When work and family life meet, it happens on the subway.
My oldest son was the featured talent for the 2015 cover of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s annual report. The collection from our inaugural Mom and Baby photo shoot with the official photographer is now part of the City and County of San Francisco’s owned promotional multimedia. I’m pleased to help continue marketing public transit even after moving on to other industries!
San Francisco Municipal Railway’s (Muni’s) best of the best cable car operators compete for the title of best bell ringer in the biz. Among the most traditional and highest-profile events hosted by San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), I had the honor and challenge of producing the 52nd and 53rd annual bell ringing showdown.
This event is pure San Francisco – traditional yet flashy, community-oriented yet featuring local celebrities, offering live music and lunchtime entertainment. And, of course, topped off with an actual cable car parked in the middle of downtown’s Union Square. It’s a feat of logistics that pulls a crowd, generates a flurry of media coverage and reminds everyone of our shared appreciation for the few and the proud San Francisco cable car operators.
52nd Cable Car Bell Ringing Competition on July 9, 2015 in Union Square. R to L: Ed Cobean, Cable Car Sr. Operations Manager, Kristin Smith, Marketing Manager, Byron Cobb, bell ringing champ, Staci Morrison (me!), Marketing Associate.
Community support, merchant sponsorship and cross-divisional agency teamwork is crucial. Outreach to sponsors and local merchants in the Union Square area began as early as the start of the year (the event is in the summer). I was central to outreach, managing a growing list of prospective sponsors, levels of support, in-kind benefits, securing said benefits, organizing donated prizes and overseeing fulfillment of all sponsor perks. I was also responsible for the entire event layout – tenting, seating, audio/visual, staging of cable car, permitting – you name it!
(Fun fact: Union Square has a parking garage under it, and the SFMTA cable car is technically too heavy to park over said garage. Balancing (quite literally) the event centerpiece with great street-level visual staging and solid safety protocol was a challenge!)
Additional to the event logistics, the transit operators and the entire cable car division must be part of and sign off all the plans. After all, the event celebrates them! At the same time, they have important work to do on the rails. I setup weekly meetings with the division superintendent and labor rep to keep everyone talking, sharing ideas and staying up-to-date with the technical, mechanical and aesthetic needs for the big show. The cable car division is notoriously terrific to work with. It’s really no wonder the SFMTA continues this monstrous event year after year.
And, on top of the team calls, sponsor outreach and fulfillment, I was marketing lead for all promotional material: printed collateral, digital copy and graphics, on-site signage, handouts for on-street volunteer ambassadors, wayfinding for attendees and participants, and of course, the event script!
It’s a bear of an event in the context of public transportation agency. But when in San Francisco, and especially when talkin’ cable cars…this event cannot be too small.
To visualize the fun from the 52nd year’s event, peek at a few of the news clips. The contest garnered great media coverage at the local and national level:
Read more about the event lineup, sponsors and contestants on the SFMTA event page at sfmta.com/bellringing.
Stay tuned for an update from the 2016 contest coming soon!
Greeting “Elvis” one of the amateur ringers at the 53rd Cable Car Bell Ringing Contest on July 7, 2016.
Conceived of a brief, visual campaign to satisfy important internal objectives for a State of California department:
Called Faces of Conservation, the idea was to focus on the individual, get a snapshot of him or her in her “natural work environment,” and craft a caption and quote to support the four project goals.
I created the campaign, template, process for securing content (interviews, photos), guided graphics development and advised on strategy for ongoing publication. From there, the public affairs team picked it up and has run with it since.
Like many government – especially at the state level – the organization was resistant to sharing personal details on a public site and it took a few rounds of requests and negotiating to secure the initial featured staff. However, after the first three profiles, Facebook engagement had ticked up with each post, and remains at a consistently high level (views, likes, shares) compared or other posts and channels.
Public service is not without its field trips and crisis communications.
While working public affairs for a California state department with an arm of regulation, I organized field tours to illustrate first hand the regulation work in progress at a privately-owned energy field. Though about 3,000 feet above sea level on rocky terrain awash with active heavy machinery, and some 390 miles away from my office, I outlined a flurry of field tours: one for media, one community members, and a third for local elected officials (Senators, city officials) and staff.
The challenges were many:
We were successful.
The tours opened the otherwise private field to select groups in an open by carefully crafted experience, showcasing our department’s commitment to transparency, safety and communication about the ongoing regulations. The level of detail in my run of show plans conveyed how committed our team was to hitting all the key talking points and seeing the most visual examples of the organization’s work. It also gave our very tiny team (of about three) the advantage of knowing the tour schedule, talking points and exact time estimated to drive from point A to B (up to point Z).
