Thrive PR won TWO Dallas PRSA Pegasus Awards of Honor for our strategic communications work on the Vote for Better Transit Campaign for Tarrant Transit Alliance (TTA).
We won in 2 categories: SOCIAL MEDIA and MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN ON A BUDGET.
The Project:
Tarrant Transit Alliance (TTA) is a nonprofit transit advocacy organization dedicated to promoting transit policy that serves the entire Greater Fort Worth region. Even though Fort Worth is the 13th largest city in the U.S., it has the lowest spend per capita on public transit of any city in Texas, impacting the area’s quality of life, environment, equity, job growth, mobility and economic development. TTA enlisted Thrive PR to create and execute an integrated PR and communications plan to help elevate transit as a topic of discussion and voter consideration during the 2021 Fort Worth City Mayoral and City Council election campaign.
The Need/Challenge:
This was TTA’s first major election initiative, and it included the organization’s first-ever Mayoral Candidate Forum as well as its first voter scorecard project. As a young organization, TTA had only a modest budget and a small staff. On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging (pushing the candidate forum online) and transit had never been a major topic of discussion, debate or voter consideration in past elections in the region. Thrive strategized, planned and implemented a multi-pronged integrated communications campaign. Strong, creative visuals that could communicate complex information quickly and powerfully were a core part of the strategy.
The Outcome:
As a result of the campaign, transit gained a larger spotlight via media coverage, social media engagement and citizen participation in TTA’s first Mayoral Candidate Forum. Most importantly, the majority of the candidates elected are what TTA members deemed “moderately or significantly transit-friendly.” And, later, the popular campaign name was altered and used as the organization’s tagline: TTA, Advocates for Better Transit.
