Census Bureau inviting media outlets with Asian audiences to run promotional 2020 Census ads

The Census Bureau is inviting media outlets with Asian audiences to be considered to run ads promoting this year’s census, Axios reports.

A bureau spokesperson told the publication that “media outlets were invited to submit proposals to be considered for participation in the paid media campaign.”

“Those proposals were evaluated to determine how effective each media outlet would be in reaching audiences prioritized for the paid media campaign by the Census Bureau,” the spokesperson added.

The label requires the outlets to produce specific documentation, such as personnel lists and real estate holdings, according to Axios. 

Sky Link TV, Phoenix TV, China Press and SinoVision, outlets that have strong connections to the Chinese government, have been contracted to run census ads.

The strategy is part of the bureau’s overarching 2020 Census Paid Media Campaign, which pays government money to community media outlets to run ads about the census with the hope that the agency is able to reach as many people as possible.

The Census Bureau is not directly running the media campaign. The government agency outsourced the project to marketing firm VMLY&R, which delegated outreach to Asian American audiences to another firm, TDW+Co.

“The 2020 Census Paid Media Campaign decision was made based on a careful and holistic evaluation of multiple criteria within the request for proposal (RFP),” TDW+Co founder Tim Wang told Axios. 

The Hill has reached out to the bureau for comment.

This article has been updated to reflect that CCTV4 will not be participating in the paid census media ad campaign. A previous version of this article listed CCTV4 as a participant.