OPTA Marketing Committee
Delta Marriott: International B

Conference registration required for any committee meeting.

Welcome and Introductions – Marketing Committee Chair Ryan Cureatz, Manager of Marketing, MiWay (10:00 – 10:05)

• The Art & Science Behind Modern Transit Branding – Presented by Traci Jones, Principal & Creative Director, Studio Six (10:05 – 10:45; 30 minutes for presentation; 10 minutes Q&A)

At the core of highly successful companies is the ability to effectively sell the products and services of the organization. To reduce congestion, pollution and better serve the mobility needs of our growing communities, we must effectively sell transit to greater numbers of people who can benefit from our services. Selling transit and attracting new riders is both an art and a science. Traci Jones, the Principal of Studio Six—a transit branding and marketing agency based in Colorado—will discuss both the art and the science behind highly successful transit brands and marketing programs. Whether your organization is implementing new services, expanding the fleet, evolving slowing and strategically or launching a new brand from the ground up, understanding modern, consumer-driven branding strategies is essential to attracting new riders and next level growth.

• Fast-tracking your customer research with a panel, Jay Adams, Sr. Project Manager of Customer Experience (HSR, City of Hamilton) (10:45 – 11:15; 20 minutes for presentation; 10 minutes Q&A)

As we emerge from the pandemic and work toward recovering our ridership, real-time insights about our customers has never been more important. But setting up and conducting customer research activities can sometimes be a slow and challenging process, or result in us only hearing from the same small number of customers who we hear from regularly.

Building on their recent success engaging several thousand transit customers to help reshape Hamilton’s transit service, the CX team in Hamilton has shifted their research methods to include a diverse panel of almost one thousand “experts” – people who ride their transit service regularly – to conduct rapid and continuous customer research activities.  Learn how Hamilton is recruiting panel members, keeping them engaged, and leveraging their insights to power their customer experience roadmap.

• Passenger Information Displays – Case Studies from York Region Transit and Burlington Transit. Presented by Igor Zaslavsky, York Region Transit and Catherine Baldinelli, Burlington Transit (11:15 – 11:30; 15 minutes including Q&A)
• MiWay Student Ambassador Program – Hybrid engagement lessons (online/in-person) – Presented by Lesley Swan, Marketing Consultant, MiWay (11:30 – 11:45; 15 minutes including Q&A)

The MiWay Student Ambassador Program provides an opportunity for Mississauga’s high school students to educate their school community about the benefits of taking MiWay, earn volunteer hours, and build leadership, communication, and team collaboration skills. When COVID-19 caused school closures in March 2020, MiWay’s Marketing Team adapted the program to offer Ambassadors new ways to earn points from home, including creating videos and social media posts, and held virtual program meetings through WebEx. This enabled MiWay to complete the 2019-20 program virtually. MiWay’s presentation will discuss the lessons learned throughout the process.

• Marketing New On-Demand Transit Services – Courtney McDonald, Guelph Transit (11:45 – 12:00; 15 minutes including Q&A)

Guelph Transit’s presentation will focus on the tactics used to successfully promote and implement on-demand bus service from a marketing and communication lens.  Guelph launched on-demand bus service during covid and used a variety of non-traditional marketing and communication tactics to successfully launch and promote the on-demand bus service. The presentation will include examples of the marketing collateral along with metrics used to measure the success of the marketing plan.

• Round Table Topics and Working Lunch – 12:00 – 12:30