2021 Brand Launch: Get to Know Umo!

Target Audience: In January 2021, our team launched Umo, a smart travel companion and mobility platform that provides simple and flexible travel for users, transit agencies, and mobility service providers.

Strategy Objective:In an effort that spanned social media, print, and in-person and virtual events, our comprehensive global campaign for transit agencies of any size made a splash, garnering increased ridership for multiple agencies amidst a pandemic and producing several contract wins for the Umo team. This campaign included a website, press, events, social media, and collateral.

Situation Challenge: When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) saw an urgent need for agencies to deploy equitable fare collection systems which alleviated touchpoints to make travel on public transit safer for agencies of any size. So in January 2021, our team launched Umo, a smart travel companion and mobility platform that provides simple and flexible travel for users, transit agencies, and mobility service providers.

Results Impact: Press Coverage: The press release reached over 750,000 readers globally in over 20 online and print publications, as well as broadcast. Customer events for over 100 industry professionals and two webinars for transit agencies with the Eno Foundation, which had over 700 live attendees. The post-event nurture campaign reached over 1,000 people via email. Umo profiles on LinkedIn (Umo Mobility), Twitter (@UmoMobility), and Facebook (Umo Mobility) accumulated over 8,000 impressions and 500 engagements within the first month of posting. The "Meet Umo" video gained over 5,500 views to date. With these marketing elements, we created a cohesive campaign that proved successful for the Umo-verse, with contract wins in more than 32 different markets, providing service from CA to NC.

Why Submit: Our teams launched a groundbreaking, much-needed product during the pandemic, and while all designers, engineers, and leadership never met face-to-face during the building and testing phases, the product launch succeeded with a heavy lift in marketing, addressing the needs of agencies when ridership was down. In seeing the success of our in-house marketing efforts, agencies then wanted to partner further on campaigns, with agencies such as Skagit and Whatcom Transportation Authority helped riders learn more about stored value and passes that work across both agencies, reducing cash usage by nearly 10%. Then with Boise and Treasure Valley, ID, residents on City Go Wallet introduced local riders to the Umo Mobility App, City Go Smartcard, and the "fare capping."