1. Give a Bus a Go! Media
My Journey Winter Campaign
2. Purpose
• Encourage more Portsmouth residents to use the
bus for short, local journeys instead of using their
cars
• This campaigns main focus will be on encouraging
a change in behaviour away from car usage to an
alternative mode of travel i.e. using the bus
• This campaign will target car drivers directly
• The campaign will encourage bus travel by giving
away one Solent Go card pre-loaded for one day’s
bus travel per recipient
3. SMART Objectives
My Journey Portsmouth has developed a series
of marketing campaigns aimed at changing the
travel behaviour of local residents from using
cars less/travelling more sustainably.
Portsmouth has excellent bus routes so our
objective was to increase bus patronage by
persuading 1,000 local people to try the bus for
short journeys around the city and tell us about
their experience.
4. Audiences
• From our research we found out that a high percentage of the local
population not only had the capacity to change their travel behaviour
from car to bus but females were more open to bus travel than men. We
also found out that people's opinions of the bus were generally negative
and built on out dated preconceived ideas around bus travel.
Using the insights gained from our research we decided on two approaches to
our strategy:
• Target those people who had the capacity to change their behaviour i.e.
those who live between 400 metres of a main road (the equivalent of a 5
or 10 minute walk). These routes are recognised as being highly congested
but at the same time offer good bus routes/bespoke bus lanes. We then
used MOSAIC profiling in these areas to further target those most likely to
change their behaviour
• Target car owners/drivers directly at events by asking qualifying questions
to ensure we were engaging the people who were open to change/would
consider giving the bus a go
6. Tools (of engagement)
• A6 direct mail to 42,000 car owning households
• YouTube video
• Billboard advertising (96, 48 & 6 sheets)
• Lampost banners in high traffic areas
• Car park tickets (180,000 tickets)
• Petrol pump nozzles (96 nozzles in Portsmouth area only)
• Email campaign (internal 8,500 staff, to current subscribers, external
businesses)
• Facebook posts
• Twitter
• 7 x events in Commercial Rd (1 visit to Fratton Park)
• Heart radio campaign (medium level)
• My Journey website /gobus
• Flagship Magazine (full page 91,000 readership)
• Press releases
7. Evaluation
Primary evaluation is against number of Solent Go cards
given out
This campaign will also measure:
• web hits to /gobus webpage
• Web hits to PPC website
• EAV of media coverage
• Social media engagement
• Awareness questionnaires at the end of the campaign
• Email metrics
9. Key Messages 48 sheets
• Main message ‘Give a bus a go!’
48 sheets - 2 different designs
Messaging related to being stuck in traffic most likely to be seen by
pedestrians and motorists
• Are traffic queues driving you cuckoo? Don't lark about. Give a bus
a go with a FREE one day travel card. Go online at
myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for your FREE ticket to ride
• Are stressful car journeys making you squawk?Give a bus a go with
a FREE one day travel card. Go online at
myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for your FREE ticket to ride
12. Key Messages – 96 sheets
Messaging related to being stuck in traffic - most
likely to be seen by pedestrians and motorists
• Are traffic jams getting you in a flap? Give a
bus a go with a FREE one day travel card. Go
online at myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus
for your FREE ticket to ride
14. Key Messages – 6 sheets
Message related to using the bus socially/for shopping -
most likely to be seen by pedestrians and motorists
• Birds of a feather catch the bus down town together.
Give a bus a go with a FREE one day travel card. Go
online at myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for your
FREE ticket to ride
• Parking ruffling your feathers? Give a bus a go with a
FREE one day travel card. Go online at
myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for your FREE ticket
to ride
18. Key Messages Lampost Banners
Mixture of messaging - most likely to be seen by pedestrians and motorists
• Birds of a feather catch the bus down town together. Give a bus a go with
a FREE one day travel card. Go online at myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus
for your FREE ticket to ride
• Traffic jams got you all in a flap? Give a bus a go with a FREE one day travel
card. Go online at myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for your FREE ticket
to ride
• Parking ruffling your feathers? Give a bus a go with a FREE one day travel
card. Go online at myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for your FREE ticket
to ride
• Are stressful car journeys making you squawk? Give a bus a go with a FREE
one day travel card. Go online at myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus for
your FREE ticket to ride
22. Key Messages Car Park Tickets/Petrol
Pump Nozzles
Seen solely by motorists
• Parking ruffling your feathers? Wing it to
www.myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus and
give a bus a go with a free one day travel card
• Spitting feathers over travel jams? Wing it to
www.myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus and
give a bus a go with a free one day travel card
27. Radio Campaign - Heart
Kate: So I said to her why go back ?
But she only goes and….
Jo: Uhh this traffic is crazy...
Kate: ...and she's heard from the ex ....…
Jo: Sat Nav's sent me down a one way!!
