Non-Profit Agency Profits from Radio Campaign

The County of San Diego Department of Child Support Services addressed the challenge of increasing the consistently falling number of applications for non-welfare child support assistance with the assistance of radio.

The number of support requests had been declining by an average of 14% per year since 2003. In conjunction with the Jernigan Group, the Department of Child Support Services designed a radio campaign which addressed the general misconceptions about the child support program. Feedback from area residents indicated the public perception was that the program was available only to welfare recipients. The campaign featured several versions of reality spokespersons expressing their misinformed views about child support, countered by a broadcast tag with clear, updated information regarding the accessibility of child support services and the increased customer service emphasis of the department overall.

The campaign goal was to increase the number of non-welfare application requests. The "You're Not Alone" campaign was targeted toward custodial parents. In order to measure the effectiveness of the radio campaign, a field was added to the application, asking how listeners heard of the child support program. The campaign resulted in a 12.7% increase in average monthly requests in applications over the two months prior to the campaign.

The effectiveness of the project in reaching the public was also evidenced by the increase in online requests for non-welfare applications during the radio campaign. "Based on projections, the radio campaign alone accounts for nearly $500,000 in additional collections," said Jack Jernigan of the Jernigan Group.