On line training tool: Promotion
Introduction – The promotion of any service is key to its success. Effective public transport promotion provides a cost effective means for shifting passengers from individual to collective modes and from unsustainable to more efficient and economic modes of transport. For instance, the TAS Partnership [1] found that for every £1.00 spent on ‘effective service promotion and branding’, the payback was £3.10. This ranks very highly in comparison to the ‘hard’ technology improvements, which produce yields ranging from £1.20 to £2.20, per £1.00 spent. One of the key roles for a PTA is to ensure adequate promotion of services to maximise awareness of what transport options are available. A PTA can act as broker to provide common and integrated promotional materials across all modes of transport and competing operators through use of web services, journey planning tools, Social networks, Real time information, Stakeholder groups and written/audio/visual media.
► Branding
► Understanding (potential) customers
Where conducted effectively, marketing and information delivery generates the following key benefits:
– Development of a prestigious image of the passenger transport network
– Increasing public confidence in the passenger transport network
– Improved access to passenger transport information
– Increased reassurance to members of the public during (inevitable) periods of service disruption
– Increased patronage across passenger transport networks (increasing the sustainability of the network)
– Improved information dissemination to the public on passenger transport network developments and enhancements
– Promotion of multi-modal journey options and encouraging modal switching from car to passenger transport
Links to relevant EPTA project resources and other useful resources