EPIC Highlight: City of Roseville Receives 2019 Best-in-Show Award

On Wednesday, April 10, the City of Roseville was awarded with CAPIO’s first Best-in-Show EPIC award in the large population field for its Engage Roseville program--a campaign that represented top notch strategic communications research, design, planning and evaluation.

The City of Roseville was at a crossroads.

Like all California cities, Roseville was facing considerable financial stress due to changing consumer spending habits, increasing costs, and deferred maintenance needs.

Without a new source of revenue, the City would be forced to make significant cuts to city services. If the City were to maintain its current levels of service while also fully funding its long-term liabilities, infrastructure, and deferred maintenance expenses, the General Fund budget would realize a $10+ million annual deficit.

To educate our residents on these issues and to learn their priorities in city services, the City initiated an 18-month, multi-platform public outreach effort called EngageRoseville. The challenge was to illustrate the reality of declining municipal revenues in a city known for a high quality of life during a growing economy.

Judges of the program noted that the Roseville’s goals were clear and the implementation of this project was stunning in its variety.

One judge said, “I'm not sure I've ever seen a community project that included so many different methods of getting out a message and gathering feedback. I particularly liked the idea of gamification as one of the tools used to educate your audience.”

Through a variety of tools and tactics, EngageRoseville got at the heartbeat of what city residents felt and where they wanted their city to go in the future.

These efforts paid off with the City gathering tens of thousands of data points about the budget priorities of the community, increasing trust in the city government with radical transparency and engagement, and ultimately the approval of a sales tax measure with 63 percent of the vote in a conservative area of the state to help alleviate the budget crisis.

To see Roseville’s complete award entry, visit www.capio.org/2019EPICWinners.

CAPIO is proud to offer a transparent and competitive awards program that recognizes excellence in the industry. With more than 200, the 2019 EPIC Awards showcased work that rises above innovation and craft – CAPIO recognizes work that had made a lasting impact for communities served in California and beyond.

To learn more about CAPIO’s awards program, visit www.capio.org.