TransLink invites qualified consultant or consortium with transportation planning and marketing background and expertise to develop a Social Marketing Strategy (SMS) for Metro Vancouver to support TransLink’s Mobility Management & Transportation Demand Management (TDM) goals and objectives.
Background:
In February 2014, the Mayor’s Council, Metro Vancouver and municipal staff came together to define a 30-year regional transportation investments plan for Metro Vancouver called “Regional Transportation Investments: A Vision for Metro Vancouver” (the “Vision”). The Vision for Metro Vancouver is a guiding document that clarifies the costs, priorities and phasing for the region’s transportation investments and actions. In 2016, a Phase One Investment Plan (the “Plan”) was developed to guide investment for transportation services, initiatives, and capital investments for the first 10 years of the Vision.
The Plan is built on three pillars: Invest, Manage and Partner. The ‘Manage’ pillar includes a priority for taking a customer-first approach and implementing mobility management. TransLink’s Transportation Demand Management program, TravelSmart, has been the primary tool for the Marketing department to educate, inform, promote and incent Mobility Management solutions to the public. Part of the mobility management mandate is to expand TravelSmart to deliver travel information to more customers and partners to facilitate increased rates of walking, cycling and transit use, and also include a wider scope of behavior change initiatives, travel information, communications and messaging, customer service, and digital marketing within the context of TravelSmart. The SMS will support the objectives identified in the ‘Manage’ pillar as well as the investments being made in the Plan, and enable TransLink to maximize the effectiveness of the region’s multimodal transportation network, support coordination of service delivery and balance the competing demands for road capacity.
Scope of Work:
Reporting to a TransLink Project Manager or designate, with guidance from the Project Team, the Contractor will deliver the scope of services. The scope of work will include, but not necessarily be limited to the following tasks.
Task 1 – Needs, Objectives and Best Practice:
Review TransLink documents related to social marketing, TDM, mobility management and digital communications, as well as relevant regional and municipal policies/approaches identified by the TransLink project team to identify and clarify the current context and future investment plans, and confirm the needs and objectives for developing the SMS.
In addition, identify and review best practice in other communities and regions that could be applied to Metro Vancouver and recommend which opportunities have the most potential for this region. Of interest are proven strategies with measured results. Research on innovation in marketing and communications, customer experience, new mobility, integrated technology (including partnerships with technology providers) and trends in behaviour change tactics should be included as part of the best practice review.
Task 2 – Stakeholder Workshops:
TransLink is interested in holding workshops for internal stakeholders across various departments within TransLink, to be identified by the TransLink project team. In addition, TransLink may also want to include combined or separate workshops with municipal partners and would like to hear recommendations from bidders on how this could be achieved. As such, develop up to three (3) workshops including interactive activities to engage participants. Workshops should at a minimum relate to work conducted in Task 4, but may support other tasks.
The workshops will provide information and solicit input on:
(a) Social marketing, mobility management, TDM and digital strategies
(b) High-level principles and strategies to inform the development of social marketing interventions which address behavior changes needed
(c) A strategic framework to apply social marketing interventions
(d) Implementation approaches and techniques, including integrating new mobility and services
(e) Prioritization of options and resources related to annual implementation plans
(f) Resource implications
(g) Roles and responsibilities
(h) Partnership opportunities
Task 3 – Principles and Strategies:
From Task 1 information and research, develop a set of Principles and Strategies within an organizing framework for the SMS to guide the potential mobility management, customer experience and social marketing initiatives to be considered. Consider that:
(a) the Principles should provide a vision for what types of Strategies should be developed;
(b) the Strategies should provide broad direction on how to apply social marketing techniques;
(c) the Initiatives (Task 4) should provide insight into the tactics and actions that, when implemented, advance the Strategies.
The Principles and Strategies should consider how the various elements within the ‘Manage’ pillar of the Vision are represented, prioritized and interconnected and how a robust framework can support future decision-making. The Principles and Strategies will serve as an important guiding structure for TransLink staff as they invest time, effort and resources to support major transportation investments over the course of the 10-year Investment Plan.
The Principles and Strategies should also reflect how social marketing and mobility management techniques can support other priorities in the Vision and Plan and reference key criteria for success.
Task 4 – Initiatives Development:
With the outputs of Task 1 and 3, identify a list of measures, approaches, tactics, tools, and programs that could be implemented within a social marketing, mobility management, and digital context. Packages of initiatives or interconnected initiatives may also be identified.
Each initiative should consider:
(a) Scale and scalability of implementation
(b) Budget implications
(c) Cost effectiveness
(d) Implementation period
(e) Ability to measure and evaluate
(f) Roles and responsibilities for implementation
(g) Staffing and resource requirements
(h) Identify barriers & incentives for success
An important consideration when identifying initiatives should be their ability to be robust enough to justify agency spending and the allocation of future resources. Each initiative should include a simple ‘business case’ for implementation to account for varied outcomes. The initiatives should also be separated by initiatives that should be implemented in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term. SMS initiatives should support major investments and serve as an enabler, enhancer, and catalyst for behavior change.
Task 5 – Monitoring and Evaluation Program:
Develop draft and final SMS documents, drawing from previous tasks and stakeholder input. The SMS will primarily function as an internal guiding document by TransLink that helps staff develop business plans for marketing and mobility management initiatives, including budget and resource planning, but should be written for a non-technical audience as it may be shared with other TransLink groups or could be referenced by external stakeholders.
As part of the final SMS, propose up to three (3) potential pilot projects for new, enhanced, or modified initiatives that TransLink’s New Mobility Team could trial or test in the next five (5) years.
Due Date:
June 1st
Address:
Submitted to Ariba – https://service.ariba.com/Discovery.aw/ad/viewRFX?id=5421001
Social media PR firms include Kwittken and Edelman PR.