How Dü GOOD Studio helped Cornwall Central School District secure $23M for infrastructure improvements
The Cornwall Central School District had tried several times in the past to submit capital projects to the community in order to address aging infrastructure around the district, those projects failed, the problem, lack of transparency and communication.
In 2022 however, after having saved enough for a capital project through the establishment of a capital reserve fund a few years prior, it was time again to pitch to the community the importance of approving the new capital project to address those needs.
Enter Dü GOOD Studio. The CCSD through the Communications community put together a communication strategy in order to voice to the community the gravity of the infrastructure needs around the district.
A six-part video series was produced to communicate this message. An introductory video, one video on the improvements to take place across all the elementary schools, one video on the middle school, one on the High School, one on the new improvements to the athletic facilities and a final video remind the community to make their voices heard on voting day.
The message was clear, 23 million dollars’ worth of improvements with 0% increase to taxes.
The execution of this plan was not as easy, however. Filming in and around schools requires a lot of logistical and creative solutions. We couldn’t simply film every student, teacher and staff due to privacy concerns. That’s where we creatively found solutions to film certain classes to make a human connection to the people who would be impacted most by this project. We filmed timelapses around the different schools and we filmed from the neck down to protect students’ privacies.
We carefully used interviews from the superintendent, community and board members, facilities director, athletic director to highlight the improvements this capital project would have on the student’s everyday life, the most important factor when considering this project.
The videos were a complete success. They were shared through many different social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter and received thousands of views.
Unlike other communication or advertising strategies, we could actually measure the success of the campaign.
The Capital Project was approved by over 70% of the votes!
The community praised the district and the communication strategy used to convey the message and their transparency throughout the process.
But it wasn’t just videos, our founder Oscar Rivas volunteered several hours of his time to produce a website to house all the information relevant to the project as well as created social media graphics to spread the message on Facebook.
You can watch all six videos on the playlist down below.
