Boise, Idaho — October 7, 2025 — Valley Regional Transit (VRT), in partnership with Stoltz Marketing Group (Stoltz), earned national recognition with a Grand Award in the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) 2025 AdWheel Awards competition. The honor, given to only 14 agencies nationwide, was awarded in the category of Best Marketing and Communications to Increase Ridership or Sales for transit systems providing 3 million or fewer annual passenger trips.
The winning entry, “Let’s Ride, BOI,” an integrated brand awareness and ridership campaign, redefined how residents of Idaho’s largest city perceived public transportation and positioned Boise on the national stage as an innovative, community-driven leader in transit marketing.
Tackling Boise’s Transit Perception Challenge
Boise is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, experiencing rapid increases in roadway congestion. In our car-centric region, research revealed widespread myths and misconceptions about the ability of our transit system to meet people’s needs today. VRT and Stoltz set out to challenge those misconceptions head-on.
The “Let’s Ride, BOI” campaign set out to connect bus ridership to the very best of Boise culture, from music festivals and art to outdoor adventure. By positioning transit as modern, vibrant, and accessible to everyone—using bold creative, targeted media, and community integration—the campaign helped residents see the bus not just as transportation, but as a lifestyle choice.
Proven Results
The campaign drove strong engagement and measurable impact across various channels, including app usage, media visibility, and ridership growth, in the first three months. It reached 96% of the target audience, delivering over 17 million impressions and an average of 8.4 ad views per user per month. By connecting the Valley Regional Transit system to local people and places, VRT and Stoltz built a scalable, creative platform with staying power. This foundation set the stage for sustained growth in public transit adoption in Boise and throughout the region, encouraging more Boiseans to commute to work, school, and the activities they love. Additionally, the campaign resulted in a 95% increase in UMO app downloads, a 11% rise in daily active website users, and a 6.5% boost in organic search traffic.
“At VRT, our top three goals right now are to raise community awareness, increase ridership, and improve funding,” said Jason Rose, Chief Communications Officer for VRT. “The ‘Let’s Ride, BOI’ campaign has been instrumental in helping us achieve those goals—especially in raising awareness of the services we offer the community. A lot of people in the US don’t naturally consider public transit as an option, but this campaign really started to change that perception locally.”
National Recognition
The AdWheel Awards celebrated excellence in public transportation marketing, communications, and customer experience. VRT and Stoltz’s Grand Award was presented at the APTA Honors Luncheon on September 16, 2025, during the APTA TRANSform Conference in Boston, MA. Other honorees included Sound Transit in Seattle, WA; RTC of Washoe County in Reno, NV; and the Toronto Transit Commission in Toronto, ON.
“For VRT, this recognition means a lot,” Rose added. “We are a young marketing and communications team. To be one of only 14 agencies recognized at the national level—and to sit alongside some of the best transit agencies in the country—is a huge honor.”
Rose also credited the partnership with Stoltz: “Working with Stoltz has been amazing. They’re small enough to build strong interpersonal relationships, but big enough to bring real firepower—resources and expertise in every aspect of the campaign. That combination has been critical to our success.”
“At its core, this campaign is about moving people and re-shaping perceptions. We saw early indicators that younger audiences were leading the post-pandemic transit ridership recovery nationally, and knew a fun, bold approach to transit advertising was the move,” said Mitch Kuhn, Executive Creative Director. “Mobility is a critical part of a thriving economy and community. We’re honored to partner with Valley Regional Transit to create work that not only wins awards but drives real change in our community.”
About Valley Regional Transit
VRT has been connecting people to the community they love to live in for over 20 years. As the regional public transportation authority for Ada and Canyon counties, VRT services include 19 fixed routes in both counties, on-demand bus service in Nampa and Caldwell, and numerous specialized transportation options. For more information, please visit rideVRT.org.
About Stoltz Marketing Group
Founded in 1997, Stoltz Marketing Group is a full-service, independently owned agency headquartered in Boise, Idaho. We blend research, strategy, and bold creative to build future-proof brands and performance-driven campaigns that help organizations stand out and grow. As one of the fewer than 1% of U.S. agencies that are woman-owned and women-led, we bring a unique, people-centered approach to everything we do — grounded in insight, executed with precision, and measured by results.
