City of Austin 2018 Bond

Project Description

In August 2018, Austin City Council approved a $925-million bond election comprised of seven propositions with a directive to City staff to educate the public about the bonds prior to the election on November 6th.

Faced with a compressed timeline of three months to inform Austin voters about all seven propositions, the City’s Office of Financial Services hired Buie & Co. to manage outreach and communications for the bond education campaign.

From the brand design and guidelines to the tagline, materials and handouts, Buie & Co. pulled out all the stops. Bilingual bond booklets and one-pagers translated into seven different languages were produced. Our team revamped the bond webpage and created a unique one-of-a-kind interactive memory bond game, hosted 11 open houses (one in each Council district), designed and distributed hundreds of bond posters across the city, and worked with dozens of community groups in Austin to distribute information about the bond to voters.

Working closely with City of Austin staff, Buie & Co. established a media and social media protocol to ensure Austinites received factual information in a timely manner and to ensure that all City departments involved in the bond were coordinated in their efforts of sharing information and remaining consistent on message.

On Election Day 2018, all seven bond propositions passed, each with more than 70 percent of the vote – one of the largest margins of victory for any bond election in Austin, ever.