Public Gets on Board with Wave Transit

Talk boosted ridership, strengthened relationships with stakeholders and positioned Wave Transit as an important community asset through a strategic marketing campaign.

WAVE suffered from a lack of awareness and support among the general public, business leaders and elected officials. To accommodate growth, WAVE required additional funding from the city, county and riders. Although underutilized, WAVE provides a critical community service and needed to be positioned as a community asset. Talk created a new tagline: Get on Board, Ride the Wave Talk created a multi-media campaign that featured print, radio and TV advertising Talk created a Wave Transit mascot - a bus-driving pelican that echoed the pelican in the organization's logo - to give a fun, friendly face to the organization. Talk convinced local media outlets to adopt public transit as a community relations initiative, which significantly leveraged the Authority's limited media dollars into considerable exposure across all local media. A mascot naming contest in conjunction with the Wilmington Star News secured widespread publicity in print, radio and TV on the new campaign. Aptly named "Seamore," the mascot is a consistent presence at community events, on the Authority's website, and in a TV ad series produced at no cost by city staff. Launched in 2005, the marketing campaign helped increase ridership by more than 50%. Wave Transit worked with the City to dramatically increase its free downtown trolley service and negotiated a contract with UNCW to expand its on-campus service. Talk won a National Silver Microphone Award in the Original Jingle category for a :30 jingle created for the radio and TV campaign.