DART Campaign to Launch Iowa's First Electric Buses
Target Audience: - DART and MidAmerican Energy employees, - DART riders, - Key stakeholders and - Residents of central Iowa.
Strategy Objective:The goal was to generate awareness among our target audiences of the public-private partnership between DART and MidAmerican Energy to provide clean transportation in the region. DART played to its mission of Enriching Lives, Connecting Communities, Expanding Opportunities with a tagline of Clean, Quiet, Connected to concisely describe the buses. The custom wrapped buses became the main feature of the ads. Each bus is essentially its own mobile billboard showcasing DART's commitment to clean energy and innovation. Phase one ads played to the idea of the unveiling, or rather unboxing, letting the public know that "batteries are included" they could "catch a ride -coming soon". Phase 2 encouraged the public to "catch a ride today!".
Situation Challenge: DART formulated a two phased plan to introduce Iowa's first electric buses. Phase one involved unveiling the buses with the help of Iowa's Lt. Governor coupled with a broad awareness campaign introducing the buses and their features to our target audiences throughout Greater Des Moines. Phase two celebrated the buses going into revenue service with a virtual ribbon cutting and the advertising campaign transitioned to a ridership campaign to increase ridership on DART's Local Route 60 where the buses run. To safely accomplish our goals while navigating COVID-19, both phases relied heavily on community partnerships, social media and earned media.
Results Impact: The awareness campaign exceeded expectations with 1,160,941 impression from digital advertising. The two-week TV flight received 248,970 impressions and the six-week outdoor flights received 277,251.36 impressions. Phase one earned media had a total reach of 3,883,748 with features in the Business Record, The Register and all three TV networks. Phase two earned 18,411,357 impressions, 16 million from a mention in a biofuels story and 2 million as a feature story. On Facebook, Phase one maintained a 15,000+ paid daily reach Oct. through mid-Nov. Paid reach in phase 2 has been 5,000+ daily. From Oct. 1 through Jan. 9, the phase one landing page had 2,204 views, with 72% referred from display and pre-roll. The phase two landing page launched Dec. 8 and has 598 pageviews as of Jan. 11.
Why Submit: From video messages shared by our U.S. Senators and Representative to the City of Des Moines proclamation declaring our in service day DART Electric Bus Day, the efforts surrounding Iowa's first electric buses received outstanding support from our community and increased rider engagement. An effort was made to showcase the buses from the factory to the road showcasing highlighting fun milestones like the arrival of a bus on a semi-flatbed and the wrapping process. DART successfully leveraged its public-private partnership with MidAmerican Energy, created a strong visual brand and creatively planned safe ways to celebrate and promote the electric buses.