What is a creative brief?
A creative brief provides you (the creative team) the guidelines needed to develop the advertising message. This document also provides the judging criteria. Read on!

Background/Purpose: Why are we doing this?
The 2010 US Census starts soon. Forms will be sent out on March 17. Historically, neighborhoods in Flint and surrounding communities had some of the worst mail response rates for census forms. This is not good for the Universities/Colleges or the state or the nation because it can result in a lower population count, lower amounts of funding from federal programs, less representation in Lansing and Washington, and a more expensive census. The purpose of this campaign is quite simple: increase the participation of University/College students in the 2010 Census. In short, the goal is to get them to fill out and mail in the census forms sent to their apartments or dorms.

What is the primary message? What's the most important thing to say?
If you are a university/college student, your census residence is where you live and sleep most of the time as of April 1, 2010. It's your dorm, apartment, or rented housing, not your parent's home. This means that you and your roommate(s) are responsible for filling out the census form sent to your university or off-campus residence and mailing it back. Your census form should include everyone in your residence that lives/sleeps there most of the time, even if they are non-citizens or here without papers. Your parents should not include you on their census form.

Who is the target audience? Who are you trying to get to watch the video?
Your primary audience is university/college students (and their roommates, spouses, and children). You want to grab the attention of students and get them to watch. The secondary audience is the parents of university/college students.

What action are you trying to get the target audience to take?
Your challenge with this video is to make students who live/sleep away from their parents' home most of the time (as of April 1, 2010) understand that they are responsible for filling out the 2010 Census form for their census residence and mailing it in. Educate them and get them to the mailbox!

Perception/Tone/Guidelines for Message
You get to decide on the tone of the message! Note however, that the message may not include profanity, nudity, drug or alcohol use, illegal activity, or use copyrighted materials.

Deadlines and the Fine Print - The Rules!
You must upload your video, up to 60 seconds in length, to YouTube and send us a link to that video no later than March 18, 2010. The full set of rules are found here: RULES

The Judging Criteria
Voting will begin on Sunday, March 21, 2010 at the "College Town Census Awareness Kick-Off" to be held at the Riverfront Residence Hall in downtown Flint between 12noon and 2:30pm. The video receiving the most number of votes will be declared the "winner". Awards will also be given out for second, third and fourth place. Only currently enrolled students attending (Winter 2010 semester/quarter) either the University of Michigan-Flint, Kettering University, Baker College or Mott Community College are eligible to participate in the contest.

Secondary Messages - What's this?
There are a number of other messages regarding the 2010 Census that would be helpful to make university/college students (and secondarily their parents) aware. These secondary messages might also help you with your "creative flair." The list is long:

When, Who, Why
Census forms will be mailed March 17th
Census forms are meant to count all the people living in your household (house,
apartment, etc.) on April 1, 2010 (including those who may be moving out at the end of the term).
Fill it out/mail it in on April 1, 2010
The census counts everyone including non-citizens and those who may be here without papers
It is called for in the Constitution and has been conducted every ten years since 1790

The census is quick and easy to fill out
10 questions - 10 minutes
No postage required - Census Bureau provides postage-paid envelope
Census forms are available in a variety of languages

A sample form is found here:
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/pdf/2010_Questionnaire_Info.pdf

Your census residence is where you live and sleep most of the time
Regardless of where you vote, where your car is registered, where your parents/family live
Even if you are graduating and leaving Ann Arbor soon
Even if you plan to go back to your country of origin when you finish your degree/sabbatical
Even if you were not born in the US
Even if you are not a citizen

Count everyone living with you, if they have no other usual place of residence
Including your friend who will be moving out pretty soon
Including your brother/child/friend who just lost a home to foreclosure and is staying with you

Be responsible and do your civic duty
The purpose of the census is to determine the redistribution of power. The number of seats each state gets in Congress and their votes in the Electoral College for the next ten years will be determined by the census count
The annual allocation of more than 400 billion dollars of federal revenue is distributed by Congress to states and local governments on the basis of census counts
Be counted for your community
Filling out the census is required by the Constitution
Filling out your census form saves money because door-to-door follow up is expensive

Your individual census form information is not shared with the public or other agencies - for 72 years
The information on the census is not shared with administrative agencies (or your parents).
Do not worry about the roommates your parents don't know about.
Homeland Security, the White House, and the FBI have no access to your census information.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has no access to your census information.
The information on your form will not be released to the public for 72 years.