HEAT Illustrated Commercial

Target Audience: Our primary targets were college students of our Higher Education Area Transit (HEAT) partner schools. Secondary targets were college students in the general market.

Strategy Objective:As the target group was college age, we knew the advertising messages needed to be brief and concise, and have a heavy social media component. The entire campaign centered around an illustrated commercial depicting the various areas of life for which students would need transportation: Education, Employment, Entertainment, etc...all of which is available using HEAT and GTA. The :30 illustrated spot featured no voiceover and a catchy music score to break through surrounding clutter. Having on-screen text benefitted the number of social media users who typically do not activate the sound when viewing video messages. The message aired on our social media outlets and websites. It also aired on commercial and government television, and intracampus broadcast systems.

Situation Challenge: Higher Education Area Transit (HEAT) is an award-winning service created over ten years ago in partnership with local colleges and universities. It includes 4 routes free for students traveling between locations frequented by college students including the campuses. The students also have free access to the entire Greensboro Transit Authority system. We felt a need to encourage HEAT riders to ride more and take advantage of additional service areas offered by GTA to improve access to desired destinations.

Results Impact: We received positive feedback when we launched the spots, which ran on local broadcast television, our government channel and on the web. We just received data a few days ago that shows ridership for our HEAT service which has been declining over the last 12 to 18 months rose 10% this October versus last October. We made some operational changes that may have contributed to it as well, but we believe the fresh approach in talking to current and potential HEAT riders helped to reverse the ridership trend. In addition, representatives of an original HEAT partner school that dropped out of the program a number of years ago has contacted us about rejoining the partnership!

Why Submit: I submitted this entry because for a system of our size, it was a step into unknown territory creating an animated commercial. We faced a lot of challenges identifying and acquiring the resources to complete the project, ultimately working with an illustrator from Mexico. In the end we were pleased with the result and look to do more in the future.