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City outlines 311 and communications rebrand; launches hiring campaign and news hub beta
Summary
City communications staff presented a realignment of the Communications and Customer Experience (CCX) and an integrated recruitment and public-awareness plan, including a "We Are Dallas" recruitment campaign, a beta news hub and planned 311 visibility improvements for guest users.
City communications staff briefed the Government Performance and Financial Management Committee on April 22 about a citywide communications realignment, plans to refresh visual branding, a recruitment-and-retention advertising strategy and near-term 311 improvements.
Elizabeth Saab, chief of strategy, engagement and alignment and director of Communications and Customer Experience (CCX) told the committee the office is rebranding communications for a unified look and launched a proposal to use targeted digital placements for recruitment. Saab said the department is leveraging a relationship that the Dallas Police Department established with Cumulus Digital Media and will extend placements and updated visuals across city recruitment needs, under a citywide "We Are Dallas" theme.
Saab said the office is beta testing a news hub intended to serve as a single place for press releases, a calendar and videos and hopes to launch the hub in May. She also said a change to the 311 service-request workflow will allow guest users (not only account owners) to see updates on service requests; that change is scheduled to roll out in May.
Daisy (staff), presenting with Saab, described other initiatives: uniform brand signatures across city channels, digital monitors in city facilities for internal communications, refreshed social-media voice and a citywide volunteer campaign called "Let's Keep Dallas Beautiful Together" slated to launch May 15.
Why it matters: the changes aim to centralize city messaging, improve resident access to service-request status and support recruitment for hard-to-fill and uniformed positions by targeting media placements to audiences identified by department hiring teams.
Metrics, procurement and next steps
Staff said they added a metrics slide at council request; the office will collect baseline measures (impressions, session counts and more meaningful conversion metrics such as application starts/completions for recruitment advertising) and return with standardized metrics. The presentation also proposed an RFI this spring to collect vendor best practices and cost estimates to inform a later formal procurement for marketing and potential 311-system options.
Several council members urged staff to provide baseline analytics in writing (current traffic and engagement numbers) before the initiative scales, to clarify opt-in and notification choices for residents, and to publish a quarterly rollout of performance metrics. Staff said they would circulate the baseline data in a Friday memo and that training and integration support for council offices would follow.
Staff noted the city already leverages pro bono billboard inventory from Clear Channel for outreach and said the plan is to use those placements where they match recruitment and public-awareness goals rather than buying additional billboard space.
Ending
Committee members offered mixed feedback on visual design and priorities (some urged focus on core resident needs such as public safety and street repair rather than people-focused profile pieces). Staff accepted that feedback and will refine designs and metric baselines before broader rollout.
