In conjunction with the launch of a radio and billboard advertising campaign this year the management district board has authorized a benchmark market research study to gauge advertising awareness and recall among residents of the District and the I-10 corridor west of 610. Follow-up surveys will be performed at regular intervals in the future to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. In this way, the District hopes to determine what kind of return on investment it will realize from the advertising dollars spent.

The survey effort is being coordinated by Ray Lawrence, Economic Development Advisor for the District, who has many years of market research experience both in quantitative (survey) research and qualitative (personal interviews and focus groups) research. Future measurements will probably be undertaken only at six month or even one year intervals.

The benchmark survey was conducted by telephone by Voter/Consumer Research, an experienced, highly reputable interviewing service based in the Houston area. A total of 400 interviews will be completed with adults 18 years of age or older residing in 12 zip codes stretching from the 610 Loop to Katy. Results of the benchmark and future surveys will be reported in coming newsletters.