Civilian Board Item KLG DRAFT 05-06-2025_KC FINAL

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Update on Marketing Campaign with Civilian, Inc.

In July 2023, the Board approved a $3 million contract with Civilian to provide a comprehensive statewide marketing campaign to increase awareness among Californians regarding CalVCB’s programs and services. In April 2024, Civilian began running statewide advertisements. The purpose of this informational item is to update the Board on the results of Civilian’s first year of advertising and of the plans for the rest of the marketing campaign which will end January 2026.

Goals and Audiences

The Budget Act of 2022 allocated $3 million for CalVCB to conduct a statewide outreach campaign. It further stated that efforts and strategies shall prioritize outreach to underrepresented or marginalized communities, including non-English speaking communities, immigrant communities, and individuals in unstable housing situations.

CalVCB and Civilian used this charge and pre-campaign survey findings shared at the March 2024 meeting to develop a strategic communications plan. The goals of that plan are to promote an increase in awareness of CalVCB and victim compensation services and, over time, support an increase in CalVCB applications. The plan accomplishes this by increasing awareness and knowledge of what CalVCB is, what it offers, who is eligible, and how they can apply, while also building trust in CalVCB.

The primary audience of the campaign is individual victims who may be eligible for CalVCB benefits and their support networks such as family, friends, and peers. The secondary audience includes formal support and referral networks for victims.

Paid Media Performance

In April 2024 Civilian began digital advertising in 15 counties identified based on their crime rates, population, and CalVCB application numbers. These advertisements were placed on social media platforms, websites, through streaming platforms like Spotify, and on radio stations.

In the 12 months since the campaign has been live, we have achieved:

72 million impressions across all media
52 million impressions to primary campaign audiences
20 million Spanish-language impressions
650,000 clicks

We’ve also found that paid media has been the key driver to the campaign website and has resulted in new applications:

406,000 website visits were a result of paid media ads
156% increase in average monthly users since the launch compared to the prior year
13% increase in self-represented applications in fiscal year 2023-24 compared to the prior fiscal year
13,000 to 15,000 active website users weekly

The performance of the campaign was impacted by the Los Angeles fires. After those fires, we recognized that the terms victim and rebuild were being used in relation to fire victims and therefore paused ads that included the campaign tagline of “CalVCB can help you rebuild.” Since then, we have updated this language to “After a violent crime, CalVCB can help pay your bills.” The paused ads restarted in May 2025.

Reaching Underserved Populations

A key goal of this campaign is to reach underrepresented or marginalized communities including non-English speaking communities, immigrant communities, and individuals in unstable housing situations.

To achieve this, we’ve taken the following steps:

All paid media ads are translated into Spanish and 40 percent of advertising targets Spanish-language speakers
Radio vendors are specifically selected to reach diverse communities
Zip code targeting is used in paid social to deliver ads in economically disadvantaged, low income, BIPOC, immigrant, and LGBTQIA+ communities
Other digital ads use various targeting methods to ensure delivery to the above groups as well as residents of rural areas and individuals from tribal communities

CalVCB is also making additional investments in key markets as part of an emphasized media campaign. From August to October 2024, additional ads ran in Kern County including Spotify and radio ads as well as strategically placed billboards. This effort resulted in 9.6 million impressions. The ads prioritized reaching Spanish speakers. The billboards were placed in hyper-targeted zip codes and were successful in reaching hard-to-reach audiences at a relatively low cost.

CalVCB also engaged with two influencers who both posted two videos each in October and November 2024. Overall, these videos got more than 10,000 views from more than 7,000 individual accounts.

One influencer was a psychotherapist who develops content for BIPOC, AAPI, Hispanic, and LGBTQIA+ communities.
The second influencer is a member of the disability community who highlighted how CalVCB helps victims who become disabled due to a crime.

Measuring Success

Overall campaign performance will be determined by the post-campaign survey that will measure the extent to which awareness, understanding, trust, and engagement have changed compared to the pre-campaign survey. The post-campaign survey is scheduled for February 2026. We will also evaluate changes in application numbers.

Mid-campaign proxy metrics such as click through rate, reach, and frequency are performing well for each media tactic we are using. These metrics are performing well across all markets, with large market counties (Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino) having the best performance at the lowest cost. Mid-market counties (Santa Clara, Alameda, Sacramento, Contra Costa, and Fresno) have seen the most improvement.

We have also found that both English and Spanish ads are performing well with Spanish audiences responding better to the messaging as indicated by a higher click through rate. In February 2025, CalVCB approved increasing the proportion of Spanish advertisements to a 40/60 split in response to this positive data. CalVCB has worked closely with Civilian over the last year to adjust other approaches based on the performance of each tactic.

Next Steps

Baseline ads will continue through January 2026 with several emphasized flights planned between August and October 2025 to reach priority and underrepresented audiences. Those additional flights include:

A second flight in Kern County
A flight in San Diego County
A flight in Los Angeles County

We will also run a targeted ethnic media campaign from August through October 2025 that is based on an analysis of gaps between crime rates and application numbers for individuals who speak languages other than English. To prepare for this ethnic media push, CalVCB is updating and translating key materials to help individuals navigate the application process. The ethnic media will reach individuals who speak Tagalog, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Hindi, Tagalog, and Punjabi in 11 counties with increasing crime rates.

CalVCB will also run ethnic media ads that aim to reach African American communities in five counties with increasing crime rates. CalVCB is evaluating how to use remaining funds to further increase reach among priority and underrepresented communities.