OUR WORK
For two decades our clients have known us as connectors, listeners, problem solvers, creative innovators and leaders in digital advertising.
We work with the largest nonprofit membership organization in the nation, one of the top energy companies in the country, the biggest and most used social media tech company in the world, the widest-reaching health care insurer in Texas, one of the most reputable higher education institutions in Texas, the most well-known tech-powered transit service that’s improving the way people and cities move, one of the largest materials distribution companies building our infrastructure, and government agencies at every level.
OUR WORK
For two decades our clients have known us as connectors, listeners, problem solvers, creative innovators and leaders in digital advertising.
We work with the largest nonprofit membership organization in the nation, one of the top energy companies in the country, the biggest and most used social media tech company in the world, the widest-reaching health care insurer in Texas, one of the most reputable higher education institutions in Texas, the most well-known tech-powered transit service that’s improving the way people and cities move, one of the largest materials distribution companies building our infrastructure, and government agencies at every level.
Industries We Serve
Outreach Strategists creates change for educational institutions and workforce organizations. We design enrollment campaigns, support strategic growth, and expand brands through research-driven solutions.
Outreach Strategists delivers tailored outreach solutions to advance public health and promote health equity, focusing on underserved communities. By leveraging diverse media channels, we improve healthcare access, raise awareness, and empower communities for lasting change.
Outreach Strategists delivers tailored outreach solutions to advance public health and promote health equity, focusing on underserved communities. By leveraging diverse media channels, we improve healthcare access, raise awareness, and empower communities for lasting change.
Our team speaks the language of mobility, having led impactful initiatives from large-scale public engagement campaigns to managing the largest auto safety recall in American history. We leverage our expertise across the transportation ecosystem and large-scale infrastructure projects to help clients effectively communicate and achieve their goals.
Clients
Harmony Public Schools
Scope
Harmony Public Schools, a Houston-based public charter school network, chose Outreach Strategists as its public outreach contractor to provide strategic consulting, lead its crisis communications efforts, and engage in media outreach for its more than 50 campuses throughout Texas, including the seventeen K-12 schools that make up the Dallas-Fort Worth-Waco district.
Role
As the public relations lead, Outreach Strategists built upon the school’s reputation for educational success by focusing on smart, targeted engagement with local media outlets whether in the major population centers such as the Metroplex, Houston, and El Paso or their neighborhood schools in Garland, Brownsville, and Lubbock. Our tactic was to share not only their educational successes, but to also share stories of how their administrators, teachers, students, and support staff were making a positive impact in their communities.
Outcomes
With our support, positive stories and mentions about Harmony Public Schools increased dramatically across their system. Following Hurricane Harvey, they received attention from both the national and international press for performing safety checks on their students and families as well as their commitment to offer free meals to those left devastated by the storm.
Students received notice for their personal academic achievement, including an Austin-area student whose research on Hodgkin’s Lymphoma earned her an invitation to present her findings at an international conference. A teacher from Austin was lauded for her volunteer work helping Port Aransas residents recover from Hurricane Harvey, while a non-education staff member, who organized a community financial literacy symposium tied to Black History Month, was interviewed about the program.
These stories, in addition to further burnishing Harmony’s reputation and raising their profile in the community, also served to increase the number of families seeking to enroll their students into an HPS school.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Scope
Outreach Strategists was tasked with assisting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Galveston District, in planning and executing its twice-yearly Stakeholder Engagement Forum. This Forum is a key event for the Galveston District, as it brings together numerous partner and stakeholder groups across the Texas Gulf Coast region to hear updates from the Corps on projects and to share their thoughts and concerns. As Army Corps projects depend upon local matching dollars, strong lines of communication between the District and its numerous partners is a chief concern. The 2018 Summer Forum also represented the first large-scale engagement event for the District following Congress’s disaster relief funding allocation and was joined by Mr. Ryan Fisher, the second highest-ranking official of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Role
Outreach Strategists worked with the Galveston District to plan and develop the Forum agenda and key message framing that would best emphasize the District’s concerns. We conducted outreach to the District’s nearly 500 identified stakeholders and key persons, and developed collateral materials including comment cards. Outreach Strategists also designed a panel discussion with local officials focused on cost-sharing, to be moderated by Galveston County Judge James Yarbrough. After the forum itself, we prepared an after-action report and provided an analysis of the participant comment cards.
Outcomes
The Forum was hugely successful, especially in imparting key messaging to stakeholders. Over 250 public officials and stakeholders attended the Forum, including a large majority of invitees identified by the District as being high priority. Over 90% of the collected comment cards indicated that the Forum fulfilled the reason for the respondents’ attendance.
Austin ISD
Scope
Austin Independent School District educates more than 73,000 students in 116 diverse school communities in one of the fattest growing metroplexes in the country.
Like many school districts across the county, Austin Independent School District experiences a significant decrease in student enrollment and retention during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Decreased enrollment not only adversely impacts district funding, but if unaddressed, could impact the future quality of instruction.
