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Today, utilities are faced with the growing challenge of replacing aging infrastructure,maintaining compliance with new state and federal regulations, and keeping pace with systemgrowth. The impact of these challenges requires substantial investment in capital, oftentimesresulting in significant customer water and sewer rate increases. Because of public and politicalpressure to keep rates low, utilities have begun analyzing more effective means ofcommunicating information to their customers. Traditional communication techniques such asbill inserts, separate customer mailings, and TV and radio ads have had mixed results ineducating customers concerning rate increases and the need for capital expenditures.Spartanburg Water System and Sanitary Sewer District (SWS/SSSD) is located in thenorthwestern section of South Carolina along the I-85 corridor between Charlotte, NorthCarolina, and Atlanta, Georgia. Experiencing significant growth along with pressures of newstate and federal clean water initiatives, SWS/SSSD embarked on a $150 million capitalimprovement campaign aimed at meeting these challenges. Because little if any investment incapital improvements had occurred in previous years, SWS/SSSD water and sewer rates weresome of the lowest in South Carolina. To adequately fund the $150 million capital campaign,significant water and sewer rate increases would be required over the next five to eight years.To further compound this challenging situation, Spartanburg County is an extremely diversecommunity with regard to race, education, and other socio-economic factors as identified in theU.S. Census Bureau data of 2000. The challenge of gaining public support for this endeavorwould require an innovative method of delivering information to the community as to the needfor and purpose of this capital campaign.In a society where most people can relate to a message conveyed through a visual medium it isreported that nearly 90 percent of what we react to is visually and aurally stimulated and thatretention of information can be increased by as much as 40 to 70 percent through the use of thesemedia. It is no surprise, then, that messages communicated through image and sound reach a farwider audience than any other method and with far greater impact. Multimedia techniquesprovide an ideal vehicle for delivering a message to a visual world. Ultimately, the goal of anymedia campaign is to get your message across to your audience. Using a multimedia approachaddresses the challenge of a diverse audience and maximizes the number of people reached.Toward that end, SWS/SSSD decided to utilize multimedia tools to tell its story; includingenhancing its image and justifying needed construction projects and rate increases.The end result of the use of multimedia tools was successful, and as SWS/SSSD continues itsaggressive capital improvement campaign, more emphasis on public education and involvementwill be required. The use of a multimedia platform will help SWS/SSSD accurately andeffectively communicate both the need for capital improvements and the impact on its diversecustomer base as a result of rate increases.

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Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 06/01/2006 Number of Pages: 8File Size: 1 file , 360 KB