RTD How to Ride video

Target Audience: The primary target audience for RTD's How to Ride video, "Where Do You Want to Go Today?," (available at https://www.rtd-denver.com/rider-info/how-to-ride), and its social media vignettes, rolled out in January 2024, included RTD customers, as well as newcomers to transit and the Denver metro region. Secondary target audiences included social media and digital followers, the general public within the RTD service district, RTD board members, media, stakeholders, transit advocates, and community partners.

Strategy Objective:The strategy for the How to Ride Video was to provide and promote a succinct, friendly, and informative overview of our system and how to use it. Our objective was to inform, educate, and create possibilities in people's minds while showcasing how easy it is to take RTD buses and trains. The video was produced initially in English and Spanish to represent the two largest communities in our service district. It traces customer journeys from start to finish. From planning a trip and reviewing fares, to bike policies and priority seating, the video follows as customers access station(s), validate tickets, board vehicles, and transfer between services. These unique points of view enable viewers to see themselves taking trips and riding our system in confidence.

Situation Challenge: Taking public transit can be an intimidating experience, especially if you are new to the area or to transit. To inform and educate new and potential customers on all the details, prior to their arrival at the bus or train station, RTD developed a comprehensive How to Ride video. With a diverse cast mirroring our ridership, the video follows several customer journeys to personalize the experience and demonstrate how easy it is to ride transit. From planning trips, purchasing fare media, arriving at stations, and boarding buses and trains, the video outlines all the steps customers need to know, from the comfort of their own home, in just 2:45. To extend our reach, we developed a series of :15 and :30 vignettes on each topic featured regularly on our social media channels.

Results Impact: Since launching in January 2024, the video has received exceptional engagement, educated the public, and created greater awareness of how to ride our system. It was promoted on rtd-denver.com, embedded via our YouTube channel on How to Ride and associated pages with 290,330 pageviews. We created :15 and :30 shorts for our social media channels, with 24,514 impressions and a 3.9% engagement rate. In addition, it is available to community partners to amplify the message. The modern, quick-shot fashion with a variety of angles, locations, models, customers, and RTD employees well represents the dynamism and diversity of our community and seems to really resonate with the general public. A companion multilingual printed brochure distributed across our system further extends the reach.

Why Submit: RTD's How to Ride Video, "Where Do You Want to Go Today?," was submitted and should win for successfully demystifying the sometimes-daunting task of taking public transit while personalizing our system and services. By breaking the process down into easy sequential steps through interwoven customer journeys, we helped people see the possibilities, opportunities, and advantages that transit can bring to their lives. Aided by high-value production and exceptional storytelling, we promoted valuable online tools and innovations that enhance the riding experience while demonstrating just how simple it is to take a trip. Due to demand, we also translated this video into Chinese and Vietnamese, two languages widely spoken in our area, to create better information access across our region.