Metrolinx, Ontario’s regional transit agency, has introduced a new public education campaign to create awareness and support for the ongoing expansion and modernization of its network.
The “Let’s Get Moving” campaign from agency partner Grey Canada includes radio and cinema, complemented by advertising on the organization’s social media channels as well as paid social and online video.
It is anchored by a visually driven 60-second spot that depicts a typical day in the life of various Metrolinx services, such as Go Transit and the Union-Pearson Express.
The soundtrack for the largely dialogue-free spot features a variety of transit-related sounds — train wheels on tracks, the chimes of subway doors, and the bells used at railway-crossings.
The visuals show various Metrolinx users, ranging from commuters to young couples and children, as well as travelers destined for Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
The spot concludes with a voiceover that says: “It’s our lifeblood: What connects this great region. As we grow our transit system needs to grow too. To keep up with the speed of life.”
Joel Arbez, executive creative director at Grey Toronto, said that Metrolinx touches the lives of more than three million daily riders, making it “critical” to highlight the depth of its services and the breadth of its ongoing expansion. “Transit is about connecting riders to the places, people and events that are important to them,” said Arbez.
The spot concludes by urging viewers to visit Metrolinx.com to discover additional information on the approximately 500 projects currently underway within the organization.
The projects include an expansion of the Go Transit rail service with 20 new stations and an additional 100 kilometres of track, which has a projected completion date of 2025, and the ongoing 19-kilometre Eglinton Crosstown LRT project slated for completion in 2021.
“Ongoing community relations outreach is critical to driving community awareness of current and future developments,” said Grey Toronto president Darlene Remlinger of the campaign. “The creative platform and messaging don’t merely focus on construction and development, [but] on how transit and the future state of transit in the region will improve quality of life.”
Grey Canada has been working with Metrolinx since late 2015 after winning the assignment in a pitch process managed by the province’s Advertising Review Board (ARB).
