Idea Engineering of Santa Barbara has been asked to develop websites for eight Northern California counties to address the opioid epidemic after its VenturaCountyResponds website for Ventura County received a warm reception.
Idea Engineering, a branding and strategic communications company, created the Ventura site as a community resource to help address the national opioid epidemic.
The company was asked to created websites customized for the local needs of Butte, Humboldt, Lake, Mendocino, Plumas, Siskiyou, Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties, and all have since gone live.
“I think at this point, everyone is aware that there is an opioid crisis out there,” said Idea Engineering CEO Simon Dixon. “But not everyone knows what it is, how it might affect them or their loved ones, and what they might do about it. These websites and associated materials are community resources that residents can easily access and glean important information from.”
The websites cover numerous related subjects including: explaining the opioid crisis; using infographics to deliver important statistics; information about Naloxone (Narcan) and its use in preventing overdose deaths; safe drug disposal; and other issues. The sites are also designed to be simple to update, so local agencies can easily keep them current.
Jeanne Spencer, Idea Engineering vice president and creative director, said: “When we build these types of websites, addressing issues such as mental health, vaping, marijuana, suicide prevention and DUI, we always want to focus on ease of use. Ease of use so community members can receive and understand important information; and also ease of use for clients, so the sites can be kept up to date. As we have seen recently with vaping, new information can be coming out daily and we want to ensure that our clients have the tools to make those updates.”
Social media campaign materials also were created, allowing community residents to click through to the websites from sites like Facebook and local media outlets. Most of the nine sites built so far have been created in both English and Spanish using custom translation rather than machine translation to ensure fidelity and readability, leading to a smoother and more culturally appropriate user experience.
Idea Engineering is a branding, marketing, and strategic communications firm with presence in Santa Barbara, Sacramento and Washington, D.C., and is one of the leading public health and safety communications firms in the United States. IE is currently working on critically important campaigns concerning opioids, marijuana, DUI, DUID, suicide prevention, and Rx abuse, amongst other topics.
For more information, please visit www.ideaengineering.com.