Make Storm Drains the Star of Your Next Stormwater Campaign
POSTED ON March 3rd, 2026 BY Lisa Duba
Storm drains are everywhere, but what are they for? While our team (and maybe your team) thinks about our stormwater system A LOT, the average person doesn’t. Since 2009, Gigantic has continually evolved outreach to catch the attention of average residents to help them understand how storm drains connect to local creeks and San Francisco Bay. This understanding encourages action to prevent pollution of the stormwater that flows to our waterways. Below we share a few examples of content we’ve created that successfully engaged people online and in the real world, using storm drains as an unlikely star of the campaign.
This year’s “A Clean Bay Begins Here” campaign launched March 1 for the Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program. To capture attention, we partnered with Bay Area artist Joanna Sokua to raise the visibility of the county’s storm drains and send a simple message: that there is “No Dumping” on our streets, because storm drains lead directly to the Bay. Sokua has received media and social media attention for her work, such as her BARToons, which combines photos with cartoon-style illustrations and elements of humor. Our campaign uses her drawings of native wildlife—including the western pond turtle, river otter, red rock crab, California newt and harbor seal, and of course, Program mascots Fred & Izzy. “The focus of this campaign is close to my heart. I loved creating art that hopefully makes people laugh, and piques their curiosity,” Sokua says.
Ads will run on BART platforms, buses, billboards and at events. An online pledge campaign with prizes will help people take the next step: commit to taking action to prevent pollution—including picking up litter, using reusables, less-toxic gardening and proper disposal of HHW and pet waste.
Storm drains also starred in our 2025 Alameda County Fair exhibit booth, which won four blue ribbons! Visitors took a journey through the storm drain, starting on the street, and ending up in a creek. Fun View Master slides and flip signs lent an old-school hands-on approach—a big hit with both kids and adults. Over 300 people pledged to take action!
For the Watershed Watch Campaign in Santa Clara County we’ve created short-form vertical videos (Reels/Shorts) in trending styles to show residents aspects of storm drains they don’t see, including maintenance, trash capture devices, and creek connections. Last year, our “Dirty Jobs”-style video showing a storm drain cleanout, was our most engaging content for Watershed Watch—with over 1,500 likes and dozens of comments. It was nothing fancy, just an interesting peek into the work that our clients do every day, which provided an engaging way to deliver stormwater educational messaging.
In February we launched a video on trash capture devices for Watershed Watch, which showcases the technology “hiding under our streets” that local agencies have installed to meet state goals for trash load reductions in waterways.
Also in Santa Clara County, for West Valley Stormwater Authority we created a YouTube short that shows exactly what kinds of items get stuck in the storm drain and how the Authority’s ongoing work keeps things flowing. The video has over 4,600 views and counting.
We encourage anyone doing stormwater outreach to create engaging content that lets residents take a peek inside the storm drain to see all the great work local agencies do to develop and maintain these important systems!
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