CLIENT Metropolitan Transportation Commission / FasTrak
TITLE "FasTrak Acquisition Campaign 2009"
Deliverables
Spot TV and cable, Fuel Cast (gas pump) video and Costco in-store video.
Target
Bay Area drivers who have not signed up for FasTrak. Anyone who drives over a bridge; including everyone from daily commuters to weekend day-trippers.
Challenge & Assignment
FasTrak™ is an electronic toll collection (ETC) system that allows users to prepay their bridge tolls, eliminating the need to stop at toll plazas. The overall goal for the Bay Area Transportation Authority is to increase usage of FasTrak during peak periods to 70% on all Bay Area Bridges. Pre-campaign peak usage was approximately 50% for all bridges on average. Our assignment was to convert the holdouts. A common misconception about FasTrak is that the money you pay when you get your toll tag is a fee for the device itself, instead of pre-payment of tolls for future bridge crossings. The challenge was to correct this misconception and get new sign-ups who use bridges during peak and non-peak periods.
Strategy & Solution
Our strategy was to gain new users by offering the incentive of free tolls during a promotional period through a broad-reaching, creative ad campaign. It was also important to use the campaign to educate the public about the service – that FasTrak is free and that users simply pre-pay their tolls. In order to convey this educational message and promote free tolls, Swirl developed a fun, memorable, Schoolhouse Rock! style animated TV spot.
Due to TV's broad reach, it was the ideal outlet for the FasTrak message. The commercial focused on clarifying how FasTrak works, as well as the promotional incentive; if you signed up for FasTrak during the campaign period, you could receive up to $10 in FREE tolls. By using clear and creative messaging, we were able to eliminate confusion about how FasTrak works. The commercial succeeded at being both fun and educational, as well as building a character called Tag that consumers can associate with FasTrak.
To broaden the campaign's impact, we utilized Fuel Cast video, which extended the TV spot to Bay Area gas stations. Additionally, the spot was broadcast in-store at Bay Area Costco locations blanketing the TV monitors to reach potential users at the point-of–purchase.
Results
Over the course of the campaign period, total new accounts opened increased 70% (compared to the same time period of the previous year). The campaign resulted in an impressive rise in Safeway retail tag sales, which increased 254% during the campaign period. Costco retail tag sales also increased 96% during the campaign period. Additionally, the results of this campaign were exceptionally sustained post-campaign. During the 23 day post-campaign period, new account registration remained 56.67% higher than during the same period of the previous year. The sustained results were so unexpected that FasTrak ran out of toll tags and had to produce more to distribute to the retail locations. These dramatic results were achieved through Swirl's combination of unique, breakthrough creative, effective messaging and high-profile media placements.
