The Situation

In May 2023, Kitsap Transit hired Team Soapbox to implement a campaign to raise awareness about its vanpool service, increase vanpool registration, and encourage a younger audience to participate. The campaign's goal was to highlight four key items Kitsap Transit Vanpool provides: financial savings, shorter commute times and parking perks, environmental sustainability, and improved quality of life.

The solution

Kitsap Transit requested that the campaign included social graphics, collateral materials, and videos delivered with a timeline of 45 days. To begin our work, Team Soapbox did the initial research and identified the primary audience for the campaign to be 18–40-year-old blue-collar workers commuting in and around Kitsap County, including those working at the nearby Naval Base (PSNS, Bangor, Keyport).

Using this data, we presented the Kitsap Transit team with three campaign concepts that we felt met their request that the campaign be “playful, fun, inspiring, direct, and informative.” Kitsap Transit also sought for the campaign to feature imagery of existing vanpools, align with the existing brand identity, and feature creative imagery and memorable taglines.

From there, we developed and presented three unique campaign concepts to the Kitsap Transit team. The organization ultimately chose the “SEA You in a Vanpool” concept, which utilized animated versions of maritime animals commonly found in and around Puget Sound to share information about, and raise awareness of, Kitsap Transit Vanpool. We also incorporated elements of a second proposed concept to align the sea creatures with personalities one might encounter in a vanpool.

As part of the campaign, Team Soapbox developed a marketing advertising campaign that included social graphics, rack cards, posters, tabletop banners, and a t-shirt design that was used across collateral materials and social graphics. Team Soapbox remained nimble and flexible during this process and worked simultaneously with a subcontracted animation team to execute two :15 animated videos that aligned with the campaign’s visual identity within a tight deadline (video 1 and video 2). The animated videos highlighted the various perks associated with riding in a vanpool; specifically featuring the perk of commuting in the HOV and Ferry Fast Lanes.

All assets were delivered to Kitsap Transit by the middle of June. The campaign is expected to launch in July 2023.

T shirt _Final_no bg__Graphic_tagline.png

The Situation:

When the first cases of COVID-19 were discovered in Seattle in March 2020, it became clear that among the industries that would be significantly impacted would be the live music industry. With social distance mandates and required quarantining, concerts or events with public gatherings would not occur for the foreseeable future. In the wake of this news, a group of music lovers from across Washington State formed together to establish Keep Music Live, a COVID-19 relief fundraising campaign with the goal of raising money to assist venues at risk of permanently closing due to COVID.

The Approach:

As the organization began to form, it became clear to Keep Music Live board members, that communications and project management assistance was needed. Team Soapbox was hired in early August 2020 and work began immediately to establish critical communications tools and strategic plans necessary for a successful campaign. Over the course of the six months of the fundraising campaign, our work included:

Project Management: Team Soapbox served as the project manager for Keep Music Live, managing a group of 20+ volunteers and tracking all activities to ensure deadlines were met and work progressed. We were “aircraft traffic control” (as the Keep Music Live team deemed us), keeping tabs on all moving pieces related to the campaign. To assist with this, we developed a complex tracking grid to monitor work, organized and oversaw several smaller work groups, provided weekly recap reports on all activities, attended and informed the Keep Music Board on a weekly basis, and more.
Strategic Planning: Prior to the external launch of the campaign, Team Soapbox developed a complex launch plan that included pitching media, developing a partner engagement toolkit, coordinating social media, and overseeing the implementation of large-scale marketing materials.
Key Messaging: Team Soapbox crafted the key messaging for the campaign, instilling with the messaging a balance of hope and urgency. The messaging also included a sense of togetherness and opportunity for the live music community to rally together to support Washington’s beloved independent venues.
Campaign Launch: The campaign launched on October 13, 2020, and it was an incredible success, garnered a groundswell of community support and media attention. Within a week of publicly launching, the campaign had more than 6,000 followers on its social media channels (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter), had more than 1,000 individual donors, raised more than $200,000, generated over 15 media hits across Washington state (including The Seattle Times, Spokesman Review, KIRO, KING, Tacoma News Tribune, Seattle Met, KUOW and more).
Website: Team Soapbox oversaw the development of the Keep Music Live website which included developing the site framework, writing website content, sourcing image assets, and providing ongoing website maintenance.
Media Relations: Critical to the momentum of the success in building awareness of the campaign, was the media relations work that Team Soapbox cultivated. Team Soapbox generated over 60 print, radio and TV media hits were secured during the campaigns. Our team worked with reporters to secure multiple stories in outlets included The Seattle Times, KING 5, KOMO, Q13, KIRO, KHQ, KREM, Spokesman Review, Seattle Met, Inlander, Tacoma News Tribune, KUOW, KEXP, Bellingham Herald, Rolling Stone and many more.
Social Media: Team Soapbox supported and helped develop a social media strategy that resulted in more than 11,000 followers on Keep Music Live’s social pages. This community of live music fans and supporters was generated over a six-month period.
Partner Engagement: Team Soapbox help nurture and manage relationships with many community partners that led to greater Keep Music Live brand recognition. Partners included Bartell Drugs, Elysian Brewing, Theo’s Chocolate, Ellenos Greek Yogurt, Dick’s, Filson, KEXP, Stoneburner Restaurants, and more.
Sponsorships: Team Soapbox supported the cultivation of Keep Music Live sponsorship opportunities by developing sponsorship proposals and overseeing sponsorship recognition through communications.

Our Impact:

Team Soapbox was instrumental in the success of the Keep Music Live campaign. Over the course of the campaign, Keep Music Live was able to build a groundswell of community support and raised over $1 million for Washington’s small, independent music venues. Those funds were dispersed as COVID-19 relief grants to more than 77 venues statewide, providing financial critical assistance to these small venues that were closed for over a year.