Pace Suburban Bus - General Ridership Growth Campaign Video

Target Audience: This video targeted suburban residents who commute to the Chicago or another suburb for work or school and who live near or along one of the Pace bus routes. Pace's current diverse ridership base ranges from ages 20-60 and comprises mostly of dependent riders, where Pace is the primary or only option available to them for getting where they need to go. In order to build awareness and ultimately grow ridership among new audiences, Pace needed to reach elective riders who have alternative commuting options, including their own vehicle, carpools, rideshares, etc. Research revealed that Millennial and Latino audiences are currently underrepresented in the ridership base and represent an important opportunity for Pace. We took special care to ensure relevance to these groups.

Strategy Objective:This video was created as part of an ongoing initiative to expand Pace's current ridership base and grow new elective riders. Our strategy to support this objective was to convert current drivers to bus riders by showing them that Pace give rider the opportunity to relax and use their time as they see fit. The strategy was supported by key insights uncovered in the 2017 APTA "Who Rides Public Transportation" research, including that the most frequent response for why people ride (44% of reasons given) was that they simply prefer transit for a variety of intangible reasons, including that they find it more convenient than driving. This matched findings in Pace's own market studies, where non-dependent riders most often sited convenience as the top reason for riding.

Situation Challenge: Pace's overall challenge was to grow ridership through increasing awareness and consideration among non-dependent riders. Like every public transportation system, sustained growth is critical to Pace's success and ability to continue to provide comprehensive and innovative transit solutions for our community. Historically, Pace's ridership tends to turn over every 7 years and skew toward a more senior demographic. To combat turnover and gain long-term riders, Pace needed to ensure relevance to underrepresented Millennial and Latino audiences. Additionally, Pace faces market factors shared nationally, including an aging ridership population, an increase in low-cost rideshare options and an increase in vehicle ownership, which have contributed to several years of decreased ridership.

Results Impact: The campaign launched at the end of September 2018, and results over the first 9 weeks for video are extremely positive. Video units garnered 8MM highly targeted impressions within Pace's specific service area zip codes. They were programmatically served using behavioral targeting, so our video would run on sites where Pace riders were likely to visit based on 3rd party data. So far, those impressions have generated over 5.8MM video plays with a 72% completion rate, which is 10% higher than the industry benchmark. The campaign is still in progress and business-level metrics around ridership and sales are not yet available. An awareness study is underway with our video media partner to be completed in early 2019.

Why Submit: On Strategy, Delightfully Unexpected: "Transform your Ride" heightens the idea that Pace is a stress-free, easy way to ride by showing how riders can escape their commute and transport to another world of their making, showing real benefits such as free WIFI and convenient payment along the way. The overall production quality helps to elevate Pace and increase consideration among a new set of prospective riders. Maximum Target Relevance: Our video subjects engage in activities that both Millennial and Latino audiences over-index in compared with the general population: Online shopping and streaming online video. We also translated it to Spanish language to reach native speakers in their preferred channels. Performance: The video placements are driving impressive initial results.