Westfield
Public presentations and collateral helped communicate programmatic and aesthetic project elements to local residents unfamiliar with design and development nuances. Dakota helped secure overwhelming support for the project from a multitude of stakeholders including residents, businesses, community groups, and neighborhood councils. Pre-paid response cards from the direct mail pieces garnered response rates well above 5%, which is significantly higher than the typical 1%-2% response rate of direct mail.
As part of the initial analysis to assess the community’s concerns and expectations, Dakota Communications developed and conducted a series of focus groups to ascertain the project scope and key messaging points. Through focus groups, community surveys, and extensive outreach to residents, we developed key project messages to help understand how best to present the project to the community at large. Dakota’s outreach efforts and community education initiatives helped garner overwhelming support for the project from a multitude of residents, businesses, and neighborhood councils.
Dakota reached out to approximately 63,000 residents in the surrounding communities through direct mail, email blasts, polling, and representative focus groups. Additionally, Dakota organized public meetings and presentations to help garner community awareness and support for the development, taking technical drawings and plans of the project and making them more accessible and understandable to the local residents and community at large.