Kate: Oh I bumped into Zoe yesterday- ! you know the one,
curly hair ?
Jo: mmhmm yep, so if I go right .....
Kate: You haven't heard a word I've said have you?....
Male Narrator:
Are you missing out on all the goss?
Give a bus a go!"
From January to March we're offering a free Solent Go travel card
for a whole day's bus travel within Portsmouth.
Claim your free Solent Go travel card from
Myjourneyportsmouth.com/gobus
28. Press 1
• The News, Pg. 12 20.1.15
• Jack FM - Free bus travel for people in Portsmouth - My
Journey giving away pre-loaded one day travel cards)
• The Breeze - Free bus travel for people in Portsmouth - My
Journey giving away pre-loaded one day travel cards
• About my area - Free Travel Cards Being Given Out Today - My
Journey giving away pre-loaded one day travel cards
• Solent TV - interview with Nicola Waight broadcast 19.1.15
• The News, Pg. 31 26.1.15 Supporters can get a free bus pass in
city, My Journey campaign promoting bus travel
• The News Pg. 18. Pick up your free bus pass My Journey
handing out free bus passes
29. Press 2
• The News 3.2.15, Pg. 12, Shoppers pick up a free day of bus
travel
• The News 4.2.15, Shoppers pick up a free day of bus travel
• The News 14.2.15 Pg.10 Free bus travel cards up for grabs
Free travel cards handed out on Saturday
• The News, 17.2.15, Pg.38, Give a bus a go with the city council
My Journey team give out free bus passes. Nicola Waight
quoted
36. Events
• A promotional team of four (plus Bert the bird)
roamed in the city’s main shopping area for six
consecutive Saturdays and on Blue Monday. They
engaged local people in conversation about their
journey into the city and invited car users to give
the bus a go.
• The team also visited Fratton Park football
ground on a match day. The team were
supported by the outside advertising in and
around Commercial Road.
38. Events Evaluation
• 739 packs given out
• 155 non-qualified
• 600 rucksack covers distributed
• 385 key rings given out
• Our audience was split 50:50 male to female with just
under 1/3 falling into the 35-45 age bracket. Only 30%
were 45-55 years of age
• The majority of our recipients were single people
closely followed by a 1/3 who were couples with no
children. This is not so surprising as we would expect
less parents with children to use the bus and for the
promotion to attract more lone commuters
39. Total Packs at Events
• Event 1 91
• Event 2 122
• Event 3 108
• Event 4 83
• Event 5 108
• Event 6 115
• Event 7 112
Total given out at events 739
40. Total Packs sent by Post
• 992
• 1731 in total given out at events and by post
41. How did you find us?
• Email 229
• Other (car park tickets/petrol nozzles/lampost
banners) 193
• Word of mouth 141
• Press 101
• Postcard 103
• Facebook 98
• Billboard 61
• Radio 45
• Event 23
42. How are you going to use it?
• Day trip 557
• Shopping 248
• Commute 199
43. Results/Evaluation
• Over 2,500 visited the My Journey website to find out more
about bus travel in the area and sustainable transport
• 738 packs were given away at the events with many more
engagements (over 1,000) with the public about My
Journey and travelling more sustainably as a whole
• The target was to distribute 1,000 bus packs to prequalified
car drivers who were most likely to try the bus during the
six week campaign. We exceeded our target by over 50%.
We gave away 739 travel cards at events exceeding the
target set at 700 and sent out 816 via post, totalling 1554
44. Results/Evaluation
• Over half of the people we spoke to at events
said they ‘loved’ the campaign and said this was
the kind of initiative that made them want to give
the bus a go and that they hadn’t thought about
using the bus for a long time but could now see
the benefits – especially the free Wi-Fi
• This campaign exceeded its target delivering a
whopping 150% of its original target by using an
effective range of channels that offered
maximum impact and engagement
45. Results/Evaluation Questionnaire
• 63% of respondents were over 45 years old. Behaviour
change is harder as people get older
• 23% said they would use the bus more following the
campaign
• 47% said 'maybe' when asked if they would use the bus
again
• 41% of respondents use the bus for multiple activities;
this would suggest that this is their preferred or sole
method of travel
• 80% of those who used the card thought it easy to use
• 57% of those who have used their card have gone on to
use the bus again
46. Quotes from local people
• I can pay by card if I have no change
• They are more frequent and parking is getting difficult in the
city.
• No problems with parking, no parking fees and do not have to
clock watch.
• Because it's the best way to get a round and seeing new
places is great
• Convenient, no concerns about car parking and fees etc.
• The card is very easy to use, and being able to use both bus
companies made travel a lot easier. Also meant I could travel
to more places than when just using one bus company
• This was an excellent thing to do to encourage more bus
usage
