To: Members of the Castle Rock Water Commission
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Sandra Sandman, Customer Relations Program Manager
Title
2023 ColoradoScape Contest Update
Town Council Agenda Date: NA
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
To further educate our residents about the beauty and benefits of a ColoradoScape, Castle Rock Water hosted its 5th annual ColoradoScape makeover contest to give away a free $9,000 front yard landscape. This social media contest was held April 1 - May 15, 2023. To enter, residents needed to create and post a 30 to 60 second video on social media with fun education about the benefits of ColoradoScape. A committee from the Water Commission and Castle Rock Water leadership chose the top 5 finalists using a rubric ranking. These finalists were put on the Town’s social media and voted on by the public. The video with the most ‘likes’ won a new low-water front yard makeover. The four runners-up received a Garden In A Box.
The ColoradoScape contest is held in April to coincide with Water Conservation Month and residents are more in tune with landscaping efforts in the spring. The budget for the actual front yard makeover was raised from $8,000 to $9,000 in 2023. Facebook posts were boosted and A-frame posters were set up at the Rec Center, MAC and Festival Park. Facebook posts were boosted (twice at $50 each) in an attempt to garner more entries. Additionally, Castle Rock Water utilized the new billing system and sent an insert in the water bill ($880). Castle Rock Water’s actual total costs were about $10,000.
There were 20 entries this year, compared to 13 in 2022, 14 in 2021, 13 in 2020 and 31 in 2019. Exposure has notably increased and there was also television coverage from KDVR-DEN (FOX) on the contest. An estimated 90,000 people on social media were reached in this effort, significantly more than the estimated 57,000 reach from last year. The final reveal, itself brought 14,000 reaches with only two days of exposure (Attachment A). Note, this does not include the email notifications that include the announcement, entry reminder and reveal to the 18,000 customer emails (with a typical open rate of 54%).
The winners this year have influenced a neighbor to renovate their front yard during their own installation period, and will be assisting their other neighbor in submitting a contest entry next year. The first year’s contest gained significant exposure as the winner utilized their network of being a school teacher/coach and this year’s winner is a social media influencer. This year’s winner plans to do a follow up video just for their network.
While a budget of $9,000 is provided to the landscaper for installation, there were sizable donations this year valued at an estimated $XXXX BLR Creative provided landscape design; Valor Landscaping provided the plants and installation; SiteOne provided the rock, mulch and pavers; Rainbird donated the irrigation system including smart controller and rain sensor; and Hunter donated the lighting. Attachment B provides before and after photos. When we look at the total reach of this communications effort versus the cost of sending a mailer to all of our customers (a typical cost of $16,000), this is a cost-effective way to engage our customers about Coloradoscaping. As such, Castle Rock Water is planning to continue this contest again in 2024.
Attachments
Attachment A: Social Media Statistics
Attachment B: Before & After Photos