Team
My team consisted of Jessica Ting, Elise Nichols, Nick Gardner, Nicholas Cho, Jake Hughes, and myself.
My Role
As Creative Lead, I brainstormed with my team and created designs, such as Via’s email to new customers and Via’s Snapchat Geofilter. Furthermore, I tried to figure out the nuts and bolts of this campaign. Ultimately, I was in charge of overseeing all designs for this campaign.
Design Challenge
As part of the Strategic Design and Innovation in Marketing Fellowship Program in the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, our fellowship was split into different teams of fictional advertising agencies. Successful advertisers from Washington, D.C. judged each competition. Our challenge was to promote Via, a ridesharing service. My agency and I created a marketing campaign to entice people in Washington, D.C. to use Via as another form of public transportation.
Target Market
Overall, we were targeting commuters that work in Washington, D.C.
Design Solution
After conducting research, we found that people ride the Washington, D.C. metro to work because it is the cheapest option. With this in mind, the big picture of our campaign was to promote Via as having the convenience of ridesharing and the affordability of the metro. Since Via was trying to attract commuters using metro lines, our campaign tagline was “The New Line in Town”.
Full Video
We created brand awareness by comparing two people commuting to work. They both woke up at the same time; however, the woman was in a rush because she woke up later than usual. On the contrary, the man took his time because he commuted using a Via and the woman commuted using the Washington, D.C. metro.
Pre-Rolls
We created three 15-second pre-rolls. These pre-rolls were created by taking clips from our Washington, D.C. metro and Via comparison video shown above.
We created an experiential marketing campaign outside of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park. This experiential marketing campaign consisted of a race. To the left, one person had to run through different colored cones and obstacles to arrive at the finish line. This side represented the Washington, D.C. metro. To the right, a person had to run to a chair, take a selfie on Snapchat using a Geofilter we created for Via, upload the selfie to his or her Snapchat Story, and run to the finish line. This side represented riding a Via because it was so much more convenient to arrive at the final destination. In addition, the Geofilter received 1,200 Snapchat filter views.
There would be a series of Via billboards close to the Washington, D.C. metro. These billboards would have images taken from the comparison video and pre-rolls. On top of the images would be the words “we’ve all been there”. This reminds commuters to use Via because it has the convenience of ridesharing with the affordability of the metro.
We would create brand awareness by placing a series of Via advertisements on Instagram. If people clicked “Install Now”, they would be able to download the Via app. In addition, the advertisements were photos taken from the comparison video with the words “we’ve all been there”.
Since people love to take pictures in front of something beautiful for Instagram, we would paint a Via mural. This mural would show the Via city and brand.
By posting pictures on Instagram from the Via mural above, Via’s brand awareness would increase.
Via would also send this email to customers who have recently downloaded the app. This email will remind customers that having a Via Commuter Pass can save time, with less stress. Furthermore, this email shows descriptions of the different passes.
This is a continuation of Via’s email to customers who have recently downloaded the app.