LA Metro 'Color Your Ride' Summer Advertising Campaign

Target Audience: Primary: Current Riders including commuters and youth? -Core: Low Income, Limited car access, Proximity to Transit, Spanish preferred, -Youth: Students 14-22 yrs, Students 18+, Current Riders Secondary: Lapsed and potential Leisure Riders? -Potential Leisure: Higher income, over $50k, Commuter, 1 car in HH

Strategy Objective:Wrap our system in the colors and vibe of summer.? Metro launched a seasonal brand affinity campaign from Memorial Day through August, promoting local events, destinations, and more, all centered around summer travel. The campaign featured creative visuals with feel-good messaging, capturing the essence of summer in LA, inspiring excitement about the destinations riders could explore.? ? To maximize impact, we immersed riders in the experience by wrapping the system with vibrant summer visuals. To guarantee reach, we ran ads at our highest-traffic stations, including Hollywood & Highland, 7th & Metro, and Union Station. On-system media—ranging from print ads to videos—engaged riders as they stepped onto platforms or boarded buses and trains, creating an immersive and memorable experience.

Situation Challenge: Metro aims to restore ridership to pre-pandemic levels by prioritizing safety, improving service reliability and frequency, and enhancing accessibility. A key focus was repositioning Metro as essential to LA's summer experiences, connecting riders to destinations like the Long Beach Aquarium (A Line), Santa Monica Pier (E Line), and Hollywood Bowl (B Line).? The back-to-school campaign targeted awareness and established Metro as the go-to option for exploring LA from May to September. Messaging highlighted fun, ease, and convenience, using vibrant visuals across print, digital, and video to shift perceptions and drive trip-planner traffic.? This initiative boosted Metro's visibility, reinforced its year-round role, and paved the way for future strategies.?

Results Impact: High-impact system-wide visuals and a strong share of voice contributed Metro's ridership growth. The campaign achieved over 104 million impressions through bus and rail ads, along with an additional 4 million impressions via digital screens, video walls, kiosks, and customer information towers.? Ridership increased by 8.2% in July, marking 20 consecutive months of year-over-year gains? 5% rise in bus ridership? 8.5% rise in rail ridership? Individually, A,E & B Lines saw summer growth. ?

Why Submit: 'Color Your Ride' Summer effectively leveraged cost-efficient, on-system media to drive ridership growth and shift public perception. By wrapping the system in vibrant summer visuals and feel-good messaging, riders were immersed in the experience of Metro as a key part of LA's summer lifestyle.? Targeting high-traffic stations like Hollywood & Highland, 7th & Metro, and Union Station, we reached both primary and secondary targets without relying on expensive external media. This approach turned Metro's own system into a powerful tool for engagement and brand reinforcement.? The campaign demonstrates how on-system media can increase ridership, build brand loyalty, and reshape perceptions cost-effectively, providing a solid foundation for future ridership campaigns year-round.?