CicLAvia, a non-profit organization, that catalyzes vibrant public spaces, active transportation and good health through car-free street events joined forces with SMC's IxD program to create an engaging marketing strategy for their audience. CicLAvia and SMC's IxD program's community development initiative industry partner assigned various projects to our cohort based on specific needs. Our team, Mini Data, was given the Marketing initiative with the goal of identifying and creating opportunities with outreach materials to help communities deepen their involvement with CicLAvia and its events. Our goal was to improve how CicLAvia engages with people to transform their relationships with the Los Angeles community and with each other, through evergreen content driving inspiration and passion from attendees. The content strategy was based on interactive content, challenges, and prompts, turning new audiences into enthusiastic supporters of CicLAvia's mission.
Project brief informed team of specific project goals that would be focused on community change. With limiatations and heavy constraints within CicLAvia's scope and our project timeline, our team was enthusiastic about getting started and making a positive impact on CicLAvia's community-driven mission.
Our team's research methodology began with setting clear goals. Inspired by the brief, we kept in mind that CicLAvia wanted our solution to deliver measurable results. To focus our research and design iterations, we identified three specific desired outcomes that we aimed to achieve.
Event Awareness
Measure awareness among people and businesses who could benefit or enjoy active mobility centered events.
Community Perception
Identify assumptions of the general population, what they think of CicLAvia at the local level and within each different community.
Social Media Engagement
Some Angelenos perceive CicLAvia as "out-of-towners" and this misunderstanding may be caused by not experiencing event or not understanding CicLAvia’s community values and mission.
TikTok #ciclavia
With 383k #ciclavia and 258k #ciclavia2022 TikTok views, there’s great opportunity for engaging in short form storytelling.
Event Buddies
Few people are taking advantage of bringing pets. This man doesn't come to event alone, he brings his wonderful pet.
Twitter's #CicLAvia
Some see CicLAvia as "out-of-towners". This misunderstanding is because they have yet to experience CicLAvia.
Shot on iPhone
Apple commissions its users content filmed with their phones to market online and print media.
Getty Challenge
Getty Museum asks users to recreate works of art from home during the pandemic.
Story Corps
Booth started in Grand Central Station that encourages people to connect and share personal stories.
Recess Therapy
Gaining over 2.5 million followers in just over a year, the host interviews kids to share their unique perspectives.
Instagram
Facebook
We observed that the current social media strategy tends to focus on photos of cyclists and does not include many videos on the main account page. However, content tagged with #CicLAvia on TikTok has over 457,000 views, even though there is no official organization account.
Through the survey we conducted, we discovered two key insights about the target audience. Prior to attending, people had the misconception that the event was only for cyclists, but after participating, they realized that it was actually an inclusive, community-driven event.
After conducting surveys at the Heart of LA event, we learned that physical marketing ranked lowest for how people discovered the event. Most attendees we interviewed heard about the event through social media or word of mouth from friends and family.
Sandra Kuli
Kuli Marketing
“After twelve years I think that CicLAvia is too improvisational, I don’t feel like we’re as intentional at understanding metrics to see what's really paying off.”
Moya ChangCommunications Manager
at CicLAvia
“Some stories we’d be interested in hearing are about discovery, feelings, unexpected experiences, and chance relationships made at CicLAvia.”
Kim BaerPrincipal, KBDA
“Dig into what is most practical. It can be something super simple that you try for a year and really analyze. Thinking about it as a learning experience is just as important as making another deliverable.”
Between October 4 and November 7th, we interviewed three subject matter experts with a focus on marketing for CicLAvia. We gained various insights on our strategy and noticed an important pattern: each call became high energy and had positive expectations for our content deliverables.
With our concepts fleshed out, our team set up at the CicLAvia South LA event to test the Stories Station and the prompts and challenges we had chosen. We were stationed at the Watts Hub and collected content from attendees as they passed by.
#TurnThePage
Sit down talks and street interviews with attendees to learn more about the community members in the neighborhood.
#SillyWalkChallenge
Fun challenges and prompts are easy to capture and offer an engaging atmosphere. These content pieces are fun for attendees to take part in.
Authentic Advertising
Content captured at the events can be used in physical marketing materials such as pole banners and mailers. The materials connect with the local communities.
Ambassador Program
Collaboration in social media has been successful for many organizations. The strategy for ambassadors explores micro and macro social media influencers in Los Angeles.
Pedicab Stories
To facilitate the collection of content while on the move, CicLAvia Stories can utilize a mobile transportation unit that offers rides to individuals in exchange for sharing their stories.
Through our time collaborating with CicLAvia, our team was confident in the final deliverables due to our constant communication with stakeholders. The CicLAvia team built the Stories Station specifically for our content strategy, which contributed to the success of the event and the excitement of the participants.
We presented our research findings and key ideas to the stakeholders at the outset of the project, using data-backed analysis to persuade them. This effective communication allowed us to move forward with confidence and ultimately achieve success.
Our team developed a strong marketing strategy by paying attention to high-engagement posts that resonated with our target audience's interests. The strategy focused on creating evergreen content through targeted topics and challenges that aligned with CicLAvia's community-driven mission.
The CicLAvia team was fully invested in our goals from the start and acted as dedicated advocates throughout the process. The SouthLA event was a resounding success, with an abundance of support and overwhelmingly positive feedback on our final deliverables.
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