Water, Water Everywhere and All is Safe to Drink

In 1959, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors created the Loudoun County Sanitation Authority. Fifty years ago Loudoun was a mostly rural community. As Northern Virginia has boomed the need for greater utility services has too. In the late 1980s, plans were in the works to build a new modern, state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility in Leesburg.

In 2000, as the utility grew, management struggled with customer relations. There was a misperception that the utility handled trash removal and that it was supported by public funds. The utility conducted a series of surveys asking customers what they thought the utility was responsible for and how they were funded. Sixty percent of those surveyed got the answers wrong.

As the new facility neared completion, Samantha Villegas, the utility’s public relations manager approached management about rebranding.

“The company needed a friendly and approachable message to explain our services to our clients as well as a way to promote our water conservation and environment stewardship commitment,” explains Villegas.

Villegas hired Jen Sterling and her team to develop a modern and approachable visual identity.

“We learned from our customers that our name was the main barrier. Sterling walked us through the process of namestorming and helped us develop several new names. We narrowed down the choices and polled our customers and settled on Loudon Water.”

With a new name, Sterling’s team created an approachable yet simple logo that combined the utility’s commitment to clean water and the environment. Sterling’s team worked with Loudon water to define their mission statement:
Every Drop Matters, Every Employee Counts.

The next phase was an education campaign: Water You Thinking? The goal was to educate homeowners and businesses to use water wisely.

“The Water You Thinking? campaign was a great success,” says Villegas. “It was humorous, intelligent, and effective. It was ultimately adopted internally as well by staff and became part of our marketing and culture.”