• South Shore Line (NICTD) Test Drive Campaign

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In an effort to address a decline in off-peak and weekend ridership, NICTD went into market with an offer not typical of NICTD marketing strategy: a free ride. Running for a one week timeframe, NICTD offered a free ride into Chicago during off-peak hours, with the goal to incent consumers to take the South Shore Line for a “test drive” to find out first-hand how easy it truly is to ride the South Shore Line to Chicago. This campaign was designed to amplify – and solely utilize – social media and earned media efforts in order to demonstrate the influence of these vehicles. A press conference spearheaded this campaign, supported by public relations efforts and social media channels of Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter.

  • More than 50 earned media placements across print, online, television, and radio throughout Indiana, Southwest Michigan, and Chicagoland.
  • More than 165,000 impressions via social media channels, with strong engagement: 112% increase in Facebook post engagement and 1.32% Twitter engagement rate.
  • 1,207 social media shares, retweets, and likes.
  • 639% increase in Facebook followers.
  • 7,334 pageviews on the campaign landing page.