Your driver’s licence card is about to expire, but the mere thought of standing in long, snaking queues to renew it fills you with dread. Enter the Gautrain with its “smart”, super-efficient driver’s licence testing centres at selected stations – but how to get the word out to the public?
Flow Communications and the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA) have worked together for several years on a number of successful communications and marketing projects, and this awareness campaign in July and August 2022 was another one that was right up our alley.
Through service provider Moshate Communications, the GMA enlisted our services to let the public know that these DLTCs – as the testing stations are known – had been set up on-site at the GMA offices, and at the Gautrain Midrand and Centurion stations, and to encourage people to book to renew their licences there.
The initiative was driven by the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport in collaboration with the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
The objectives for the two-month #RequestASlot campaign were simple: to generate awareness of the DLTC offering, and to educate the public on how to go about booking a slot to renew their licence, apply for a temporary licence or pay their traffic fines. We had to highlight that the process was simple and convenient, eliminating most of the fuss traditionally associated with licence renewal.
The ultimate goal was to get people to use the DLTCs at Gautrain stations – but to position these facilities as visually and operationally distinct from the Gautrain, because they were on the premises but not strictly part of the station’s operations.
No room for ambiguity
There was a fair amount of public education that had to be done, because drivers couldn’t just turn up and expect to get their licences renewed and fines paid on the spot – they first had to book a slot online through the National Traffic Information System (NaTIS) portal.
Furthermore, if they parked at the Gautrain station and didn’t use the Gautrain (but only the on-site DLTC), they’d be charged the standard parking rate – which could end up being more than R100 – and so were advised to make alternative transport arrangements to get there.
So, while it was good news that these pop-up smart renewal centres were available to residents, there were also a lot of moving parts to contend with to get the message out as clearly and unambiguously as possible.
Flow went to work, creating artwork for the campaign, as well as crafting a mix of awareness and educational social media posts. Critical to the campaign was the development of a dedicated page on the MyGautrain website, outlining all the ins and outs of the booking and renewal process. With limited space on social media to explain all the intricacies, we needed to direct all queries to the website.
Through Flow’s digital advertising specialist, Sammy-Joe Radinthi, we also launched a paid campaign targeting the required demographics on social media, as well as via Google display and search ads.
Results speak volumes!
It was a brief, focused and fairly straightforward two-month campaign that delivered outstanding results: more than half a million people were reached on Facebook alone, with almost 15 000 link clicks to the MyGautrain site, on a modest budget.
The LinkedIn ads delivered an impressive click-through rate, far exceeding the platform benchmark. The click-through rate for the Google ads was through the roof, at 23% – also with minimal but strategically placed spend.
Importantly, the MyGautrain page dedicated to the campaign recorded almost 25 000 page views in a single month, with visitors navigating there from social media and Google ads and spending an average of about four minutes on the page – suggesting they had navigated there specifically to glean information about the Gautrain DLTCs.
The result? A happy client and, perhaps more importantly, happy customers. Comments on social media were overwhelmingly positive and complimentary about the professional, friendly service people received when renewing their driver’s licence at the Gautrain DLTCs. What used to be a chore became a pleasure!
“The campaign yielded great results with the budget we had, with the website sessions going up by 215% as a direct result of social media and Google ads,” says Sammy. “Working on the campaign was such a great experience for me and the results exceeded my expectations – especially looking at the average time users spent on the microsite.”
Says Flow project manager Ros Caboz, “This was a nice, short, positive campaign to work on together with the Gautrain team, who were quick with approvals and comments. It was well received by the public.”