DCTA's #WhyIRideDCTA Contest and Revamp Breathes New Life into Rider Program

Target Audience: Key target audiences for the contest included DCTA riders (university students, commuters, occasional riders, etc.), community partners and local organizations.

Strategy Objective:DCTA has a #WhyIRideDCTA program in which the agency encourages riders to share their story of why they like to ride DCTA. The program launched in 2014, and the agency has received many testimonials from the program. However, DCTA needed to revamp its program logo, digital graphics and messaging to update the program and reintroduce it to riders. To revamp the program and get more program submissions, DCTA launched a contest to encourage riders to submit a photo or video online highlighting why they enjoy riding DCTA. The top three winners chosen by DCTA would win the following prizes: $100 Amazon gift card, 10 pack of regional day passes and DCTA swag items. The main goal was to revamp DCTA's current #WhyIRideDCTA program and reintroduce to riders.

Situation Challenge: The main challenge DCTA faced was a short timeline in developing a new design look for the program revamp and creating a strategic contest plan for implementation, which was all done in house.

Results Impact: - Total Campaign Entries ' 25 submissions (average one or two submissions received monthly) - Woobox Campaign Page (integrated into Facebook page) ' 4,106 total visits (top three referral sources were Twitter, Facebook and Direct Traffic) - Social Media o Facebook (Organic & Paid) ' 43,666 total people reached and 673 total engagements o Twitter (Organic & Paid) ' 75,528 total impressions and 4,315 total engagements

Why Submit: Due to the success of the #WhyIRideDCTA revamp contest, DCTA was able to develop rider testimonial videos for this program (a first for the agency) that could be utilized for further program promotion and increased brand awareness. In addition, the agency was able to drastically increase the amount of program submission by 1,150 percent in just two weeks (average is about two submissions per month).