The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) earns national recognition this year from the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) in its annual AdWheel Awards. The awards recognize public transportation systems and APTA business members for excellence in advertising, communications, marketing, and promotion. The MTA's Office of Communications and Marketing received a Grand Award at the annual APTA conference this month for the "If You See Something, Say Something" internet campaign.
"I want the MTA to be engaged with our passengers and one way we achieve that goal is through our marketing campaigns," said MTA Administrator, Ralign T. Wells. "This APTA award recognizes our Office of Communications and Marketing for the creative, engaging and imaginative materials and messages they created to interact with our customers and safeguard transit systems throughout the region."
The campaign encourages passengers to be watchful and vigilant of suspicious activity in and around transit stations and vehicles and to report anything suspicious.
Over 500 entries competed this year in the four categories of print, electronic, campaign, and special event. First place honors were awarded in various subcategories for each of the four groups, based on system size. Grand Award winners were chosen from those first place winners in each group. A complete list of winners is available at www.apta.com. APTA is a nonprofit international association of 1,500 public and private sector organizations, engaged in mass transit.
Public transportation systems competed for subcategory First Place Awards and Grand Prize Awards against their peers. The MTA competed in a group of public transportation systems with more than 20 million passenger trips annually. APTA named five winners in the Electronic Media category, and named the MTA the Grand Winner over transit systems in Charlotte, NC, Newark, NJ, Orange, CA and Los Angeles, CA.
