Metrolink
Transportation
Strategy // Messaging // Visual Identity Refresh // Creative Execution
THE ASK
This regional rail authority needed to increase brand awareness, clarify their offering, and drive meaningful connection to riders in six counties across Southern California. When the pandemic drove ridership decreases, the agency also became a leader in regaining ridership efforts.
THE INSIGHT
Spending time with consumers, internal stakeholders, and external partners, we realized Metrolink was exceptionally well aligned with the changing needs of modern travelers. But the brand needed help shifting perception from an overlooked utility to a vital link moving a region.
THE SOLVE
A brand platform that positions Metrolink as an essential stakeholder in the future of Southern California; and that makes its purpose clear: we move the well-being of our riders, our communities, and our planet, one ride at a time.
THE OUTCOME
Beyond the brand refresh, Clever has brought strategic thinking and creative solutions to upwards of 20 initiatives across touch points and business units since our introduction in 2019.
STRATEGY
To build brands on a solid foundation, you need to mine for objective truths.
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We spent time with consumers, internal stakeholders, and looked to the external landscape in order to understand strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. We learned a lot.
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Developing a set of rider personas allowed us to map the wants and needs of riders and find alignment with brand services. We understood even more.
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We shaped a custom-built strategy and infused the brand with a renewed sense of purpose. We articulated new opportunities.
CONSUMER INSIGHTS
38% of non-riders cannot confirm what Metrolink actually does.
Survey of 1800 Southern California residents
We spent time getting to know consumers, spoke with internal stakeholders to mine brand intelligence, and ran a robust landscape analysis. We ended up with a lot of understanding and even more ideas.
We move the well-being of our riders, our communities, and our planet, one ride at a time.
DIFFERENTIATORS
To clarify the offering from other regional transit services we articulated a core set of differentiators, giving the brand clear talking points to drive home early and often across touch points.
PERSONAS
In developing rider personas, we shifted brand-thinking from a binary view of riders as weekday commuters OR weekend leisure riders, to thinking of everyone as a potential hybrid rider with a spectrum of needs.
Paula, Proud Professional
“The time I spend with Metrolink is more rewarding and relaxing than driving my car.”
REGAINING RIDERSHIP CAMPAIGN STRATEGY
Big campaigns with big goals call for a clear direction. We provided the strategic vision and structure for this omni-channel effort to guide multiple executing agencies.
Expand
CURRENT RIDERSHIP
Incentivizing multi-trip and monthly passes and also driving leisure / weekend ridership.
Win back
LAPSED RIDERSHIP
Providing emotional security around COVID-specific safety concerns and offering flexibility to align with new routines.
Grow
NEW RIDERSHIP
Introducing the brand to underexposed audiences and aligning emotional and functional benefits with wants/needs.
VISUAL IDENTITY REFRESH
With 538 route miles of track, Metrolink needed a visual identity system to go the distance.
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Moving away from a limited palette of teal and black, our team added in a range of new colors to give the brand more means of visual expression.
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We established a clear typographic system to guide execution across primary, secondary, and tertiary type setting.
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An intermediate set of visual guidelines was put in place during development to codify brand expression among all bench agencies.
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We delivered photo styling direction then used it to execute multiple photo shoots capturing the emotional journey of riders.
What’s in a name? A lot. Working with the existing brand name, our team sought to bring distinction and legibility to the word mark as a stop over on the way to developing a new logo.
Visual identity rebrand in progress with new word mark under consideration.
Reflecting a region and the people in it.
VISUAL VOCABULARY
When we set out to reimagine the brand’s photo styling we knew we needed to capture a range of rider experiences from a new perspective. Our approach to emotive and energetic composition gave the brand the fresh new photo assets it needed to tell its story in even more engaging ways.
CREATIVE EXECUTION
Brand is the unseen engine that powers compelling thinking and inspires breakthrough creativity.
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We offered big idea thinking, strategic vision, and flawless design execution to a number of tentpole campaign executions.
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With multiple efforts often firing at once, Clever became a go-to creative services provider to get compelling creative and messaging out the door in short order.
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Working with partner agencies, we helped concept the incentives and eventized activations that drove riderships gains for the brand.
CONSUMER INSIGHTS
40% of riders identify as LatinX while 72% of essential worker riders identify as women of color.
Ridership Report February 2022
Speaking the language of SoCal.
CULTURALLY FLUENT EXECUTION
Having gotten to know riders, we understood the importance of communicating in their native language to show that the brand valued their experiences and loyalty. Rough translations that lacked cultural fluency wouldn’t do, so we brought on a native Spanish-speaking writer to bring cultural context to the work. The journey has been deeply rewarding.
CONSUMER INSIGHTS
Weekend ridership recovered 75%
May 14-15, 2022
One ride at a time.
Don’t take our word for it.
Let us connect you to our client partners to learn more about our journey together.
“Clever has put in a ton of hard work as part of what I think is one of the best, if not the best, marketing and social media campaign teams in the transportation industry.”
— Monica Bouldin
Director, Marketing and Partnerships
