KEEPING THE OLYMPICS MOVING
2002 OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES
The challenge posed to PPBH by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) and the Salt Lake Organizing Committee was to develop a public information campaign that would inform locals and the world’s visitors how to both get to and bypass the events during the 2002 Winter Olympics. An integrated communications campaign was launched six months prior to the Games with extensive grassroots efforts among local businesses, which included advertising, collateral, website and weekly community and press events, all wrapped under the “Know Before You Go” theme. The campaign’s goals were two-fold: 1) Remove 20% of vehicles from the roadways by educating spectators, residents and the thousands of national and international visiting media and 2) develop a transportation strategy with tools to help get to and around the venues.
Several media outlets worldwide commented on the remarkable success of transportation during the Games. USA Today described Salt Lake City as a "big winner," citing that transportation "came off with nary a hitch." Due to the success of the campaign, traffic in downtown Salt Lake City surpassed expectations by dropping 30 to 40 percent. Coordination with the trucking industry also led to a significant drop in interstate truck traffic during the Games. The commuterlink.com website (produced by PPBH), the primary communication tool for Olympic travel information, logged a substantial increase in visitors during the Games. In February 2001, the site averaged 1.5 million hits per month. In the first two weeks of February 2002, the site experienced 57 million hits. For the entire month of February, the site logged 74 million hits.
“PPBH was able to identify the need, develop a strategy and execute a plan under a very tight deadline that helped make our Olympic Transportation Campaign a great success.”
– John Njord, Executive Director UDOT
Campaign Media Mix
- Website
- Television
- Radio
- Collateral
- Direct Mail
- Multimedia
- Public Relations
- Press Events
- Grassroots