The American Public Transportation Association presented Mountain Line with an AdWheel Grand Award at its annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, recognizing the agency’s marketing and communications efforts around the Proposition 411 Transit Tax Renewal educational campaign.
The awards recognize APTA member public transportation systems and business members for their outstanding marketing and communications campaigns. Nearly 350 entries were evaluated by more than 100 industry experts and awards were presented in three categories: efforts to increase ridership or sales, efforts to highlight transit needs and funding, and educational efforts. Honors were awarded in four groups, based on system size. Mountain Line’s winning entry was in the efforts to highlight transit needs and funding category for systems with 4 million or less annual riders.
The Proposition 411 educational campaign was aimed at keeping Mountain Line top of mind on a crowded November 2016 ballot, reinforcing the message that it was a continuation of an existing tax, and reminding voters that Mountain Line delivered on all promises made in the 2008 election. Proposition 411 passed with a 71 percent approval rating, allowing Mountain Line to keep serving the Flagstaff community through 2030.
“We are fortunate to maintain an extremely positive relationship with the Flagstaff community, but the nature of the 2016 election cycle meant that we couldn’t make any assumptions,” said NAIPTA CEO & General Manager Jeff Meilbeck. “Conducting an effective and informative public education campaign was paramount, and I am thrilled that our efforts have been recognized by our national transit association.”
