Sound Transit 2018 Ridership Campaign

Target Audience: Current and future Sound Transit riders (Link light rail, ST Express buses, and Sounder trains). We targeted current riders, knowing non-riders were also seeing and hearing our message.

Strategy Objective:The objective of this campaign was to remind riders of the benefits of using Sound Transit and make them feel good about continuing to make the smart choice to use Sound Transit. At the same time convince non-riders to get out of their cars to enjoy the time they get back in their lives when riding with Sound Transit. With time back, the emotional and practical benefits of riding Sound Transit (less stress and having time to read, relax, attend to person matter, etc.) outweigh the capacity constraints.

Situation Challenge: Sound Transit's capacity will grow in three years with system expansion, but in the near term Sound Transit is reaching ridership capacity on most routes, and that, combined with the region's growth impacting traffic, was making riders and non-riders frustrated with their commuting options. In addition, non-rider sentiment was waning, especially since residents approved taxes to support a comprehensive system expansion.

Results Impact: The integrated marketing campaign resulted in a 2.9% increase in total ridership across all Sound Transit services YTD 2018 (as of September 2018), compared to the same time frame last year. - https://www.soundtransit.org/sites/default/files/monthly-service-performance-report-201809.pdf The success of this campaign can also be seen on Facebook as public sentiment improved with 237 shares, and click-thru rates that jumped from .15% in 2017 to 1.05% in 2018. Positive Facebook posts on our ads were telling. For example, "Visiting this past week I had the pleasure of travelling on this service. It was clean and efficient. Travelling late at night I felt safe. Coming from Boston this mode of transportation was fantastic."

Why Submit: The Sound Transit 2018 Ridership Campaign should win an AdWheel Award not only because of the incredible growth in ridership during a challenging time to ride public transportation in our region, but because of the positive sentiment the campaign garnered. The campaign added to our overall brand equity and paid a subtle reminder to residents that they should be proud of their investment in public transportation because of the benefits they get back in the form of time if you're a rider, and less cars on the road if you're a non-rider. Sound Transit is truly an ally in the fight against traffic.