GCTD's Campaign to Increase Ridership - Free Summer Saturdays

Target Audience: The target audience for our Free Summer Saturdays campaign included existing riders, potential new riders, visitors/tourists, and the community at large here in Ventura County.

Strategy Objective:GCTD created a comprehensive campaign that engaged current riders to continue to ride during the summer and also attract new riders. Access to reliable forms of transportation is often a barrier from enjoying community events, visiting friends & family or running errands so eliminating the financial barrier to using transit opened access for those unable to use the transit system. This project also created the opportunity, for those who otherwise would drive a personal vehicle, to "try out" transit for a day without having to worry about figuring out a fare structure or making sure they have exact change to make a payment. The campaign included online digital ads, social media graphics with accompanying posts, graphics for our website, a press release/media outreach, & a pop up event.

Situation Challenge: Like many transportation agencies, GCTD has faced the challenge of decreases in ridership, especially during the summer months. GCTD aimed to create an enticing campaign that leveraged fun summer community activities as a way to incentivize customers to ride.

Results Impact: The campaign resulted in increased ridership of 17% for the duration of the campaign and has seen some of those numbers sustained. For example, specifically on Saturdays and Sundays, GCTD has seen an increase of 3% and 2% respectively over the same dates the previous year. Moreover, the presence of this campaign on our buses and on social media increased public awareness about our organization and the services we provide.

Why Submit: This submission should win this award because it accomplished what all of us in the transportation industry aim to do: be an excellent public service. We identified a problem (decreased ridership), conceptualized an enticing and fun marketing campaign, and identified funding to make it possible. It was a collaborative team effort, spent a minimal marketing budget (less than $400), and it was a great community service that returned increased ridership results- proof of success.