Summer Has Been a Blast!

With the dog days of summer at their sweltering peak, what's a teen without wheels to do? Increasingly, they're hopping aboard HART buses with their Summer Blast Passes.
Back in 2006, HART introduced a special pass that lets kids 17 and younger pay one low price and ride all summer long. And this summer is shaping up to be the best yet for the Summer Blast Pass. So far, HART has sold more than 1,200 passes this year - the previous high was in 2008, when just over 800 passes were spoken for.

Why the dramatic increase? A few reasons. In past years, HART promoted the Summer Blast Pass through a paid media program of print ads and billboards, but this year's campaign relied heavily on no-cost or low-cost promotions. In particular, social media played a big role in the promotion this year, with tons of Twitter "tweets" and Facebook posts starting early and often. Our hundreds of followers and fans then helped spread the word by re-tweeting and sharing our posts.

Kicking off the social media outreach even before summer began, HART promoted a "Staycation" week in the spring that "springboarded" (so to speak!) our special offers for families by getting more teens and their parents interested in HART just before sales for the Summer Blast Pass kicked off. The Staycation promotion led to 34,000 trips in April, giving us great momentum and a head start on social media heading into summer.

Also, as the first day of school draws closer and closer, HART dropped the price of the Summer Blast Pass in mid-July so kids who didn't jump in at the start of summer could still get in on the fun. And of course, we let everyone know all about it on Twitter and Facebook!

It's an axiom of business that you go where your customers are. For the 2010 Summer Blast Pass Program, HART found our young customers by diving into the social media pool.

To learn more about HART's Summer Blast Pass, click here to download our PDF flyer. And check out a news story on the Summer Blast Pass that aired on News Channel 8 here.

Transportation Expert in 2010 Leadership Tampa
HART sends congrats along to our friend Karen Kress, the Tampa Downtown Partnership's Director of Transportation and Planning, on her selection to the 40th class of Leadership Tampa. The program, put on by the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce, is a proving ground for future community leaders.