Role
Outreach Strategists (OS) designed and implemented an integrated marketing campaign to win back families who had left the district for charter schools, private schools, or other options. In order to reach students and parents throughout this large school district, Outreach Strategists employed multiple digital, print, and in-person touchpoints.
We also devised a plan that gave Austin ISD a detailed road map for reaching parents via paid and earned media, including radio spots, Promotional video ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Over-the-Top Television and Programmatic Display and Pay-per-click (PPC) text ads for over 100 Google search keywords.
OS also developed a district Enrollment Guide with profiles highlighting each campus and its unique offering based on insights from rapid research and analysis. This guide, which is available in English and Spanish, in both print and digital formats, also features videos tailored to each campus and a photo library with curated pictures from all 166 campuses.
The team also organized a one-day event, the Austin ISD Showcase, featuring representatives from all campuses and programs.
Outcomes
The Austin ISD school enrollment campaign achieved its intended purpose resulting in more parents becoming engaged and enrolled in Austin ISD. The campaign met the objective to keep the Austin ISD Showcase “top of mind” to people across the Austin region and drive traffic and Austin ISD Showcase event registrations.
PRE-K 4 SA
Scope
Pre-Kindergarten for San Antonio is a taxpayer-funded early childhood initiative initially funded through sales tax that was due to expire in June 2021. Outreach Strategists was asked to examine the program’s standing among San Antonio voters and evaluate the viability of expanding/extending the tax in the November 2020 election.
Role
Outreach Strategists designed and implemented a qualitative and quantitative multi-partisan and multilingual research project. Six focus groups were conducted across multiple days, evaluating attitudes towards early childhood education, perceptions on the dimensions of quality for early child programs, the standing of the existing program, and areas of risk and remediation.
The qualitative research was followed by quantitative studies to evaluate whether San Antonio taxpayers would vote to reauthorize the sales tax to fund Pre-K 4 SA and tested messaging to evaluate the strongest pathways to reauthorization.
Outcomes
Even though San Antonio is heavily Democratic, with the pandemic-induced economic downturn, getting voter approval for any kind of tax was not guaranteed. The research identified a few areas of friction among certain types of voters.
A key area of inquiry centered on eligibility. Independent and Republican men were more critical of the existing eligibility regime but were reassured by access for the children of active-duty members of the military. Republicans were also encouraged by a private school grant program where non-public schools were incentivized to run similar programs in their own systems and schools.
All voters wanted evidence-based reassurance the program was operating as originally promised and was having positive benefits for the community and the children and families being served.
The surveys showed strong and consistent support for reauthorizing funding for Pre-K 4 SA, and the ballot measure passed with 72.2 percent of the vote.
Texas Education Agency
Scope
In order to qualify for continued federal education funding, under the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (also known as Perkins V) the Texas Education Agency is required, every for years, to conduct a comprehensive local needs assessment of its Career and Technical Education (CTE) curriculum to align it with current Texas Labor Market Information (LMI). This analysis aims to identify in-demand occupations offering high wages and requiring high levels of skill. These occupations are then grouped into programs of study designed to prepare students for both college and career pathways, including those in the military.
To ensure the state’s curriculum aligns with the needs Texas industries, TEA Career and Technical Education program specialists solicit feedback from educators, key industry leaders, and parents. This feedback is, in turn, used to inform debate among a select committee of advisors which includes representatives from businesses and industry experts, local workforce boards, local education agencies, and other relevant stakeholders.
Role
Outreach Strategists managed public outreach and executed a series of public forums as well as managing the process of identifying and inviting potential members of the Advisory Committee. In addition to the public outreach component, we managed the site selection process and logistics for the each listening session and the two-day advisory committee meeting.
The two-day CTE Advisory Committee meeting consisted of a diverse group of over 150 businesspersons, industry experts, local workforce board staff, CTE teachers, and other relevant stakeholders recruited from each State Board of Education district. Members of the committee represented all fourteen career clusters and multiple programs of study. The conference was held at Austin Community College – Highland Campus, May 23 and 24, 2023, resulting in additional cost-savings. To solicit actionable feedback, Outreach Strategists employed innovative polling software to collect and track participant responses in real time, digital recordings to ensure verbal feedback was received, as well as a webform to continue to collect responses after the meetings concluded.
Outcomes
In collaboration with Texas Education Agency’s CTE specialists, Outreach Strategists successfully planned, organized, and executed a statewide listening tour in six of the twenty Education Service Centers regions: Austin (Region 13), Dallas/Richardson (Region 10), Abilene (Region 14), El Paso (Region 19), Houston (Region 4), and Edinburg (Region 1), as well as two statewide virtual sessions which connected more than 1,000 educators, parents, and business and industry representatives. Logistically, we contracted with the local ESC’s themselves to host the meetings, which helped meet budgetary constrictions.
