The UBC Campus and Community Planning department implemented a comprehensive communications campaign to educate over 40,000 university students about major changes to their mandatory U-Pass transit program. The campaign utilized multiple media channels like websites, emails, videos, direct mail, and on-campus advertising to maximize awareness of the new program which required students to pick up their transit passes monthly. The widespread approach resulted in over 268,000 contacts with students and exceeded the goal of getting 6,000 students to pick up their passes early over the summer, with over 29,000 passes distributed.

1. U‐Pass BC: How to Get Students Out Early
Entrant: Tracy Bains
Division 1: Communication Management/Category 2: Community Relations
1
Client Organization University of British Columbia, Campus and Community Planning
Time Period July 2011–September 2011
Brief Description An awareness campaign to educate over 40,000 university students about
changes to their transit pass program prompted over 29,000 commuters to pick
up their passes over the summer—well above the 6,000 targeted.
1. Need/Opportunity
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a global centre for research and teaching, consistently ranked
among the top 40 universities in the world. Established in 1908, UBC is located in Vancouver, Canada, and
now has over 50,000 students, 3,500 faculty and 9,000 staff located on campuses in two cities, as well as
an annual budget of about $1.5 billion CDN. The department of Campus and Community Planning (C&CP)
acts as UBC’s “City Hall” and ensures that any choices made about land, buildings and transportation
serve the University’s core academic mission and advance sustainability.
U‐Pass is a mandatory, public transit program, which provides all eligible students at UBC’s Vancouver
campus with lower transit fares and unlimited access to buses and rapid rail services throughout the
region. First launched at UBC in 1997, the original program was recently canceled by TransLink (Greater
Vancouver’s regional transit authority) and replaced with a new, expanded U‐Pass BC program in order to
make it available to all public, post‐secondary schools across Metro Vancouver—not just UBC.
Under the old program, students had come to expect that their passes would be mailed to them before
the start of each term and remain valid for the duration of the term. But the new program features major
changes to how the passes are distributed (in addition to cost increases, stricter eligibility rules and
replacement fees). Students enrolled in the new program must now pick up their own passes at the
campus bookstore every month—a change which impacted over 40,000 students during the fall term of
2011 and required a major shift in user behaviour.
To minimize the impact of these large‐scale changes, C&CP implemented a comprehensive
communications campaign on behalf of the University, notifying students about the new U‐Pass BC
program and encouraging them to pick up their passes early to avoid the occurrence of long line‐ups at
the start of term, which is also the busiest period of the academic year.
2. Intended Audience/Stakeholders
Over 40,000 students at UBC’s Vancouver campus were eligible for a transit pass under the new U‐Pass BC
program. These students formed the primary target audience of C&CP’s communications campaign to
raise awareness and drive behaviour change.
To effectively target such a large group, we broke the audience down by type and location. Since we had
to reach both undergraduate (74.34%) and graduate (25.65%) students, we relied on strong stakeholder
engagement and digital outreach via email and a dedicated website. (Source:
http://www.pair.ubc.ca/statistics/profile/UBCV%20factsheet.pdf) We collaborated with the two groups
elected to represent these students, the Alma Mater Society (AMS) and Graduate Students Society (GSS),
as well as individual faculties, societies and student associations during the course of the campaign.
In addition, students with Canadian postal addresses were reached through personalized direct mail
packages. Any students who lived on campus (4,055) or attended classes (20,000) through the summer
term would also receive the package as well as further notification through local advertising, posters, on‐
campus information booths, and a U‐Pass BC student street team.

2. U‐Pass BC: How to Get Students Out Early
Entrant: Tracy Bains
Division 1: Communication Management/Category 2: Community Relations
2
Audience Segmentation
By Type Undergraduate Students
Graduate Students
Stakeholder Engagement
Website
Email
By Location Students in Canada Stakeholder Engagement
Website
Email
+ Direct Mail
Students on Campus Stakeholder Engagement
Website
Email
+ Direct Mail
+ Advertising
+ Posters
+ Information Booths
+ Student Street Team
3. Goals and Objectives
Based on the sheer size of the audience impacted by the new program, the first goal was to provide broad
notification to students about the updated U‐Pass BC program. The second imperative was to encourage
students who could visit campus during the summer to pick up their passes early, leading to fewer line‐
ups and frustration at the start of the fall term.
Goal 1: Notify students about the updated U‐Pass BC program, including key changes.
Objective a: Increase traffic to upass.ubc.ca website by 25%.
Objective b: Earn 2,500 views for a YouTube video outlining the new program.
Goal 2: Encourage students to pick‐up their transit passes early before the start of term.
Objective a: Issue passes to 6,000 students or 30% of the summer student population of 20,000.
4. Solution Overview
The campaign consisted of staggering digital, print and in‐person tactics to achieve our twin goals of
driving awareness and then encouraging behaviour change.
Since the new U‐Pass BC program involved at least five big changes and many of the students were
dispersed across the city, country and even abroad over the summer, the campaign started in mid‐July
when we centralized information on a dedicated website: www.upass.ubc.ca. Then, we drove traffic to
the website using all available media, including newspaper ads, online banners displayed on the student
newspaper’s website and emails throughout August. We also worked with students, including members of
the AMS Executive elected to represent UBC students, to produce a two‐minute YouTube video published
in mid‐August that outlined the changes and directed viewers to the website for more information.
Canada Post delivered a personalized direct mail package during the week of August 15. While students
had previously received their passes by mail, this fall they found a two‐page letter addressed to them by
name and a postcard outlining when and where they could get their passes on campus.
During August, we also contacted over 150 stakeholders, including faculties, student societies, Student
Housing & Hospitality Services, Enrolment Services, Communication Services, and major student clubs
and associations, asking for their help to cascade information down to students. Each stakeholder

