state to reinforce “Final Piece to the Puzzle” campaign theme and generate awareness of the product offering

Results:

• Partnership gains significantly out-weighed cost to fund campaign
• Obtained 56 new partners across municipal governments for participation in KanPay Counter, The Point-of-Sale Solution
• Obtained one new partner across municipal government for participation in the KanSite, The Content Management System
• Promotional Web sites saw a 255 percent increase in page views
• “Outside-the-box” approach of distributing interactive wooden tangram puzzles provided a marketing piece with a long shelf life

Outstanding Creative Marketing Program
Organization: MeriTalk
Campaign: Cloudboys Viral Video

Goals:

• Engage the Federal IT community
• Partner with industry to provide new perspective on cloud
• Position MeriTalk as the innovative “go-to” expert on cloud sobriety

Strategy:

• MeriTalk set out to produce a short video that would provide a humorous and very real perspective on Federal agencies’ cloud migration pain points – the “Cloudboys” are American heroes who understand the challenges associated with wrangling clouds and can get the job done right
• The program consisted of concept and script development, video staging and production, as well as a social media/distribution campaign that would ignite grassroots government IT market energy for the video
• MeriTalk hosted the video on a dedicated MeriTalk landing page (www.meritalk.com/cloudboys), GovLoop, and YouTube

Results:

• Views: 3,500
• Spurred valuable dialogue in the community
• Two Federal agency CIOs reached out directly to request that MeriTalk introduce them to the underwriter to discuss potential solutions as a result of viewing the video

Outstanding Interactive Marketing Program
Organization: Deloitte
Campaign: Engaged

Goals:

• Develop a comprehensive social media strategy that would eliminate duplicative efforts, provide interactive channels for practitioners and clients, and build the Deloitte public sector brand globally
• Differentiate Deloitte public sector from competitors

Strategy:

• The team pursued an “As One” strategy by creating one Deloitte public sector presence across multiple social channels including Facebook, Twitter, GovLoop, and the Deloitte Perspectives blog
• Adopted a three-phased approach to growth:
• Identified the most effective social media channels that could reach both U.S. Federal and Global Public Sector audiences and built internal awareness and buy-in of the approach and platforms
• Focused on channel customization and an initial content strategy around reformatting, reusing, and amplifying existing marketing materials. This eliminated the need for additional risk reviews and provided robust content to begin creating awareness and an audience on each channel
• The team is now moving toward greater engagement with its audiences via the channel vs. simply “push” marketing. This includes tactics such as live online chats (the first of which took place March 1st, 2011 at GovLoop.com), sharing of informal “man on the street” videos from relevant industry conferences, and similar activities that encourage greater interaction

Results:

• Facebook delivering double the impressions of .com platform. Facebook alone has delivered nearly 203,000 net new impressions for existing thought leadership/content – extending and amplifying our reach in market (September-March)
• Deloitte-produced events (live and online) promoted via social media are experiencing increasing registrations
• Facebook achieving ~20 percent growth in fans every four weeks
• Twitter achieving ~13 percent growth in followers every four weeks; Klout rating higher than competitor accounts
• Deloitte employees using GovLoop increased by 104 percent
• Public Sector blog entries have received ~5,000 page views and 500 Facebook likes

Outstanding Interactive Marketing Program
Organization: Virginia Interactive, LLC
Campaign: Virginia Interactive “Virginia.gov” Campaign

Goals:

• Advance Virginia.gov’s “keen, lean, and green” mission by:
• Centralizing real-time posts and feeds to promote agency and entity social networking efforts
• Developing widgets to share frequently changing, important, and highly requested information on a user’s preferred social page or Web site
• Creating promotional blog-like entries about timely government information and events
• Offering citizens the opportunity to provide real-time feedback on portal features

Strategy:

• Implement home and landing page “Stay Connected” sliders for government entities’ dynamic social network feeds
• Expand Virginia.gov’s award-winning widget offerings to include:
• Inaugural Events – With the administration change in January 2010, the widget provided a dynamic feed of daily events details for two weeks of inaugural activities
• Hotel Bookings – Building off the success of Tourism’s unique online reservation system, the hotel booking widget “gets and shares” this service with social networks and Web sites
• Launch “Spotlight on Virginia,” a blog-like feature providing statewide weekly Web articles
• Strategically place “star” based rating functionality on several new Virginia.gov features such as the portal’s mapping tool and blog entries
• Integrate A/B and multi-variate tests into the portal to gather click conversion feedback to assist with interface decisions

Results:

• Site Visits: 3,289,077 (+14% from 2009)
• Unique Site Visits: 1,458,295 (+18% from 2009)
• The blog received 350 high ratings of 4-5 stars for 12 entries and 984 click conversions from June-November
• Category-targeted mapping of selected services and locations returned almost 100 low ratings of 1-2 stars and 163 ratings of 3-5 stars. This information drove efforts for mapping improvements that will be released in 2011
• Partial year click conversions to social feeds proved that citizens were interested in this feature. Facebook (542), widgets (330), and YouTube (284) were most popular, followed by Flickr, RSS, Podcasts, and Twitter

Best Overall Marketing Program
Organization: NetApp
Campaign: 1,100: How Many Data Centers Does It Take…

Please click here to view details about this program.