Bend Fire & Rescue:
Own Your Zone Campaign

The resulting collateral included social media graphics for Facebook, Instagram posts, and stories, a billboard design with a simple, clear message, web graphics, and a PowerPoint presentation for the department to share at a City Council meeting and elsewhere.

I also created versions of the social media graphics and PowerPoint presentation that outside agencies could use and include their logos instead of the City of Bend’s.

Results

While official summary reports or final assessments of the campaign’s effectiveness have not been conducted, there are several indicators that it did achieve positive, albeit largely qualitative, results:

1. Increased Awareness and Engagement:
   Anecdotally, fire officials have noted a rise in community interest regarding defensible space principles. Workshops, neighborhood meetings, and informational sessions related to “Own Your Zone” generally saw strong turnout. Residents demonstrated heightened awareness of best practices for landscaping and home hardening, suggesting that educational outreach resonated with homeowners.

2. Greater Participation in Debris Reduction Programs:
   During the period following the launch of “Own Your Zone,” Bend’s FireFree events—which provide opportunities for homeowners to drop off yard debris at no charge—reported robust participation. Although the City did not specifically attribute these higher volumes directly to the “Own Your Zone” campaign, the timing and messaging alignment suggest that the initiative helped drive interest in removing flammable vegetation.

3. More Home Assessments and Consultations:
   Bend Fire & Rescue fielded a steady number of requests from residents seeking on-site property assessments and personalized wildfire-resilience recommendations. These one-on-one consultations, stimulated in part by the campaign, gave fire professionals a chance to reinforce “Own Your Zone” principles and track the types of improvements homeowners were considering.

4. Enhanced Neighborhood-Level Preparedness Efforts:
   Some homeowner associations and neighborhood groups took the campaign’s message to heart by organizing collective vegetation management days and sharing resources on fire-resistant landscaping materials. Although not formally tallied as part of a citywide metric, these community-led actions indicated a grassroots uptake of the campaign’s core concepts.

Research & Roadblocks

Messaging

The initial draft messaging I received included the right tone and good content, but it needed some work. It was overly verbose and included language that the majority of the community didn’t resonate with, like “defensible”.

Graphics

The Fire & Rescue Department had created draft presentation graphics that needed work.

Competitive Analysis

We drew inspiration from Denver Water’s conservation messaging, as well as the Ad Council’s Smokey Bear campaign. What we found that resonated the best were clear, simple messages that could be quickly understood.