Business Objective: Educate and encourage Californians to explore their diverse environment and culture with more than 275 state parks to visit.

Situation: California State Parks Foundation launched a publicity campaign to build regional awareness of the diversity and abundance of state parks for the public to enjoy. The re-branding campaign titled, “Discover The Many States of California,” included radio, print and TV advertisements, lightpost banners, and bus shelters. Mercury Multimedia was hired by the foundation’s PR agency, Landis Communications, to produce a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to encourage Californians to visit the parks. Because the state has beautiful parks featuring so many different adventures spread across every region, the PSA needed to appeal to all Californians, from every background and culture.

Mercury Solution: With countless options for video footage, Mercury researched dozens of state parks to select a visual representation of diverse locations. Mercury balanced well-known sites with parks that many people living in California have never experienced in order to encourage viewers to explore California. Translating the campaign to pen and paper, Mercury wrote the PSA to invoke a sense of pride and adventure for all Californians Then Mercury began our own California discovery, visiting park locations across the state to obtain footage, and then gathered existing park footage from dozens of other locations. With hours of stunning footage, Mercury edited the video to demonstrate the breadth of adventures that Californians can embark on in their own state, from scuba diving to hiking, gold digging and walking along a beach at sunset. Mercury then sent the PSA to program directors at television stations across the state, from Sacramento to San Diego, and followed up to ensure that the PSA aired repeatedly in each major market.

Timeline: 4 Weeks

Results: Mercury succeeded in building state pride and building impressive viewership for the PSA. Media and television viewers responded well to seeing their own local sites represented in the PSA, as more than 10 million Californians saw the announcement during the 26 weeks it ran. In fact, the campaign surpassed the average performance for a national PSA campaign, an achievement that is particularly impressive for a state campaign to accomplish. The total media value for the broadcasts came in at $99,541, more than three times the cost of production, distribution and media placement combined.

Further Accolades: Mercury won an Aegis finalist award for its outstanding production quality for this PSA.