2022 ELPC Action Fund Campaign Recap
Wisconsin and Ohio Safe Clean Water Accountability
ELPC Action Fund’s 2022 program targeted two key states – Wisconsin and Ohio – with a focus on safe clean water and protecting the Great Lakes. We strategically focused on the summer months to get ahead of the crush of fall election messaging so that our messages would stand out from the crowd, obtain less expensive ad rates, and maximize our ~$300,000 budget. Based on ELPC’s commissioned polling and focus group research by nationally recognized expert Ann Selzer, we focused our message on water issues during the summer time when Midwesterners are using and thinking of water as they are swimming, paddling, fishing, beaching and boating in local rivers and lakes, and in the Great Lakes.
In Wisconsin, we focused on educating the public about Senator Ron Johnson’s bad record protecting safe clean water. We primarily focused our ads in two swing areas: the Southwest Wisconsin “Driftless Area” counties and the Green Bay-area markets. These two areas have many independent and swing voters. People are connected to their communities and pay attention to the local media. For example, in the Southwest Wisconsin counties, we placed striking full-color, usually full-page print ads in 16 weekly local newspapers and ran radio ads for 13 local radio stations, including WGLR-FM, which has the local farm report. Our Wisconsin ad buy budget was ~$120,000.
In Northwest Ohio, we focused on educating the public about Governor DeWine’s inaction for protecting Lake Erie from recurring toxic algae blooms. This area includes Toledo and its suburbs, the four lakeshore counties west of Cleveland, and some rural areas. We ran 30-second video spots to get the most reach targeting independent and persuadable voters to educate them on Governor DeWine’s inaction to regulate manure from CAFOs, the primary cause of toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie. We bought a mix of cable, streaming platforms, and digital ads with potential reach of ~700,000 people. Our Northwest Ohio ad buy budget was ~$146,000.
To work with ELPC Action Fund’s Howard Learner and Mary McClelland, we retained: Andy Buchsbaum, former director of the NWF Great Lakes and NWF Action Fund as an overall strategist; Roger Kerson, a well-respected media strategist, to produce the ads; and Sage Media to provide media targeting strategy and conduct the media buys. The detailed results of our Wisconsin and Ohio ad programs are summarized below.
WISCONSIN
ELPC is a leading environmental advocate in the Southwest Wisconsin Driftless Area, including: (1) legal representation of four conservation and community organizations who are challenging the unneeded, costly and environmentally destructive proposed Cardinal-Hickory Creek transmission line that would cut a wide swath through the scenic Driftless Area landscape, family farms and small town rural communities; and (2) working to re-establish and expand funding for the Driftless Area Landscape Conservation Initiative (DALCI), a focused USDA conservation program to reduce erosion and restore streams, which helps farmers, enhances wildlife protection, and improves water quality.
We know from Ann Selzer’s 2019 polling conducted for the Action Fund that 89% of respondents said safe clean drinking water is the most important issue to them – ahead of infrastructure, health care, funding for public education, and agricultural practices. Moreover, the poll respondents reflect the “swingy” Southwest Wisconsin counties’ voters: 24% Republican, 22% Democrat, and 39% Independent.
We focused on holding U.S. Senator Ron Johnson accountable for his bad record protecting clean water and the Great Lakes. He has consistently opposed federal investments into clean water in Wisconsin and supported efforts to roll back clean water regulations that protect safe drinking water in Wisconsin.
Senator Johnson voted against the bipartisan 2022 Omnibus Spending Bill, supported by members of both parties, passed by the House and Senate, and signed into law by President Biden on March 15, 2022. The bill included $348 million in GLRI funding and $2.77 billion in state revolving loan funds to support drinking water and sewer investments in Wisconsin and nationally.
He voted against the 2021 infrastructure bill that included $841 million in water infrastructure spending for Wisconsin alone.
He voted against the most recent federal Farm Bill (2018), which provided money for farmers to reduce polluted runoff and put land into conservation.
ELPC Action Fund Approach: We launched a print and radio ad campaign focused in the swing Southwest Wisconsin Driftless Area with a smaller buy in the Green Bay market to educate the public on Senator Johnson’s record, and drive a call to action. We engaged in local “hometown” community newspapers that are widely read in the small media markets throughout Southwest Wisconsin and to get on local radio. These small weekly papers are trusted outlets and the go-to for local community residents to find out what’s happening. We kept the design simple, focused and eye-catching with full-page, full-color ad placements that stood out. We ran multiple ad cycles to ensure that people throughout the region could see the messages multiple times.
