SMART plans communications campaign in response to grand jury report
The proposal includes spending $175,000 on mailers, $50,000 on video production and $76,800 on paid advertising.
The board of Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit has thrown its support behind a $301,800 marketing plan to intensify the agency’s public communications.
The proposal, presented Wednesday by Julia Gonzalez, the agency’s marketing and communications manager, came in response to a Marin County Civil Grand Jury report released over the summer.
The watchdog panel said the passenger rail agency has not met ridership goals promised in 2008, and its marketing and communications strategy is lacking.
The proposal includes spending $175,000 on mailers, $50,000 on video production and $76,800 on paid advertising.
Gonzalez said she recommended holding off on executing the plan until the agency has received reports from two consultants: one who will perform a quality-of-life assessment, and the other assigned to help develop a marketing strategy about the benefits of SMART.
Board members agreed Wednesday that they wanted to get started as soon as possible.
“For me, if we have the financial ability to do this, I say let’s do it,” said board member Chris Coursey, a Sonoma County supervisor. “And we may have another opportunity to do it again once we have the consultants’ reports in hand as well.”
In her presentation, Gonzalez said the agency has three full-time staffers dedicated to marketing and communications. The department operates on a $328,000 budget, including $200,000 for paid advertising.
Gonzalez said that the estimated population of people 18 and over in Sonoma and Marin counties was approximately 600,000 in 2020. Through its digital, print and social media marketing, SMART is only reaching a small fraction of that population, she said. SMART has 14,500 followers on Facebook, 4,400 on X, formerly called Twitter, and 3,400 on Instagram.
The board asked for clarity about the goal of the marketing plan.
“The desired outcome is that people will be versed in understanding what this agency means in terms of quality-of-life impact,” Gonzalez said.
“Another desired outcome is that people understand what this investment means in terms of the future of Sonoma and Marin counties,” she said. “Our counties demographically are aging. This is an investment in sustainability and mobility.”
Board members asked how staff will measure the effectiveness of the mailers.
Gonzalez said the staff has considered including cut-out “free ride” passes or links to pages on the SMART website so they can track that data.
Board members said they liked the idea of the mailers featuring an option for digital engagement, including possible QR codes linking to how-to videos, or app downloads, promotions, Clipper Card access or free ride tickets.
The board chair, Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan, suggested that those same type of “call to action” messages be included in digital advertisements that appear on mobile devices.
“So that there is a true call to action that somebody can take right there in that moment,” Lucan said.
Lucan said that at $328,000 a year, the agency is spending about 1% of its budget on marketing, when most agencies are spending 5% to 10% on gaining customers.
“I think there probably is an opportunity for public agencies, especially newer ones that are still in growth mode, still trying to gain market share, still trying to get people out of cars and ride alternate forms of transportation,” Lucan said. “They might seem like big numbers, but relatively speaking it’s not a very large number and maybe something we could consider including into our budget ongoing.”
The board suggested staff use the push notification feature on the SMART app to advertise promotions.
SMART, which launched its service in 2017, covers 45 miles between Larkspur and Santa Rosa. It aims to expand service to Windsor, Healdsburg and Cloverdale and complete a path running beside or near the track route.
Marin and Sonoma voters approved SMART’s sales tax in 2008 with an expiration date in early 2029. The agency attempted to renew the tax for another 30 years in 2020, but the measure failed to garner the required two-thirds majority approval from voters.
In addition to the amplifying the marketing plan, the grand jury recommendations include launching a public process to assess how SMART will continue financing itself beyond 2029 and determining when to place a tax measure on the ballot with the help of consultants.
The board voted in August to embrace the recommendations. Last month, SMART officials said a tax renewal measure is the only viable option to keep the North Bay passenger rail service from shutting down.
After the meeting, Gonzalez said the marketing plan will not be a campaign for a tax renewal.
“When the time comes to bring a tax measure forward to both the voters in Marin and Sonoma counties, that would be a distinct and separate effort,” Gonzalez said.