Chattanooga Gas

A blend of traditional print and digital advertising methods enables us to spread the safe digging message to a wide audience.

Our initial research told us that the primary offenders for natural gas line hits are customers who have owned their homes for five years or less, prompting a direct mail piece featuring imagery of relatable residential digging projects and specific instructions on how to call 811 before digging.

Billboards placed evenly across town on main thoroughfares and near hardware stores and nurseries featured local citizens and caught the attention of Chattanoogans on the go between projects.

Digital ads targeted specific areas of town, reaching Chattanoogans who were in the midst of researching digging projects or shopping for items like shovels, post-hole diggers, trees, plants, mailboxes and basketball goals.

The use of editorial style, locally shot portaits with site-specific captioning provides essential context around the primary message. The subjects are working Chattanoogans who have called 811 before digging. These images let the audience know that calling 811 applies to the types of projects depicted, ranging from gardening and tree planting, to fence building and small DIY construction, demonstrating that every project warrants a call, no matter how big or how small.

National Call 811 Before you dig day takes place every year on August 11th (8/11), when utilities across the country band together to emphasize the importance of safe digging. To help spread the word locally, Maycreate worked with Chattanooga Gas to design, tag and plant eight hundred and eleven miniature shovels throughout the city’s downtown parks and green spaces. The intent was to stage a sort of ‘educational easter egg hunt’, putting the safe digging message directly into the hands of our target audience. People who found a shovel were offered tips on digging safety, along with the option to present the shovel at a local creamery for a free scoop of ice cream.