Colorado Apartment Association: Rent Control 2023

Challenge

During the Legislative Session, CAA faced a critical juncture with the introduction of legislation (HB 1115) that had the potential to decimate Colorado’s housing industry and the various measures in place to ensure housing affordability.

Despite the continuous and dedicated efforts of CAA, its educational arm We Shape Housing, and its partners in championing affordable housing, members of the Colorado legislature pushed to implement measures that would permit rent control as a solution to the state’s affordable housing crisis.

For over four decades, Colorado has maintained a statewide prohibition on local governments enacting rent control policies. While everyone wants affordable housing, rent control would most hurt those that the legislation is meant to help. HB 1115 aimed to rescind the longstanding restriction on local rent control regulations, paving the way for cities across Colorado to enact rent control.

Regrettably, history has shown that rent control, rather than alleviating housing challenges, often exacerbates them. In fact, studies show that 93% of economists think that rent control actually makes housing less affordable. Rent control has not worked in any of the places that have tried it – be it New York, San Francisco, or, most recently, St. Paul, Minnesota. As the Wall Street Journal wrote in an editorial last summer, building permit applications in St. Paul following the enactment of rent control policies dropped nearly 82%. In San Francisco, a study conducted by Stanford University states that rent in that city went up 5.1% city-wide following a 15% decrease in housing supply due to the implications of rent control. Not only did this affect housing affordability but it had extreme repercussions on renters’ mobility in housing options and flexibility, dropping by 20% in reaction to rental restrictions.

Recognizing the gravity of the situation, CAA engaged Novitas Communications to undertake the task of educating both the citizens of Colorado and legislators about the potentially dire and lasting economic ramifications associated with allowing rent control.

About

The Colorado Apartment Association (CAA) is a non-profit trade association representing owners, developers, management companies, and vendors of the multifamily housing industry. CAA is comprised of four local affiliates from across the state. The association represents over 3,600 members who own and/or manage over 350,000 apartments, which totals more than $98 billion in assets. Together with the local affiliates, the National Multi-Housing Council, and the National Apartment Association (NAA), the Association offers a strong network of information, education, and representation for the multifamily housing industry.

Solution

At the core of Novitas’ strategic approach was the implementation of a digital advertising campaign. Spanning six weeks and with a shoestring budget, this campaign effectively garnered more than seven million impressions across multiple online platforms, including Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Novitas also employed traditional public relations methods to support the effort, including placing five opinion articles, writing and sending out a press release including a statement from the Association upon the introduction of the bill, and supporting the Association in coordinating and responding to media inquiries throughout the process.

This initiative, which reached a substantial audience through various online and print channels, played a pivotal role in raising awareness about the intricacies of rent control policies and their far-reaching negative implications.

Novitas worked closely with CAA to craft a series of simple, impactful messages that were woven into four distinct advertisements, strategically spaced across a span of six weeks.

The overarching objective was twofold: to capture the attention of both legislative bodies and the public. The aim was to educate them about the potential drawbacks of rent control policies, highlighting their inadvertent impact on the very individuals they intend to assist, and to ultimately kill the bill.

The ads also aimed to mobilize the public, encouraging them to proactively engage with their elected representatives and advocate for a “no” vote on HB 1115. Over the course of six weeks, the advertisements were strategically rolled out, undergoing updates on a ten-day cycle to construct a coherent and compelling narrative. A significant portion of the budget was allocated to Google ads, leveraging its expansive, yet efficient outreach capabilities.

Results

The bill was killed.

During the span of six weeks, Novitas spent a total of $10,257 while effectively garnering more than seven million impressions.

With a relatively low-level amount of advertising spend, Novitas was able to reach over seven million sets of eyes with the simple and straightforward messages against the proposed rent control legislation. We believe the outsized reach of the advertisements helped to reinforce the negatives regarding this bad policy.

For this campaign, the buying power of Google Ads and Twitter ads far outweighed similar spending for Facebook and LinkedIn ads. Additionally, the costs per impression for both Google Ads and Twitter were one-fourth the cost of LinkedIn and one-eighth the cost of Facebook. Overall, the Google Ads far outperformed any other platform, and reached a huge number of people with the messages. We were able to make our clients’ budget stretch much further than planned, which gave them greater value for their money and a much-needed result.

Novitas’ surgical approach to advertising proved to be an efficient and impactful tool in the fight against the proposed rent control legislation. This win also demonstrates the collaborative potential between public relations and government relations, underscored by their capacity to generate favorable outcomes for the community and act as a safeguard for an entire industry.