MTA (Maryland) CharmPass Mobile Ticketing Video - Groundhog Day
Target Audience: Target audience for this entry was current transit riders, especially those who are likely to use cellphone apps in their daily lives. This message was intended to promote the convenience and ease that CharmPass, our mobile transit fare app, offers to riders.
Strategy Objective:Our approach has been to take a humorous, if not quirky approach to advertising CharmPass. Ads that are "crisp, clean and sharp" are easy to ignore. We wanted these videos to stand out and be memorable while communicating the benefits and convenience compared to the traditional payment method of a paper ticket. "Groundhog" was a ideal theme as it reinforced the need to repeat behavior before it becomes a "habit".
Situation Challenge: MDOT MTA launched CharmPass in September 2018. As we began 2020 we had established an aggressive goal of 500,000 total downloads by year end. COVID-19 clearly altered that plan but the agency ended the year with nearly 350,000 total downloads. CharmPass delivers operational efficiencies and savings so the more widespread it's acceptance and use the more those benefits can be realized by both agency and rider.
Results Impact: The Groundhog Day video proved to be another well-received video in our CharmPass "series". The video was posted on social media with the following engagement results. - 3.6K Impressions - 652 Video Views - 15.1 Hours Watched In addition, numerous Facebook respondents took the opportunity to offer lighthearted comments, in the spirit of the advertising, about MDOT MTA service in relation to the commercials, indicating that, at a minimum, the campaign helped to make "transit" top-of-mind for those viewers.
Why Submit: The CharmPass Groundhog Day campaign was produced entirely with in-house resources: internal staff served as "actors", Comms Director's office (with couch) and local Baltimore street were our set locations, and staff videographer shot and produced video. Our total spend was $15 for a calendar.