Residents often miss out on services or benefits available to them—or those to which they are entitled—because they aren’t aware such services exist or don’t believe that such services are right for them. The State of New Jersey’s (NJ) Office of Innovation (OOI) sought to tackle these challenges by launching a Communication + Engagement (C+E) Lab: an in-house team focused on deploying both traditional and digital consumer marketing strategies to help residents become aware of—and ultimately take up—services and programs available to them. 

 The Beeck Center’s Digital Services Network (DSN) spoke with the director of the C+E Lab, Katie Fiore, and OOI chief of staff, Kai Feder, to learn more about the C+E Lab and its ongoing role in shifting the State’s approach to using marketing to better connect residents to programs and services.