Harold Essex, Graphic Designer with Fleishman-Hillard, discusses how organizations can best incorporate the It All Adds Up visual marketing materials into their communications. How to customize and use the It All Adds Up materials in your community. Harold Essex, Graphic Designer with Fleishman-Hillard, discusses how organizations can best incorporate the It All Adds Up visual marketing materials into their communications.

Q: How can the It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air materials help me spread my transportation and air quality messages?

A: First, as you start to plan your outreach activities and materials, think about ways the It All Adds Up core messages – vehicle maintenance, trip chaining, and alternate modes – mesh with your communication needs. Then, preview our materials and tools located in our Download Center and identify where the It All Adds Up logo, theme, and materials could best be used in your outreach. In addition to the print, TV and radio materials, we have valuable content that can be integrated into your Web site, including four seasonal flash animations, online quizzes, as well as static Web imagery.

Communities have used the marketing materials in a number of different, easy ways, including:

• Distributing the 10 Simple Steps or seasonal 3 Simple Steps and “What’s Your Air Quality I.Q.?” at shopping malls and events
• Using the Simple Steps as payroll stuffers
• Partnering with local newspapers to place the print ads or 10 Simple Steps as inserts
• Including the 10 Simple Steps, on-line quiz, and flash animation on their Web site
• Placing the print ads in employee newsletters
• Emailing the flash animation to their network of contacts

Please use our evaluation research tools to measure and evaluate your progress. And, please, share your experience with the other It All Adds Up communities and the federal partners via the Exchange. We all learn so much from each other!

Q: How can we customize the It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air materials?

If you want to customize the print materials yourself and get professional, commercial-quality products, please request the original QuarkXPress files from us. We strongly recommend that you use the QuarkXPress files (which you can order on-line at http://www.italladdsup.gov/community_partners/order_materials.asp) for anything larger than 81/2"x11". If you don’t have QuarkXPress (design/layout software available for PC and Apple computers), a local printer/designer, or even a “Kinko’s,” should be able to help you. If you make significant changes to the text AND want to keep the logos, you will need to get their federal agencies' approval.

To create camera-ready copies, print the ads on glossy, “photo-proofing” paper.

Q: If I need It All Adds Up to customize materials for me, how long should I expect to wait?

A: While the It All Adds Up team will try to provide your customized materials as quickly as possible, on average it takes five business days. If you have an urgent need, please communicate that clearly when you submit your request.

Q: Are there any other options for customizing the It All Adds Up to Cleaner Air print materials?

A: The messages and materials were designed to fit with a variety of transportation and air quality programs and issues, so there are many ways to use them. Popular ideas include adding the logo to brochures and using the print ad headlines and copy in collateral materials, such as live-read radio ads, calendars, gas pump toppers, and event announcements.

Q: Have the It All Adds Up materials been effective?

A: The It All Adds Up materials have helped regional, state and community organizations across the country to build coalitions of diverse parties and to develop public education programs that have raised awareness of the connections between transportation choices, traffic congestion, and air quality.

Groups like the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air used It All Adds Up materials to replace their previous public education campaign and thereby increased awareness of Ozone Action Days. Other organizations that have successfully used the materials include the New York City Department of Transportation, the Dover/Kent County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), the Spokane County Air Pollution Control Authority, the Fayetteville Area MPO, and the Central Florida Clean Air Team. To read about these success stories, click here.