Hartford Line Campaign to Introduce new interstate rail service

Target Audience: The Print media campaign was the broadest part of a comprehensive campaign. Using Bold Imagery, a simple catch phase and maps. The Hartford Line announced its pending opening while beginning the conversation of the overall campaign in a way that would appeal to all. The corpus of the marketing is that this new connectivity opens up a world of opportunities within the densely populated knowledge corridor.

Strategy Objective:The strategy was to make people aware of the new service and the range of opportunities it makes available and then engage with them so they educate themselves about the service and give the service a try. We wanted to speak to frequent travelers and commuters in the service area to offer them reliable, stress free options. Occasional riders would have better access to leisure destinations. Businesses would be interested in their improved ability to attract employees. The Hartford Line provides easy connections to the New Haven Line or Amtrak into New York City and beyond. Key Messages:One less thing to stress about;Connecting more people to more options;You don't really understand the experience until you experience it;Interesting new option-different than what you might think you know

Situation Challenge: The Hartford Line is a new intercity rail service in an existing Amtrak rail corridor. Challenge: significant lack of awareness and understanding of the service and relationship between CTrail, Hartford Line and Amtrak;Train travel is a foreign concept outside of the New Haven area; coordinating messaging between the electronic marketing message to increase awareness and the broad education messaging about the service details. The electronic media drew people to the website. We use the website as the call to action in our advertising. Once potential customers come to the website, they can educate themselves on the system. E.g. on the website we use "One Ticket - Any train" to summarize the complexity.

Results Impact: The combined impact of the print, tv, radio and social media content has been tremendous. This effort was combined with a 2-day opening weekend free ride opportunity. During this 2 day trial period, passengers made over 20,000 passenger trips up and down the line. Our ridership goal for the end of 2018 was 2,000 passenger trips per day. That goal is exceeded on a regular basis despite the service only being in operation for 5 months. The continued impact of the marketing campaign has helped the ridership on this line to more than double when compared to the operated by Amtrak prior to opening the Hartford Line in June 2018, achieving over 250,000 passenger trips from mid-June through October 2018. We generated numerous articles. One local brewer even created a beer "Hartford Line Lager"

Why Submit: CTDOT and its partners created exceptionally effective content that distills complex information in a clear and simple fashion, while also achieving the goal of setting a branding tonality (easy, seamless, enjoyable, affordable, accessible), with high marks for excellent brand awareness within the corridor (this system connects to you everything here and beyond), while appealing to a broad audience. It should win because it has taken this thoughtfully created well laid out content and utilized multiple platforms for disseminating the information. Besides print, TV, radio and social media, the Department and its affiliates went directly to the people - universities, neighborhood organizations, Cities and towns, legislators, municipal leaders and our own staff of 2500 with this messaging