Independent Panel Commends the 2010 Census Paid Media Plan.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that an independent panel of five distinguished marketing and communications scholars unanimously agreed that both industry and academic best practices were used to develop the paid media portion of the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign.

“My overall assessment is that the processes to develop the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign are fundamentally sound,” said Academic Assessment Panel Chair Dr. Jerome D. Williams, the F.J. Heyne Centennial Professor in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. “I feel the Census Bureau and the DraftFCB team have done an exceptional job and are to be applauded for what has been developed so far under very challenging conditions.”

The Census Bureau formed the Academic Assessment Panel in April 2009 to evaluate the methods used to define and develop the communications campaign.

This was the first time the Census Bureau has commissioned an objective panel to review the communications campaign’s work prior to the conclusion of the decennial census. It is yet one more additional element in a very extensive external review process by the Bureau, which includes the Congress, formal advisory committees, stakeholder groups, representatives of the Census Regional offices, and the Department of Commerce. Obtaining recommendations from a panel of academic experts at this early juncture allowed the Census Bureau sufficient time to employ their recommendations before the media implementation plans were finalized.

“The Academic Assessment Panel’s recommendations have enhanced the 2010 Census Communications Campaign,” said Raul E. Cisneros, the Census Bureau’s 2010 Census Publicity Office Chief. “Their completely independent and objective review allowed us to look at the work done to date on the campaign with fresh eyes and make improvements and refinements where needed,” Cisneros said.

“The Census Bureau must count everyone in this country once, only once, and in the right place, and a robust and effective communications campaign is vital to help us reach that goal. We are grateful for the very serious and intensive work the panel undertook in a short time frame,” added
Cisneros.

The 2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign is comprised of paid advertising, public relations, partnerships, online interaction and a Census in Schools program that have been designed and guided at every step of the process by detailed research. Each of these components will be crucial to increasing the public’s awareness of the 2010 Census and motivating participation in the decennial enumeration.