Long Beach Transit's 2018 AquaLink Campaign to increase ridership

Target Audience: The Target Audience for AquaLink and AquaBus are residents and people visiting Long Beach.

Strategy Objective:LBT's strategy increase to ridership was a comprehensive campaign involving promotion at a series of events all summer long, advertisements in print and digital, and social media posts. Over the summer, LBT significantly increased its presence at summer events, such as movies on the beach, and interacted with people unfamiliar with LBT's services. The on-site engagement was supported with advertisements, posters, and digital promotions.

Situation Challenge: The challenge facing LBT was that AquaLink was known as "the best kept secret in Long Beach." People familiar with the service loved it because they could enjoy a scenic cruise for only $5 each way. But the lack of awareness lead to declining ridership numbers.

Results Impact: The impact of the Summer AquaLink campaign has been very strong ridership numbers for AquaLink service overall. From 2017 to 2018 ridership on AquaLink and AquaBus increased by 9.5%

Why Submit: The Summer 2018 AquaLink Campaign deserves to win an award because of the creative, multi-faceted approach LBT used to promote AquaLink and AquaBus. With dynamic, creative materials and consistent outreach, LBT was able to increase awareness and increase ridership. In addition, LBT partnered with large community events, such as the Pirate Festival, to promote water taxis as an alternative to driving and parking.