Connect Transit celebrated electrification on Tuesday morning before getting back to business with a board meeting in the afternoon.
Over 100 people attended the celebration at 10:00 am for the ceremonial plugging in of the bus and to take a bus trip in an electric bus. Connect’s unique 1.5 Megawatt charging station that can charge up to 40-buses was a highlight of the affair. The agency also shared its plans for future services and facilities. In addition special guests were honored for their support.
Connect Transit held their regular monthly board meeting at 4:30 in the afternoon. The main item on the agenda was a recommendation to authorize Connect Transit General Manager David Braun to award a contract for strategic messaging consultation services to Dovetail.
Braun told Cities 92.9, “The messaging consultant will help us achieve one of the recommendations made by the Connect to the Future (CttF) group in 2019. We recognize the need to further educate people in the Bloomington-Normal area about the value Connect Transit provides, especially as the city and town grow and new people are introduced to the community.”
Aubrey Staton, Marketing Manager for Connect Transit, was very impressed with a quote in the Dovetail proposal that she thought fit what Connect Transit is looking for. The quote was “Essentially, we are creating the foundation that can be built upon and measured for years to come… One that helps tell the story of Connect Transit’s ‘Why’.”
Staton told us, “This quote from Dovetail’s proposal is exactly what we were hoping to accomplish by putting out the RFP. Our intention behind the request was to create Connect Transit’s story and to then be able to communicate that to the public.“
The Bloomington-Normal Public Transit system rebranded as Connect Transit on Aug. 13 2012, which captured many of the key values of the transit system’s benefits in a visual guide that included logos and external communication templates.
Connect Transit issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in August asking for submittals for consultation services to build out the Connect Transit brand with a strategic messaging campaign. The Scope of Work included in the RFP described desired qualifications of firms submitting proposals, the project requirements, and key deliverables that would be expected.
Connect Transit received six proposals in response to the RFP. The evaluation team reviewed each written proposal and conducted interviews with each firm to give them an opportunity to highlight details of their proposal and explain their proposed development process, as well as answer questions. After the proposal review and interview, the evaluators rated the firms.
Based on the evaluation results staff recommended that Dovetail be awarded the contract. The company is a “Brand Reimagination Agency” based in St. Louis and has a long history of exceptional performance in similar contracts. Dovetail has completed similar work for other transit agencies, such as Metro (St.Louis), IndyGo (Indianapolis), and WeGo Public Transit (Nashville).
Dovetail will be partnering with Creative Entourage Research (CER). CER has done research work for other organizations in the Bloomington-Normal market. The proejct is expected to take six to ten months. The resulting messaging is expected to enhance the Connect brand.
