The "Rideshare Thursday" campaign was originally implemented by Caltrans in the 1993-1994. This original Team Rideshare/Rideshare Thursday public awareness campaign used a mix of broadcast, print, and outdoor media to educate commuters about the benefits and importance of ridesharing. This follow-on campaign retains the intent of the original campaign, but incorporates more modern advertising media, including social media and extensive use of the web.
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Fraserdeveloped the Tagline "Rideshare Thursday - Drive Less. Smile More." as the campaign call to action. The main creative strategy theme is the "cost conscious commuter" who is open to using public transportation if convenient. The creative materials that were developed focused on commuters saving money by operating van pools or carpooling. The communications mix included 30-second radio, traffic radio, internet radio, display advertising, social media including Facebook, a "share your ride" Facebook sweepstakes, and event participation in partnership with LA Kings Hockey. The campaign was flighted to generate awareness for the Rideshare Thursday program in a high impact manner during Wave One, followed by a hyper-focused strategy to deliver the campaign messaging in environments where traffic and commuting is top of mind.
Through a partnership with the LA Kings, Rideshare Thursday was able to reach a mass audience of Southern Californians who travel long distances to attend hockey games in downtown Los Angeles. Campaign events spanned in-stadium promotions, public service announcements, outdoor, online, and social media. This outreach occurred at every LA Kings home game for the 2013/14 season.`
The objectives of the campaign were to:
- Generate awareness for Rideshare Thursday and encourage Southland commutes to use alternative modes of transportation at least one day per week, and
- Develop and execute a highly-targered media strategy that engages with commuters and drives the target audience to the Rideshare Thursday landing page and encourages commuters to connect with their local *511 website.
The partnership with ClearChannel produced more than 60% of the overall impressions. Over a six week period, the project sought to deliver approximately 123.4 million adult 18+ impressions in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino. The project actually able to over deliver impressions by almost 35% - 165 million impressions. In addition to English, the promotional radio spots were also delivered in Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, and Korean - these additional languages accounted for greater than 225,000 impressions.
The "Share your Ride" sweepstakes generated 24.3 million impressions and received over 2,200 sweepstakes entries. The prizes were provided as project co-funding and included a 3-day getaway at the oceanfront Terranea Resort. Additional prizes included iPads, bicycles, and iTunes and Amazon Gift Cards.
The Rideshare Thursday Facebook Page has over 6,500 followers to date - each Facebook post was seen by an average of 12,000 users.
The Rideshare Thursday campaign will be fully implemented as of May 31, 2014.
Los Angeles Kings Hockey Organization