PR FIRM NEEDED FOR ANCHORAGE
The Municipality of Anchorage Public Transportation Department (PTD) is responsible for marketing the public transportation services provided by the Department. The goal of this targeted awareness campaign will be to educate the public on the benefits of frequent bus service, provide one-on-one outreach opportunities, and increase ridership on People Mover’s frequent routes.
Background:
The PTD provides three transportation services to the community: People Mover (fixed route), AnchorRIDES (paratransit), and RideShare (vanpool). The People Mover service area extends from Oceanview in south Anchorage to the Eagle River Transit Center in Eagle River. This campaign will focus on People Mover. After extensive public involvement, People Mover launched a new bus system in October 2017 that has more frequent service, longer hours of operation, and better transfer opportunities throughout the network. The new system is designed to make it easier to catch a bus in the city’s most populated areas and along major arterials. The vast majority of the service provided is in the Anchorage bowl north of Tudor Road. Two commuter routes serve Eagle River and south Anchorage and smaller buses now operate neighborhood service. As a result, ridership has increased. The People Mover system provided 3.4 million passenger trips in 2019. The PTD has a Marketing division that markets People Mover service, provides information to the public, manages social media content, implements small riderfocused campaigns, and places advertising with various media outlets. These efforts are essential to the continued success of the recent system redesign and this targeted awareness campaign will be in addition to / or compliment those efforts.
Scope of Work:
The Municipality of Anchorage Public Transportation Department (PTD) is soliciting proposals to select a Contractor to create a targeted awareness campaign that draws on the best practices and behavioral science to actively engage end users to try People Mover for the first time, form new commuting habits, and help establish new community norms regarding bus service in Anchorage. The campaign should encompass the following (at a minimum):
• Target people who live and/or work within walking distance (1/4 mile) of bus stops along the four frequent fixed routes (Routes 10, 20, 30, & 40).
• Focus around an outreach component that includes person-to-person interaction.
• Sell the benefits of transit. People Mover service has improved, but in ways that may be invisible to the daily driver. The campaign should explain frequent service in plain language and explain how frequent bus service benefit the user.
• Employ positive and non-judgmental messaging to emphasize what people stand to gain by using People Mover.
• Focus on habit formation. The most important outcome of a behavior change campaign is getting people to actually try something new. Develop strategies and programs to lower the barriers to action. The Contractor will be required to:
• Work with PTD staff to define specific campaign goals, target behaviors, and desired outcomes.
• Identify the target audiences (currently assumed to be residents who live near stops and employees who work near stops). Figure out how to reach them and approximately how many people will be reached. Explore the barrier they currently face to using transit, and the messages and benefits that would be most compelling.
• Provide a demographic profile of the target areas to establish and ensure equitable outreach strategies.
• Develop a detailed campaign strategy that includes the following:
o Campaign start & end date (we suggest June – September)
o Campaign name and main messages (calls to action)
o Outreach and communication channels and plan
o Materials to be produced
• Define campaign’s desired “look and feel”—how to verbally and visually represent the campaign in order to most effectively meet its goals.
• Contact members of the target audience as defined in the campaign strategy. This may include street teams or other one-on-one outreach and/or guerilla outreach (such as sidewalk stencils or pop-up tabling).
• Assess the performance of the campaign against the goals. Report on the campaign’s outcomes and impact.
Due Date:
May 1
Address:
Municipality of Anchorage Purchasing Department 632 W. 6th Avenue, Suite 520 Anchorage, AK 99501 (907) 343-4590 (phone) (907) 343-4595 (fax) wwpur@muni.org (e-mail) (preferred method of contact)
