“EBMUD”, the East Bay Municipal Utility District, delivers vital water and wastewater services to over 1.4 million residents in Northern California. As one of the Bay Area’s largest public employers, they’re also on a mission to expand their workforce and build a pipeline of diverse, local talent for high-paying, stable careers in public service.
That’s where Techboogie stepped in.
For the 2024–2025 recruitment cycle, EBMUD trusted Techboogie to produce and direct their official employee recruitment campaign, a large-scale, multi-platform effort spanning commercial photography, social media advertising, and public-facing billboards throughout the East Bay. With a small but mighty team, we developed a bold, polished campaign that captured the spirit of EBMUD’s workforce and delivered results under budget and over expectations!
Client Background: Who is East Bay MUD?
EBMUD is a public utility agency serving Alameda and Contra Costa counties. As a critical infrastructure provider, EBMUD maintains water and wastewater systems, ensures environmental sustainability, and supports public health and safety.
Like many agencies nationwide, EBMUD faces increased staffing needs across departments, from engineering and operations to administration and fieldwork. They sought to highlight the diversity, livability, and upward mobility of a career with EBMUD to attract new applicants from across the East Bay.
Creative Strategy & Production Approach
Having partnered with EBMUD on previous creative projects, our team was ready to take this effort to the next level. The goal was two-fold: 1) increase applications across underrepresented job categories and 2) elevate the visibility of EBMUD as a diverse employer offering well-paying, essential work opportunities that help the community.
Techboogie proposed a bold, energetic visual style grounded in authentic employee stories. We centered real EBMUD staff in their work environments across various departments to create a portrait-driven campaign that felt local, human, and relatable. This campaign’s theme was aptly titled “Looking Towards the Future”.
Key concept pillars included:
- Representation matters: feature diverse individuals across race, gender, age, and job types.
- Public-facing careers deserve public-facing campaigns: let the people doing the work be the face of the brand.
- Aspirational, but grounded: present EBMUD as a place of real opportunity, growth, and impact.
With a lean, high-performing team, we handled every aspect of the visual implementation in this campaign. Our fearless leader JJ served as the Director of Photography and Producer, executing commercial photography across multiple EBMUD locations, while also directing his cinematographers, and light technicians.
We collaborated with the top-notch marketing team at EBMUD in order to have proper on-site management and safety. Of course with any video production project, we also handled the post-production including color grading and layout-ready formatting. Along with sizing and exporting assets for both print and digital use.
The visual campaign included a series of billboard images deployed throughout the East Bay in transit ads on BART and AC Transit platforms, and a suite of social media ad creatives for Facebook and Instagram. We also provided portraits and photography assets formatted for EBMUD’s internal and external use.
What makes this campaign stand out isn’t just the visuals—it’s the outcome. We delivered on time and under budget and over expectations, giving EBMUD a high-quality, multipurpose content library they can use well into the future. The success of this effort was so compelling that EBMUD immediately greenlit a second phase of the campaign for 2025 that is on-going.
Performance & Results
- Increased Job Applications: Following launch, EBMUD reported a significant uptick in applications with 72% of 1500+ candidates were of diverse backgrounds. That was ~1100 candidates that identified as Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, etc.
- High ROI from Social Media: While billboards and transit ads created strong local visibility, the social media component had the highest ROI garnering shares, likes, and direct click-thrus to job listings. With this campaign, it generated 35k clicks mainly coming from Instagram. With the industry benchmark Click Thru Rate (CTR) being 0.95% our campaign exceeded benchmarks with a CTR of 2.1%
- The Highest-Performing Static Ads were of the female engineer with 1.37 M impressions, 2,763 clicks, and a CTR of 0.20%. The other was the crew member actually working on site with the gray wall. With 1.27 M impressions, 2,935 clicks, and 0.23% CTR. The video ad of him also performed well 62,036 impressions, 993 clicks and a 1.6% CTR.
Though initially conceived as a print-first campaign, digital platforms proved the most impactful. Facebook and Instagram ads outperformed expectations, generating a notable uptick in job applications and click-through rates. The imagery resonated, especially with younger and more diverse job-seekers. Watch the highest performing videos below…
Why It Matters
For public agencies, recruiting fills roles, sure but it’s about showing the public what a career in service really looks like. Through strategic storytelling, authentic visuals, and cross-platform visibility, Techboogie helped EBMUD do just that.
This project proves that with the right team and creative direction, a recruitment campaign can double as public engagement and brand building all while making a real difference in who sees themselves in these careers.
For Techboogie, this was about showing the public sector in a new light; vital, inclusive, and full of opportunity. And for the East Bay, it was a chance to see themselves reflected in the infrastructure that serves them every day.
Discover how Techboogie can help you meet your hiring goals through strategic media. Explore our services or contact us to start building your next campaign.
Looking to Elevate Your Brand?
Whether you’re a public agency, nonprofit, or mission-driven organization, Techboogie can help you build recruitment campaigns that connect, convert, and inspire.
Let’s talk. Contact us today to plan your next campaign.
