IMPACT SNAPSHOT:

Educating Everyday Texans through Texas Runs on Water®

Since its launch in 2021, Texas Runs on Water® (TROW) has served as a unifying public awareness effort inspiring Texans to value water. As Texas addresses steep population growth and water supply and demand challenges, we recognized that long-term water planning isn’t just about infrastructure - it’s about people. Everyday Texans play a critical role in a secure water future, and awareness is the first step toward their engagement. 

TROW was intentionally designed to speak across the state’s diverse geographies and cultures. Grounded in Texas pride and place-based storytelling, TROW was developed as an umbrella campaign with the flexibility to be localized by region, audience, or water issue. Every campaign reinforces one unifying idea: everything Texans love about this state runs on water.

More than 35 partners across the state activate their own “Runs on Water” campaigns, leveraging our brand framework to engage with their communities and stakeholders. In Houston, the public utility has implemented full-scale media buys to reach targeted audiences to instill a sense of pride and cultural identity in their water. In Burnet County, an area experiencing rapid growth, the campaign is helping create a shared sense of responsibility through high-visibility billboards and community signage that highlight the importance of groundwater. Murals in markets like San Antonio, Amarillo, and Texarkana provide enduring, community-focused creative representation of water’s value and importance. Dozens of water utilities and groundwater districts utilize a media toolkit to support their water awareness communications to their own constituents. 

Four years later, what began as a localized campaign structure has evolved into a statewide platform for water education and behavior change. TROW has become a trusted brand platform for statewide policy education, as well as a cultural movement for the prioritization of water. 

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