The New Civic Center Station

Target Audience: The target market for RTD's "New Civic Center Station" marketing and promotional campaign encompassed the downtown Denver business district with specific focus on a few targeted audiences. The specific targeted audiences included: commuters traveling into downtown Denver, commuters transferring to other bus routes or rail lines, local residents, and employees from businesses housed in or around Civic Center Station to enjoy the amenities the station offers as well as the business community.

Strategy Objective:The marketing campaign for this new urban transit hub was designed to generate excitement, as well as educate and increase awareness for all target audiences. The campaign sought to capture people's imaginations about the new facility's potential impact through contemporary colors, bold type, colorful renderings, and a simple positioning statement, "The New Civic Center Station." The campaign was rolled out in strategic locations adjacent to the facility and included print ads, 16th Street Mall banners, digital billboards, on vehicle ads, brochures, service notifications, RTD website, social media, and digital advertising. Additional outreach through RTD ambassadors at strategic locations assisted customers with service-related transitions.

Situation Challenge: RTD's Civic Center Station has traditionally served as one of RTD's busiest regional transit centers with 18 bus routes, the Free MallRide and MetroRide bus service serving an average of 60,000 passengers a day. As a major transit hub for more than three decades, the station was badly dated, in desperate need of repairs and was closed to the public for approximately 18 months. With the reopening of Civic Center Station in December 2017, the challenge was to introduce the newly transformed multi-modal transit center to the specific target audiences, while establishing short and long-term strategies for the future of the station as a revitalized urban transit hub and new downtown anchor to the business community.

Results Impact: The Civic Center Station reopening campaign generated tremendous awareness about the transformed station, resulting in more than 11,821,093 million multimedia impressions over a five-week promotional period in advance of the December 15, 2017 opening. These impressions included more than 3 million out of home, more than 700,000 print, and 8 million across digital channels. The reopening was timed with a service change to enable smooth service transitions and connections. Hundreds of people joined RTD, city and civic officials and stakeholder came out to celebrate the opening and tour the renovated facility during the grand opening ceremony.

Why Submit: With its grand reopening in January 2018, Civic Center Station heralded another huge accomplishment for metro Denver area transit. As the sister downtown station to the previously opened Union Station, RTD's Civic Center Station signaled an ongoing commitment to better access, better facilities, and greater connections for a metro area that is thriving and growing unlike any in the country. The strategic, comprehensive campaign reached hundreds of thousands of directly impacted metro area commuters, businesses, and residents and provided them with yet another transportation hub and alternative, offering direct access into the center of the city.