ACWA Presents Irvine Ranch Water District With 2023 Excellence in Communication Award by ACWA Staff Nov 30, 2023 News Releases INDIAN WELLS – The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented its Huell Howser Excellence in Communication Award to Irvine Ranch Water District (IRWD) for its creative and impactful water efficiency campaign video series — the Shed Show — highlighting the beauty of water-efficient and California-native landscaping. This fun and fast-paced video series was launched as an educational tool to help customers adopt long-term water reducing behavior by highlighting the beauty of California‐native plants and teaching viewers to be more water efficient irrigators. The research-based videos are about a minute long and delivered via paid media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, OvertheTop television and Connected TV, as well as the district’s social media feeds and websites. The videos were translated to provide Korean and Chinese subtitles and reviewed for cultural sensitivity. They received more than 1 million impressions per episode with at least 1,000 complete views per episode. The award was presented during the 2023 ACWA Fall Conference & Expo in Indian Wells, where water professionals gathered for programs and panel discussions on California’s critical water issues. IRWD was among four finalists for the award. “It’s critical that water districts continue to educate and engage their customers on significant issues such as water efficiency,” said ACWA President Pamela Tobin. “The comprehensive outreach done for this campaign shows that creative and extensive communication can prove successful in reaching residents and educating them on effective methods to conserve water.” Other finalists for this year’s award were: East Bay Municipal Utility District for its Centennial Campaign, which relayed its rich story through a multi-layered, eight-week communications campaign. Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District for its HOA Outreach, which used an emailed toolkit that resulted in a 16 percent increase in applications for rebate programs. Rancho Water District for its Rancho15 Drought Outreach Campaign, designed to help customers make immediate and long-term changes to reduce water use by 15 percent.
