GoTriangle Hurricane Relief Bus Effort- Hurricane Florence

Target Audience: Our target audience was existing GoTriangle riders and anyone else in the Triangle area who were called to help our neighbors who were under water, without power and in desperate need of supplies. By partnering with other agencies and acting quickly, we were able to make a difference and have GoTriangle be a part of a wonderful community effort. Ways that we reached the target markets: News release :https://gotriangle.org/here-to-help Facebook Live:https://www.facebook.com/WRALTV/videos/vb.14827657177/2249087568636502/?type=2&theater https://www.facebook.com/WRALTV/videos/vb.14827657177/299947453932532/?type=2&theater https://www.facebook.com/gotriangle/posts/10156346410160660 Campaign Video Story:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FugWKVjG4qc

Strategy Objective:We created a brief promotional video and social media graphics and sent a news release to promote the drive. Facebook live was the key to promotional success on the day of the event. Beginning at 6:00 a.m. until about 7:00 p.m. our staff did live reports on WRAL's Facebook platform to show our community the progress of collection throughout the day in real-time and to continue highlighting what was still needed. WRAL News staff also did some Facebook live and several live TV hits to promote the effort.

Situation Challenge: As Hurricane Florence took aim at North Carolina, we rallied with some key partners to plan and execute a rapid response to help our neighbors in need after the storm. Even before landfall, we were actively planning our Hurricane Relief Bus Effort with the goal of filling buses with needed supplies for people in impacted areas. We connected with the United Way of the Triangle and the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina to determine the most needed supplies after the storm and the best distribution sites in impacted areas. We also contacted WRAL TV to secure them as a promotional media partner and NC State University to host our drive in the parking lot of Cater-Finely stadium. Our Hurricane Relief collection was a 13 hour effort over just one day.

Results Impact: Because of the strong partnerships, constant interactive promotion and generosity of our community we filled 5 buses, 3 vans and a small cargo truck with supplies for those impacted by Hurricane Matthew. A few days later we drove those items directly to hard hit areas in Carteret County and Lumberton and worked with distribution sites on the ground to get them out quickly to storm victims. We documented the delivery and put together a comprehensive video story to take our community on the journey from start to finish so they could see their kindness at work. All told we spent less than $2,000 on the campaign, mostly on printing and packing supplies. The hard work, creativity and interactive visually storytelling made GoTriangle's Hurricane Relief Bus effort a huge success!

Why Submit: Knowing that our state and close neighbors were about to get hit with an incredibly destructive storm we were able to tap into our previous experience of rallying the community. We pulled off this event in less than a week thereby getting supplies in the hands of those in need quickly. The ability to procure the resources needed for such a crucial event, donation location, signage, advertising partners, buses and staffing was no small task. The results of filling over five 40 foot buses, 3 vans and a small cargo truck with supplies were much more than we imagined. Being able to use our buses and staff to make such a huge difference means a lot to our team, giving us a greater purpose than just "having a job", and also allows our company to be regarded positively as a community leader.