REGIONAL TRANSIT
How do you get ridership of a nearly-failing public transit system? Identify and address rider pain points packaged in a fun, family-friendly, ridership campaign.
Regional Transit (RT), Sacramento’s public transportation system, had been suffering a ridership decrease for over a decade. In 2016, the Sacramento region was experiencing a renaissance centered around a new downtown arena and downtown commons center. With a new CEO, RT saw an opportunity to reinvigorate its ridership and was poised to take advantage of a great opportunity to re-establish itself as a viable option for transportation to the Sacramento community. 3fold Communications was hired to help usher in a new generation of riders by focusing on using the public transit system as the premier means of transportation for the many new events taking place at the arena.
With Henry Li as their new President, RT was full steam ahead on preparations with adding extra cleaning crews and patrol to stations. But that wouldn’t be enough to get a genuinely dismayed crowd to try the trains. 3fold was tasked with creating a fresh new branding campaign to drive ridership during events to Golden 1 Center. I led the creative team in establishing a cohesive voice and hit specific client pain points such as the trains being clean, the stations being safe, and the ride being convenient.
CONCEPTING
ART DIRECTION
CLIENT PRESENTATION
STRATEGY
Research included looking at solutions created by other transit agencies, like LA METRO and VIVA. My research uncovered resources such as EMARQ creative guide to public transit marketing that provided invaluable insights on messaging and visual direction.
Working with a government agency that is also funded by a private sports team included producing design solutions that met each organization's specific qualifications and needs as well as feilding a wide array of feedback and specifications at any given point in the process throughout the project.
One specific example of this was having to add in a third primary color to the design after the campaign design direction had been approved by Regional Transit.
FINAL DIRECTION
Print & Out of Home
Digital
SCALABILITY
Once the campaign design was approved and production was underway, I produced a style guide for the campaign so that RT would have the ability to create and host branded events to build buzz around Regional Transits fresh new reintroduce the transit system as a viable means of transportation to events at Golden 1 and to build buzz around
PRODUCTION
Being a small team and a small agency on a small budget provided significant challenges.
After creating the campaign idea, I was responsible for producing all of the collateral, including bus shelter ads, digital and print out of home, train wraps, digital display, and paid social media ads.
Assets Created
Billboards (digital and print)
Microsite
Paid Facebook ads
Digital display ads
Cinema Ad/Animated video
Print ads
Train Wraps
Train Shelter /Bus Stop ads
Campaign Brand Guide
CONCLUSION
The campaign encouraged discretionary light rail ridership across the Sacramento Regional Transit (SacRT) system and established Sacramento Regional Transit as a viable and preferred method for Golden 1 Center transportation. Using relevant messaging and a combination of traditional and digital media, SacRT increased its visibility, consideration, and ridership across the Greater Sacramento, Folsom, and Elk Grove regions. The campaign was widely successful, increasing ridership 400% and established a fun, friendly, and inviting visual brand for Regional Transit that they have been able to build upon over the past 4 years.
AWARDS
Motion Graphic
2017 Silver Addy, Sacramento Region
Social Media, One-time Application
2017 Bronze Cappie Award
Short Term Public Relations Campaign