Spokane Transit Fall 2018 Ridership Campaign

Target Audience: Targeted demographics of riders in the Public Transportation Benefit Area. PTBA includes the cities of Airway Heights, Cheney, Medical Lake, Millwood, Liberty Lake, Spokane, and Spokane Valley and other unincorporated areas. The current population is approximately 425,000. Specific audience segments included: - New-service beneficiaries - Younger adults (students, young workforce, new riders) - Single-household families (single vehicle households, young children in the home, older dependents and older Millennial heads of household) - Taxpayers - Media Additionally, there were specific areas where we hyper-targeted audiences because we were either expanding or introducing new service in rural and suburban areas.

Strategy Objective:The overall campaign objective was to launch a coordinated effort to grow awareness, engagement and utilization of new services made available in September 2018 in an effort to promote the overall STA brand and grow ridership. Since STA's previous focus had been on its ballot initiative in 2016 (which was a success) and the work pursuant to the ballot initiative in 2017, this was the first time in years STA would be in front of the public with a ridership marketing campaign. Additionally, as stewards of taxpayer resources, the campaign had to be purposeful and strategic in how it leveraged resources and budget, forgoing flashier tactics in order to achieve depth and penetration and meaningfulness with target audiences.

Situation Challenge: In Fall 2018, Spokane Transit Authority launched a new ridership campaign for and about local riders and residents of the Public Transit Benefit Area. Through the campaign, Spokane Transit hoped to emerge in front of their audiences in a new and surprising way. The result was a campaign aimed at benefitting individuals on a practical level ' addressing what they need, where they're going and how STA can support their goals. The campaign raised thoughtful and provocative questions that asked audiences to consider bus ridership in a way they hadn't before. It tapped into everyday behaviors and problems locals would want to solve, subverting expectations by celebrating unremarkable moments in day-to-day life. Simple goals and problems solved by one common denominator'riding public transit.

Results Impact: Increased ridership, brand awareness and affinity and social followers and engagement. Correlating to the run of the campaign, STA experienced an uptick in ridership, denoting a clear success. Cumulatively, there was a .6% ridership increase in just 2 months. Some target audiences saw as much as a 19.7% increase in ridership. Campaign performance highlights: 0.6% increase in ridership in 2 months; 11.3% YOY increase in Facebook likes; 15-point increase in social engagement; 11.7% increase YOY at Washington State University; 19.7% increase YOY at Gonzaga University; 5.5% increase YOY at the community colleges; Increased West Plains Transit Center boardings with 157 riders per day Paid-social performance highlights: 738,304 impressions; 725 landing page views; 642 social reactions

Why Submit: The campaign was a clear success, with tangible results in as few as 1-2 months. This campaign broke the mold, appealing to younger audiences. Optimized for emerging consumer audiences (Gen Zs and Millennials), campaign messaging had to satisfy Gen Zs, emphasizing low cost and ease of use, while also being aspirational enough to appeal to Millennials. The answer was the catch phrase "We've got this." The design, too, needed to build upon existing brand imagery while incorporating fresh and bold elements. Not only did it embrace new demographics, this fully integrated campaign resulted in measurable increases in ridership and engagement.