The U.S. Census Bureau strategically designed the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Program to build upon the success of the Census 2000 Partnership and Marketing Program. The Census 2010 Publicity Office, which planned, designed, and implemented the 2010 Census paid advertising campaign along with contractors, conducted a series of qualitative, quantitative, attitudinal, and behavioral research initiatives to serve as the foundation for the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Program . The program researched all elements of the campaign (e.g., designing, creating, testing, revising messaging content, choosing the appropriate media vehicles to use for each target audience, and determining the performance of campaign messages, across audiences (i.e., race/ethnic groups) to ensure that the messaging resonated with the targeted communities). The creative executions and promotional materials were based on validated communications strategies, ensuring that the overall intended messages were clear, compelling, and persuasive and more importantly, culturally relevant and sensitive. Research results informed and validated marketing decisions throughout the entire campaign. Major components of the research program were:

• Audience Segmentation
• Census Barriers, Attitudes, and Motivators Survey
• Creative Copy Testing Phase I and Phase II
• Continuous Attitude Tracking Survey
• Gallup Poll
• Census 2000 Partnership and Marketing Program Evaluation
• Academic Assessment Panel
• Paid Advertising Heavy Up Experiment
• Smart Suites

Steps taken by the Census 2010 Publicity Office along with the primary and subcontractors to ensure the successful execution of the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Campaign by supporting its development and execution with a solid research base contributed to its award winning campaign.

2020 Census research efforts should build upon the successes of the 2010 Census Integrated Communications Program while taking recommendations and lessons learned into consideration especially with regards to conducting research efforts throughout the decade and continuing to investigate new methodologies and identify areas of improvement.

Some key recommendations include:

• Building provisions into the long term research plan that can allow for changes in funding and to offer the flexibility to address unanticipated or additional needs as they arise.
• Continue to investigate new methodologies while identifying areas of improvement, especially with regards to conducting research efforts throughout the decade.