Outreach Strategists work with the TEA is currently underway with Phase I and will look forward to continuing our work in Phase II. We received great feedback from our TEA counterparts regarding the seamless logistics of our meetings, which have successfully provided crucial input from key stakeholders during the Listening Tour and Advisory Committee Meetings. This is essential to enhancing the state’s programs of study and help shape future career and technical education programs geared towards high-wage, in-demand occupations.
Texas Workforce Commission
Scope
The Texas Workforce Commission’s Unemployment Insurance Division, a required partner in the broader state workforce system, provides unemployment benefits to individuals who have lost their employment through no fault of their own and who otherwise meet initial and continuing UI eligibility requirements. The Re-Employment Services & Eligibility Assessment is a voluntary grant-funded program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor that aims to reduce the duration of those receiving benefits through improved employment outcomes.
TWC engaged Outreach Strategists to produce, in both English and Spanish, a training video, aimed at all UI claimants, that provides an overview of the Texas workforce system, introduces the RESEA program, and explains ongoing requirements to continue receiving UI assistance.
Role
Outreach Strategists developed the look and feel of the video, sourced bi-lingual on-screen talent, and wrote and translated a script for the approximately 25-minute video. In collaboration with Workforce Solutions board regions serving the Coastal Bend, East Texas, and the Gulf Coast, we recorded segments of the full videos on site in Corpus Christi, Tyler, and Houston integrating local Workforce Solutions staff from those regions as subject matter experts during informal interview segments.
The completed video took approximately ten weeks to complete from ideation through post-production. An additional four weeks of editing resulted in shortened clips highlighting the main topics of the video for posting to social media platforms.
Outcomes
The Texas Workforce Commission has integrated the videos into its job search website, www.WorkinTexas.com, and is required viewing for new and returning claimants throughout the state. In April 2024, the TWC requested the videos be translated into Vietnamese to better serve these claimants.
Designed and managed an innovative grass-tops community healthcare coalition for the state’s largest insurer
BlueCross BlueShield, the largest health insurer in Texas, approached Outreach Strategists to educate the public about their coverage options under the recently passed Affordable Care Act. We organized community leaders across major markets to help provide Texans with more information and resources. Community partners were supplied talking points, collateral materials, and social media content, which drove engagement to constituents. The campaign directly reached over 670,000 people and an additional 1.5 million were exposed to social media content.
Scope
The United States has one of the highest infant mortality rates among developed countries, as each year, about 3,500 infants die from sleep-related deaths. Research and science repeatedly show that the adoption of continuous breastfeeding and the implementation of safe infant sleep practices are linked to reducing sleep-related deaths.
Role
In an effort to reduce the number of infant deaths and to educate and support new moms on the benefits of breastfeeding using Safe Infant Sleep (SIS) practices, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), in partnership with Outreach Strategists (OS), launched a statewide marketing initiative to engage communities around safe infant sleep and breastfeeding practices. The campaign was on television, radio and digital across the state.
To reach a broad base audience across Texas, the OS’ team employed a bilingual digital campaign geo-targeted to reach high-risk areas for infant mortality, caregivers, health partners, hospital leaders, obstetrics- serving and children’s hospitals. The campaign ran across Meta platforms; Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn, programmatic display ads, over-the-top television (OTT) and T.V. and radio ads.
The campaign achieved the goal of reaching across the state of Texas to share critical infant sleep safety messages and breastfeeding resources with parents as well as caregivers and healthcare providers to save the lives of babies.
Results
A total of 3,502 TV spots ran on 15 stations in English and Spanish, including Fox, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, and Univision affiliates across Texas Nearly 4,000 total radio spots ran on 15 English and Spanish stations, including 104.5 FM Latin Hits, Majic 93.3 and more.
Created and implemented the public outreach and canvassing campaign for the Federal Monitor appointed to oversee the largest product safety recall in US history
Outreach Strategists led public engagement for the largest auto safety recall in U.S. history. In major Texas markets, including Houston and Dallas, we successfully organized a coalition of more than 140 community leaders and groups, who shared critical, life-saving information about the recall with their constituents. With a focus on minority and low-income communities, our engagement efforts included a first-of-its-kind recall canvass operation, knocking on 135,000-plus doors to urge vehicle owners to take advantage of the free life-saving recall.
AARP is the largest membership organization in America.
Over the course of 10 years, our evolving role with AARP has ranged from strategic communications to building community coalitions and implementing programs across Texas. On an ongoing basis we help AARP manage community engagement efforts, such as roundtable discussions, and provide local public affairs support in key markets.
Our efforts with the City of Houston on “Complete Streets” led to an executive order in October 2013, and our payday lending work resulted in an ordinance being adopted in December 2013.
Our findings from a report on the South Asian community of Greater Houston led to the creation of a non-profit focused on meeting the needs of seniors.
Partnership with AARP, a 38-million-member strong organization, making Houston a better place to live
