~ PR & Community Engagement Case Study ~

Role: Project Manager
Timeframe: January 2023 - December 2023 (planning began Fall 2022)
Project Reference: Brandy Jones, APR; Chief Communications Officer, SORTA/Metro: bjones@go-metro.com, (513) 632-7527

Background

In August 2023, Metro celebrated 50 years of providing publicly owned transportation services to Cincinnati and Hamilton County. The occasion called for a year-long campaign across paid, earned and owned media, alongside leveraging community partnerships, all leading up to a 50th Birthday Bash on Fountain Square that brought together transit officials, elected leaders and community and media partners.

Objectives

Leverage Metro’s 50-year milestone as a sustained occasion to reach and engage existing and potential customer bases
Promote and educate existing and new customers about recent improvements made through the passage of Issue 7, the Reinventing Metro plan and plans for continued expansion of service
Position Metro as an affordable, convenient transportation option for all of Hamilton County

Tactics

50th Anniversary Logo Treatments

50th Birthday Bash on Fountain Square

The campaign’s flagship event took place on Aug. 15, when Metro hosted its 50th Birthday Bash on Fountain Square. This family-friendly celebration featured live music; food trucks; appearances from local celebrities and elected officials; roaming circus performers; lawn games; a community partner and vendor fair featuring more than a dozen partner organizations; and more.

50 Years of Metro History Museum Installation at CHPL

Throughout its birth month in August, Metro collaborated with the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library and the Cincinnati Transit Historical Association to host an exhibit featuring all sorts of memorabilia and keepsakes from 50 years of Metro service in Hamilton County at the library’s Downtown branch.

BlaCk OWned Commemorative T-Shirt Collab

Metro teamed up with locally owned apparel merchant BlaCk OWned to create a limited-edition commemorative t-shirt, celebrating both Metro and the diversity of local influencers who have moved the region forward over the last half-century.

‘Get Up, Go Metro’ Coffee Shop Partnerships

Metro partnered with minority-owned coffee shops around Hamilton County to celebrate its 50th year with commemorative coffee sleeves. Hidden among them were 50 pre-paid Metro bus passes for lucky customers to find.

To find commemorative sleeves and a chance to find a free Metro pass, customers were encouraged across digital channels (email, social + text) to visit these six establishments: Kidd Coffee (Downtown), Sidewinder Coffee (Northside), I AM Coffee (St. Bernard), Just Brew (Winton Place), Black Coffee Lounge (Downtown), and Cream + Sugar (Evanston).

#50WeeksofMetroTrivia Social Campaign

One of Metro’s most engaging and popular tactics on its social media pages has been a weekly trivia post, posing questions related to recent Metro updates, the Hamilton County region or public transit in general. For the entire anniversary year of 2023, Metro’s social pages featured weekly trivia questions dedicated specifically to Metro history. As with traditional trivia posts from years prior, customers entered by posting a guess in the comments, and then a winner was chosen at random the next day.

News Releases

Earned Media Coverage

"Metro marks 50 years in Cincinnati"

Newberry, Patricia Gallagher. "Metro marks 50 years in Cincinnati." The Enquirer, 15 August 2023. Accessed/screenshot 7 October 2024. (Click image to access paywalled source.)

"Metro Celebrates 50 Years of Service, Partners with BlaCk OWned to Release Limited Edition T-shirt"

Griffith, Katie. "Metro Celebrates 50 Years of Service, Partners with BlaCk OWned to Release Limited Edition T-shirt." CityBeat, 9 August 2023. Accessed/screenshot 7 October 2024. (Click image to access source.)

"Getting Around the City: A 50-year-old bus system works to reinvent itself"

Holthaus, David. "Getting Around the City: A 50-year-old bus system works to reinvent itself." Soapbox, 28 February 2023. Accessed/screenshot 8 October 2024. (Click image to access source.)

"Driving Change: The Future of Cincinnati Metro"

Rose, Cedric. "Driving Change: The Future of Cincinnati Metro." Cincinnati Magazine, 29 September 2023. Accessed/screenshot 8 October 2024. (Click image to access source.)

All content reproduced here with permission from SORTA/Metro.

Metro 50th Anniversary Campaign