Representing the organization in front of three separate groups of 25-30 concerned, often confrontational media members, citizens and elected officials was daunting, of course, but armed with a clear, well-rehearsed plan, proper safety gear and our talking points, we ended up having a good experience and a positive outcome.
We’re calling all Bay Area artists to once again create awe-inspiring art for over 700,000 daily Muni riders.
The SFMTA, in partnership with San Francisco Beautiful, is excited to announce the second annual Muni Art Project. This time, Muni will celebrate local artists by displaying art on twice as many buses – 100 instead of 50.
Fresh artwork from five selected artists will grace Muni buses next January through April. The deadline for submissions is June 17 (more details below).
The return of Muni Art reignites a beautiful relationship between local art and local transit. It’s not just easy on the eyes – this is one way we’re helping make transit and public spaces more attractive and engage with our diverse communities.
Philip Hua and four other artists had their work displayed on Muni buses last fall. Hua’s project, “Unified Portraits of A Divided San Francisco,” combined digital portraits of San Franciscans to highlight the city’s diversity. Photo: Phillip Hua, Handout
[read more at sfmta.com]
In the tech capital of the nation, how does San Francisco’s humble public transportation agency make a splash with its first mobile ticketing app? Well…aside from working with proven pros in the transit ticketing space, and ensuring the app illustrations were disarmingly adorable, you have a media event.
Not just any media event. One in a busy subway station. At the morning commute hour. With the Mayor’s Office.
Throw in a few custom decorations, a few matching t-shirts and a swarm of energetic ambassadors and you’ve got yourself a public agency app launch.
I was responsible for organizing the launch event, coordinating look and feel, setting up temporary signage, collaborating with local SF Travel Visitor Information Center on partner promo through their network, organizing a swarm of on-street ambassadors, overseeing talking points and helping the public navigate the app in the meantime.
Also coined the centerpiece slogan, “City by the Bay. Transit by the App,” you see in that wall-sized custom backdrop and conceived the handy dandy acronym-instructions of “It’s Easy as B-U-S (Buy, Use, Show).”
Read the corresponding blog post here. Also drafted the copy on the MuniMobile page here.
Unlike other high-profile events, the The Southwest Chinese New Year Parade is an occasion in which the SFMTA is purely a participant. Nonetheless, it’s an event of strategic Agency representation within the largest celebration of Asian culture outside of Asia. The Southwest Chinese New Year Parade is also considered one of the top 10 parades in the world.
I oversaw the organization, recruitment and activation of the company parade contingent. This include cross-divisional organization to secure a vehicle and solicit parade participants, and often heavy negotiations with the parade organizers to allow said vehicle into the parade!
Specific achievements include
Served as contact for the annual media sponsorship of one of the nation’s largest LGBT celebrations (arguably the second largest LGBT celebration in the world).
The goal of this partnership was beyond marketing the SFMTA as a strong ally of the LGBTQ community and offering staff a fun way to participate; support of this major, super high-profile event also offered the transit agency direct access to strategic transportation-related messaging across all SF Pride materials, mitigating frustrating and potentially unsafe transit and city street overcrowding, informing visitors of safe pedestrian and bicycle behavior and how to prepare for travel delays.
As events/sponsorship lead for the agency, my included the major deliverables of:
*Re-posted from original piece on MovingSF
The MuniMobile app has been updated with some key design improvements, thanks to feedback from users like you.
In the new version, you may notice our mobile ticketing app provides faster access to active and stored tickets upon startup as well as clearer screen prompts on when to activate tickets and ticket expiration time. The display has also been enhanced to be more accessible for users with visual impairments.
So if you haven’t already, be sure to update your MuniMobile app to enjoy all of the new features. MuniMobile version 1.7.1 is available for iPhone on the App Store and for Android devices on Google Play.
If you run into any issues with the app, email us at munimobile@sfmta.com or call 311 for assistance. We want to ensure your mobile ticketing is as sleek as our new Muni buses.
Coming Soon: Rate My Ride
Later this summer, MuniMobile will also get a new feature: Rate My Ride.
Rate My Ride will allow you to provide specific feedback about any Muni trip in seconds. With a simple click to the left or right, you can rate your trip time, vehicle conditions and even the etiquette of fellow riders.
Rate My Ride is just one more way we’re making it easier for you to tell us how we can improve your SF transportation experience. Rate My Ride is simple, it’s interactive — plus, you can’t beat MuniMobile’s cute interface.
