SITUATION
Pace Bus, the premier suburban transit provider in the Chicagoland area, has been committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization. With June being Pride month, Pace wanted to do their part to show support.

SOLUTION
Pace got out in the community by signing up to support two local Pride parades, wrapping a Pace bus with Pride messaging and having employees walk in the parade with shirts to compliment the bus design. They also were on hand to pass out pronoun pins featuring he/him, she/her and they/them designs and encouraged parade goers to wear their pronouns with pride. Those who weren’t able to attend a parade still had the chance to see the bus in the community as the wrap will remain on the bus throughout the year on regular routes throughout the area.

RESULTS
The efforts at the Pride parades and throughout the community were met with positive reviews from riders and community members. Facebook’s engagement rate was up over 30% for this campaign vs. Pace’s average engagement rate. News of the efforts also extended to earned media channels including Chicagoland’s news stations picking up the story getting Pace an additional 200K+ views locally and over 2.2M nationwide. With the success of Pride, Pace extended the support to other initiatives throughout the year by doing similar efforts for Disability Pride in July.

Gatesman submitted this case study in the 2023 Globeys: https://youtu.be/kbyU6d0fp_k