Implementation of “personalized” Public Transportation marketing campaign

By project REGIO-MOB

Published on 28 September 2022

Greece

Kentriki Makedonia

Langadas

About this good practice

The Municipality of Langadas consists of 7 Local Municipal Entities and an overall rural area with a low population density. In cooperation with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the local PT Operator, OASTh, the Municipality implemented a strong “face-to-face” information campaign addressed to all citizens.
The main objective of the “Active Mobility” campaign was to promote the use of PT via an innovative and personalized travel marketing approach. The active approach refers to: A “more proactive” process of informing (current and potential) users according to their individual needs.
It also refers to a step beyond the simple provision of information to users.
On the contrary it aims at a B2B approach, involving several stakeholders, through which the group of citizens were informed about PT services, routes, frequency and other in order to be able to comment and foster dialogue on this matter. As a result, an evaluation process took place that assisted the operator in improving the overall performance of their services.
The aim of the campaign was to overcome the “behavioral barriers” for using PT service in peri-urban and rural areas, especially for the transportation from and to the city center of the major urban area of Thessaloniki. Moreover, the campaign focused in the production of tangible effects in terms of improved PT use (modal split), along with understanding the target users’ needs through a closer engagement/participation of citizens to PT design.

Resources needed

The “personalized” marketing campaign organized by AUTh/OASTh did not address any specific target group.
The total number of residents involved in the “personalized” marketing campaign was 725 household (for a total of about 1800 citizens).
The cost of the promotional campaign was 28.539,37 euro.

Evidence of success

The practice demonstrates how good cooperation between Public Transport stakeholder and external actors can success in implementing innovative way to engage the Public Transport customers and the citizens and better plan the service to answer to the mobility needs.
A key success factor is the implementation of innovative modalities/processes of customer satisfaction survey and needs analysis.

Potential for learning or transfer

The Good Practice was implemented in Langadas Municipality, in Greece. The personalized PT marketing campaign was carried out by AUTh with the support of the local PT Operator, OASTh. The role of an “external” actor coordinating the campaign brought an innovative approach and a different perspective to carry out the campaign, fostering the use of PT. The result the application of an innovative approach to PT users using mainly marketing tools.
The Practice can be transferred in other areas that exhibit rural and peri-urban characteristics with a strong focus in “face-to-face” marketing campaign. Moreover, it exhibited that the use of a mix of “pro-active” actions and marketing tools can establish a closer link between the Operators and the users, achieving a two-fold result:
to improve awareness regarding the use of PT and help overcome traditional behavioral barriers and assess the users’ needs in order to improve the service planning making it more close to the real need of users.