Electrifying a public transit system

With the challenge of post-pandemic behavior, there has never been a more important time to build consumer confidence with an uplifting story that encourages people to leave their car at home. Through social media, videos, and a refreshed landing page, the campaign produced a 10% lift to overall web traffic and over 5 million impressions, not to mention several earned media stories.

Challenge

Boise was experiencing an influx of people downtown creating issues with traffic, parking, and congestion. To help solve the problem sustainably, VRT planned to introduce 12 new electric buses to their fleet. But this was 2021, and while the world was slowly emerging from the pandemic, the public was still apprehensive of all things public.

Solution

We positioned the bus as the sustainable solution to Boise’s traffic congestion, and made electric buses the heroes leading the way. We started by creating our heroes — each personifying a benefit of electric. We dressed them with bold wraps and told their story through a comic book, social media, and pandemic-friendly launch event. Four supersized electric buses joined forces as the electric POWered bus fleet — ridding the Treasure Valley of traffic, smog and congestion one rider at a time.

Results

While we couldn’t force people back to work, we could raise public perception and prime the waters for when they are ready to commute again. Over 4 months, there were almost 5 million impressions and a 10% increase in website traffic. And the buzz was palpable. People loved their new heroes.