ELPC Action Fund Print Ads:
ELPC Action Fund Radio Ads (scroll down this page on the right-hand side to listen):
Timing: The ads ran from June 7 to July 4, and from August 7 to August 20, 2022. Because of the August 9th primary date, we had a 30-day window limiting our ads prior to that date.
Reach: Our full-page color print ads were focused in 16 papers across Southwest Wisconsin with a reach of 38,200 people and two papers in the Green Bay area with a reach of 6,800 people. Local community residents saw the ads multiple times in the following local papers:
Southwest Wisconsin Driftless Area: Boscobel Dial, Courier-Press (Prairie du Chien), Crawford County Independent (Gays Mills), Democrat Tribune (Mineral Point), Dodgeville Chronicle, Fennimore Times, Grant County Herald Independent (Lancaster), Home News (Spring Green), Kickapoo Scout, Muscoda Progressive, Pecatonica Valley Leader (Argyle), Platteville Journal, Republican-Journal (Darlington), Richland (Center) Observer, Telegraph Herald (Dubuque), Tri-County Press (Cuba City) and Vernon County Times (Viroqua).
Green Bay Area: Green Bay Press Times, Denmark News.
The radio spots ran 1,150 times over five weeks on 13 radio stations. That means the ad aired 230 times per week on radio stations that the community listens to. The specific reach for these small stations is not as quantifiable so we worked with Sage Media to find key local stations. For example, WGLR-FM is the only local radio station with a Farm Director and dedicated Farm Show:
1,020 spots across Driftless Area: WGLR-FM, WPRE-AM, WPVL-AM, WPVL-FM, WQPC-FM, KDTH-AM, WMGN-FM, WOLX-FM.
130 spots across Green Bay radio: WIXX-FM, WOGB-FM, WNCY-FM, WAPL-FM, WTAQ-AM.
OHIO
ELPC advocates in the federal courts, regulatory agencies and court of public opinion to clean up Lake Erie by reducing agricultural runoff pollution of manure from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) and excess fertilizer that causes recurring toxic algae outbreaks. ELPC’s litigation has forced Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s administration to finally develop a “total maximum daily load” (TMDL) to limit pollution into western Lake Erie. Gov. DeWine’s agencies, however, have resisted focusing on CAFOs, and they are allowing more CAFOs to be sited. That will result in more manure runoff, thereby worsening Lake Erie toxic algae outbreaks.
ELPC Action Fund Approach: ELPC retained Ann Selzer to conduct a detailed poll in 2021 of residents in four Northwest Ohio counties (Erie, Lucas, Ottawa and Sandusky). That builds on previous polling and focus group research. The 2021 polling results show:
93% of voters rank access to safe clean water in general – including cleaning up Lake Erie – as the #1 issue for people, thus ranking above health care, jobs and wages, and COVID-19.
81% of voters favor instituting enforceable regulations to reduce fertilizer and manure runoff from crop fields and CAFOs, instead of voluntary programs that aren’t working.
78% of voters favor requiring permits for all CAFOs, regardless of size.
The majority of voters polled say the health of Lake Erie will be a major voting issue as they consider candidates to support, and more regulation of CAFOs is a key component of that.
ELPC Action Fund Video Ads:
Building on this data, the ELPC Action Fund launched a 30-second ad campaign on cable, streaming and digital media across Northwest Ohio calling on Governor DeWine to clean up Lake Erie. This is a swing area of Ohio with the polling showing 33% Democrat, 26% Republican and 34% Independent voters.
Timing: These ads ran from June 21 to August 1 during the summer algae bloom “season” and the time when Northwest Ohio resident most use and enjoy Lake Erie for outdoor recreation.
Targets and Reach: For our video ads, we targeted adults over the age of 25, independents and swayable GOP across Erie, Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties.
Video ad aired 770 times on cable TV with a geographic reach of ~400,000.
Video ad aired 650 times on streaming services like Hulu with a reach of ~190,000 people.
Video ad aired 660 times on digital sites like Facebook with a reach of ~98,900 people.