RTC of Southern Nevada partners with NHL hockey team to promote transit
Target Audience: Home game attendees of the Vegas Golden Knights, our National Hockey League (NHL) team, comprised the target audience for this partnership campaign.
Strategy Objective:The objective was to garner new ridership from multiple suburban areas of the valley and provide an enjoyable, inexpensive transportation option for VGK fans. Additionally, we partnered with VGK to reach their fans with co-branding opportunities. We used these communications materials to promote the partnership: - Media relations - Organic and paid social media videos: https://www.facebook.com/297755728514/videos/2132253373751107 - Targeted e-blasts to RTC customers - Targeted e-blasts to VGK fans - LED banner space inside arena - Halftime video promotions inside arena - Marketing table space inside arena before games and during intermissions - VGK season tickets for RTC social media channel giveaways
Situation Challenge: Since the inaugural Vegas Golden Knights (VGK) hockey season in 2017, we saw a great opportunity to collaborate with our city's National Hockey League (NHL) team. With 41 home games each season that draw nearly 20,000 spectators to T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip consistently during the season, we saw a great opportunity to promote public transit to our community, especially to those who do not use it on a regular basis. So we collaborated with the team to create the Golden Knights Express to offer convenient and low-cost service to and from T-Mobile Arena at five locations throughout the valley. We focused on ease of ridership which included not having to worry about parking, as well as the ability to take a safe ride to and from a game where alcohol consumption is likely.
Results Impact: We've experienced year-over-year ridership growth since partnering with the Vegas Golden Knights and have enhanced our reputation with community members who hadn't used or weren't familiar with our public transit system and its benefits. The average per game ridership in the first season of service (2017-2018) was 714, which grew to 1,206 in the second 2018-2019 season. Although the NHL season was cut short in 2019-2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the average number of riders per game continued to increase to an impressive 1,301.
Why Submit: The Las Vegas Valley historically has been auto-centric with sprawling neighborhoods. Although our Las Vegas Strip routes tend to attract new riders based on tourism, residential routes serve the local community that's often transit-dependent. The VGK partnership provided a new and exciting opportunity for us to introduce public transit to some of the valley's more affluent neighborhoods and locals who had never used transit. The Golden Knights Express game-day culture created an engaging, memorable experience for riders, some of whom used the service just to get to Toshiba Plaza, an entertainment-event area outside T-Mobile Arena, even if they weren't attending the game. With increasing ridership year over year, we anticipated continued growth if the pandemic hadn't halted the season.