Culver CityBus - Celebrating 90 Years of Service

Target Audience: Culver CityBus (CULVER CITYBUS) targeted a diverse base ranging from local and regional constituents, frequent riders and non-riders, students, tourists and visitors, businesses, and multi-modal passengers.

Strategy Objective:Understanding the importance that social media plays in relaying information to passengers, Culver CityBus ramped up social media engagement by increasing informational and educational Facebook posts and expanding our marketing footprint to include Twitter. Marketing tactics included a "90-years of service" Community Event to engage local riders and a Customer Appreciation event at a regional transit site. The marketing strategy included a bus wrap unveiling, a 1920's and 2018 photo booth, an educational "Through the Decades" booklet, and themed SWAG that was distributed throughout the year. There was an educational component that included engaging local schools to promote bus ridership among their students and outreach to city visitors that used the bus for Culver-specific events.

Situation Challenge: Culver CityBus celebrated 90 years of service this year. CULVER CITYBUS has grown in ridership, sustainable and efficient technology and community partnerships. The purpose of the campaign was to increase awareness and education about transit. In spite of the 90 years of service, many have no knowledge or relationship of how local transit worked. Many local residents had never been on the bus and did not understand how Transit Access Pass (TAP cards) worked. The challenge was to increase familiarity, provide a viable option ' an alternative way to get from point a to point b. CULVER CITYBUS strategies were designed to tell the story of our wins, share how valuable a partner we are and communicate about our service, history, ridership and continuous growth.

Results Impact: While it is difficult to directly judge the outcome to a greater public awareness campaign, many factors point to a successful effort. Through the campaign we have partnered with every level of the local community. We have been recognized by local councilmembers, and parents share that students, after coming home from transit field trips ask to ride transit with their parents. This campaign and partnerships have provided a baseline for future recognition and collaboration. The interaction with the public allowed Culver CityBus to position itself as a community partner and provide valuable transit information while making connections with riders.

Why Submit: Our campaign should be recognized because it allows for interaction with transit, creating a positive memory about the experience. Our campaign is flexible and can be adapted to every level of community. We are raising the understanding of transit and its importance to our community. Culver CityBus has expanded its service to include critical community partnerships that improve the experience for the rider. Through marketing strategies that inform riders of up-to-date service alerts, to providing educational events to show riders multimodal commute strategies, and providing field trip rider experience for visitors and tourists. Through these tactics Culver CityBus is able to educate constituents about the health benefits, commute saving times, and green technology of our fleet.