Transportation companies provide vital services to their respective communities, but they stand at a cultural crossroad. Collectively, the industry has turned their efforts towards a centralized challenge - the Single Occupancy Vehicle (SOV). A single-occupancy vehicle is defined as a privately operated vehicle, which is used for personal travel and daily operations, and whose only occupant is the driver.

So what are the downfalls of SOVs? Gabe Klein, the former VP of ZipCar said it best:

“The single-occupancy car is not good. Do we want to keep buying the cow when what we really want is the milk? We need to develop a car-light lifestyle. Uber, Lyft, driverless vehicles, robo taxis are steps in that direction. Even Bill Ford Jr. will tell you that the single-occupancy car is not the future.”

Each organization has its own approach and services developed around more efficient and consistent use of public transit resources, from incentivizing programs to walkability indices. These efforts are known as Transportation Demand Management (TDM) - a concept ushered in by the rise of the Digital Era that focuses on how people interact with local transit services.

Throughout the course of this case study, we’ll take a look at some TDM strategies used by our clients, as well as industry-wide marketing barriers they’ve faced, such as changing public perception or bringing awareness to a problem.

Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission (PRTC) was a long-standing client of SIR, so when they decided to embarked on a rebranding initiative in 2016, they turned to us for guidance.  

We interviewed employers within the PRTC service area, surveyed more than 700 Greater Prince William area community members, and performed a top-to-bottom audit of PRTC’s communications and TDM services. What did we find? Many people considered PRTC to be “just a bus company,” and if they knew about its other services, they remained confused about how those services were branded and explained. Managing public perception to increase valuation of the service was key.

We set about changing the narrative by re-positioning and rebranding the entire PRTC effort as OmniRide, showcasing it as the true regional mobility company it is. We constructed a strategic brand architecture — comprised of a revised vision statement, as well as new brand purpose and positioning statements — and helped to fashion OmniRide as a leader in serving the expanding and ever-evolving Northern Virginia transportation landscape.

After reviewing this architecture with OmniRide leadership, we then crafted several creative directions, including a revitalized logo, brand standards guide, new bus designs, and a new website. We tested the relative power of these potential creative executions and collateral to identify the direction that is now being used on OmniRide buses and across the organization’s ongoing communications efforts and branding materials.

GRTC is a multimodal transit system that operates in Richmond, Virginia. In 2015, they came to us facing an image problem. The transit system was often viewed as “just another public bus system” that primarily served the limited-mobility population exclusively within city limits. Sound familiar?

Through a research-driven communications strategy, SIR helped reposition GRTC into a highly valued part of the region's long-term economic development. We crafted and conducted both primary and secondary research that consisted of tactics such as in-person and online surveys across their key audiences - business leaders, public officials, current consumers, and prospective riders.

The goal of these initiatives was to better understand how stakeholders felt about GRTC, its services, and improvement ideas. Through our sophisticated data analysis, we were able to identify key audience demographics, resident satisfaction levels demographics, and motivators of and barriers to using GRTC - just to name a few. We used these findings to inform a long-term, community-wide advocacy and communications plan.

As part of this engagement, SIR also helped GRTC share this strategic transit plan with its various stakeholders, advance it with the public, and roll it out across the broad region it serves — with measurable success. In particular, a series of highly adaptable, SIR-produced “Did You Know?” videos and bus wraps proved particularly effective in spreading the word about the many data-backed benefits of riding GRTC. 

Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment - to enhance economic growth; staying up with the industry trends. Gone are the days when you can simply invest in infrastructure and wait for businesses and workers to follow.

SIR has the coveted approval to work with state and federal institutions as a certified GSA Vendor. After being approached by the Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment, SIR determined that Virginia needed to invest in its community and in transportation planners to create a reliable framework for economic growth.

We combined our positioning expertise with generational analyses and future trend research courtesy of SIR’s Institute for Tomorrow initiative, to illuminate how the economic development model is shifting. Through a robust survey campaign, we aimed to learn how the shift would impact Virginia’s communities, and if we could harness it. 

We conducted months of research and numerous insight analysis(change), such as

gathering data about what factors attracted key audiences to a location

you know anything longer than a 15-minute commute turns off today’s workforce, you can plan projects to help alleviate bottlenecks and jams. And, if you’re looking to attract millennials, and you know they value bikeable and walkable communities with reliable public transit options, you can invest your resources accordingly. 

Long story short — following months of research and synthesis of insights such as these, Virginia’s planners knew the model hadn’t just shifted, it had flipped. When you create and promote a desirable place to live, the people will come. And when the people come, the businesses follow.

Consider calling transportation, transport and logistics

E-Z PEASY - EZ Pass - to solve an industry problem of traffic and no toll booth space, the had to address a lack of awareness about the company

Surrounded by water and rapidly growing, southeastern Virginia’s Hampton Roads area needed another tunnel crossing for the Elizabeth River to alleviate traffic. To pay for it; however, the Virginia Department of Transportation needed to charge tolls, and without enough space for booths, it needed to sell a lot of E-ZPasses. 

The hitch? Because the area didn’t have many toll roads, very few people knew anything about the E-ZPass system. So, in collaboration with another area firm, we ran a public education campaign.

First, we focused on providing information about the tunnel improvements, related community benefits, and construction. Then, we turned our focus to producing radio copy, TV ads, online banners, outdoor digital banners, and newspaper ads to increase E-ZPass sales. 

VDOT hoped to sell 75,000 new transponders by February 1 of the tunnel’s opening year. Instead, they sold 86,000, and after three more months, that number had climbed to 144,000 — almost twice the original goal.