Topeka Metro was recognized at the South West Transit Association 31st Annual SPOTLIGHT Awards for transit marketing excellence on July 26, 2018. The awards were a part of the two-day Annual Transit Marketing Workshop held at the Aloft Hotel in Oklahoma City.
The 2018 SPOTLIGHT Award Category lll, which consists of transit agencies with more than one million passenger trips annually, was presented to Topeka Metro. This award honors outstanding work for a total transit marketing campaign, which includes mixed-media showing a unifying strategy, purpose or theme, and is typically an awareness-building or educational campaign.
Topeka Metro's award entry was for the 2017-18 Topeka USD 501 bus pass promotion and earned 1st place. The goal of the campaign was to inform students and parents that Topeka Metro is a reliable transportation solution to get to school, help the district cut down on truancy, and to boost student ridership. Ridership increased with USD 501 students by 40 percent in 2017-18 versus the previous school year.