3. U‐Pass BC: How to Get Students Out Early
Entrant: Tracy Bains
Division 1: Communication Management/Category 2: Community Relations
3
received a personalized email with an e‐toolkit that included a sample email, tweet and a link to the
YouTube video to assist in the distribution of consistent messaging. Later, each stakeholder was sent a
personalized letter with a U‐Pass calendar/information tent card and a small number of complaints contact
cards to answer or direct students’ questions about the program.
Finally, we hosted information booths at the Student Union Building (SUB) on campus during the final
week of August when the vending machines that dispensed the transit passes had been successfully
installed at the campus bookstore. The SUB is a major destination point for the campus community and
where most students buy their meals, making it an ideal location to reach this audience. At the same time
as we held these on‐site information booths, we organized a street team of students to distribute
information at the diesel and trolley bus loops located on campus and send students to the campus
bookstore to pick up their passes at the vending machines.
Once term started, we relied on social media to help manage queues, providing real‐time updates of the
line‐ups through the bookstore’s Facebook (3,398 fans) and Twitter (1,869 followers) accounts—as well as
C&CP’s social media channels.
5. Implementation and Challenges
The campaign extended from mid‐July 2011 through the end of September 2011.
The total budget was $35,000—less than a dollar per student. With a limited budget, we focused on (a)
using multiple media to drive awareness and (b) activating stakeholders to press home our key messages.
Ultimately, we made 268,718 contacts with the community as a result of the widespread approach.
Media Contacts
Advertising  10 ads in The Ubyssey appeared in 108,000 copies (student newspaper)
 1 ad in The Campus Resident appeared in 10,000 copies (local community paper)
 1 ad in Connections appeared in 8,000 copies (annual magazine for student
residents on “Move‐In Day”)
Online
Advertising
 20,000 total pageviews of web banners posted on Ubyssey.ca for 20 days (student
newspaper website)
Direct Mail  Over 35,000 personalized letters sent to students with Canadian postal addresses
during week of Aug. 15
Email  73,538 emails were sent to students via one broadcast email to all UBC Vancouver
students, C&CP’s monthly e‐newsletter, and “UBC fyi” (Student Services’ list serve)
Video  A two‐minute YouTube video was launched on Aug. 17 and earned 3,595 views
Digital Signage  Digital signs at key locations inside campus buildings and outside generated 5,760
impressions, cycling PowerPoint slides every five minutes over 20 days
Postcards  3,000 postcards were distributed at the information booth located in the SUB, and
at the diesel and trolley bus loops on campus by the student street team
Posters  500 posters were distributed across campus, including student residences
Other  Five UBC students formed a street team, spending 75 hours engaging with the
community at an information booth in the SUB (Aug. 25, 29, 30) and at the diesel and
trolley bus loops on campus (Aug. 25, 26, 29‐31, Sept. 1 & 2)
 250 tent cards with a calendar of when passes became available every month and
1000 business cards were sent to stakeholders to help them troubleshoot difficult
questions from students
Total Contacts 268,718

4. U‐Pass BC: How to Get Students Out Early
Entrant: Tracy Bains
Division 1: Communication Management/Category 2: Community Relations
4
To overcome the challenge of getting students to come to campus early, anyone who picked up a pass
before the start of term would be eligible to win one of three $100 gift cards to the campus bookstore.
The prize draw was promoted widely in the direct mail piece and other materials.
Many students also criticized the program changes as inconvenient while mistakenly believing that the
University was responsible for them. But both the University and AMS Executive had been strong
advocates for students during the long negotiations with TransLink on the new program. Consequently,
we ensured that all materials were co‐branded with both UBC and AMS logos, and prepared key messages
for the media. It was important to remind students that we collaborated with each other on their behalf.
6. Measurement/Evaluation of Outcomes
Over 29,000 students actually picked up their passes between August 25 when the vending machines
officially opened and September 6 when term started. The results far exceeded the campaign’s goals,
demonstrating the value of a strong campaign built on balancing the use of media (print, online, email,
video), relationships (stakeholders) and word‐of‐mouth (information booths, street team) to notify and
motivate an audience to change its habitual behaviour.
Generally, students waited in line no longer than two minutes to get their passes. On the rare occasions
when software issues affected the vending machines, programmers applied patches within 2.5 hours and
students were able to receive their cards from staff so that they were not unduly impacted by the delays.
In fact, the number of passes distributed over the course of those 11 days equaled the same number
distributed via mail in previous years. Students’ rapid adaptation to the new system testified to our ability
to reach our audience and encourage behaviour change.
Goals Objectives Results Significance
1. Notify students
about the updated
U‐Pass BC program,
including key
changes.
a. Increase traffic to
upass.ubc.ca website by
25%.
Increased traffic to
upass.ubc.ca by 371.82%.
April 15‐July 15 Baseline
10,488 visits
21,682 pageviews
8,612 visitors
July 18‐Sept. 18 Campaign
38,997 visits
92,539 pageviews
31,259 visitors
C&CP effectively
created a central hub
of information online.
b. Earn 2,500 views on
YouTube video
Earned 3,595 views on
YouTube video
Broad reach of the
video helped to
spread key messages
to our target
audience.
2. Encourage
students to pick‐up
their transit passes
early before the start
of term.
a. Issue passes to 6,000
students or 30% of the
summer student
population of 20,000
29,131 passes were
distributed before the start of
term
More than the
targeted 30% picked
up their passes,
demonstrating
successful behaviour
change.