Case Study and Lessons Learned: App Product Launch and Awareness

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Case Study #2: Community Driven Product Launch

Background: 

TheBus in Honolulu is an award-winning bus system, recognized as one of the best in the country. At a City of Honolulu-sponsored hackathon, a citizen developed a mobile app, DaBus, which adds functionality to the bus system with GPS tracking and to the minute updates on bus schedules and locations.

 

Listen:

The City of Honolulu wanted to encourage adoption of the app and at the same time increase citizen engagement and conversation.

Think:


In order to encourage app usage, a mobile “Geeks on the Bus” tweetup/kick-off event was planned. The event encouraged bus riders to converge on Honolulu Hale and take the bus together to one of Honolulu’s co-working locations with Mayor Peter Carlisle.

Due to budget constraints, social media was the only media deployed to encourage the adoption of DaBus mobile app and attendance at the event. For tracking and ease, the event and its communication was primarily executed through Twitter using hashtag #DaBusHNL. A Facebook page was developed, it wasn’t actively utilized for the short campaign.

The goals were to raise awareness of the app, establish an ongoing conversation on social media about bus usage and the app and encourage app downloads.

For ease, we decide to identify influencers who were also bus riders already.

Do:

One the morning of the “Geeks on the Bus” event, geeks from all over Oahu began using the app to identify which routes worked for them. Some social media influencers were first-time bus rides.

Results:

958,399 Social Impressions
762 app downloads in 4 days following event
92 unique individuals created content on Twitter
425 Tweets
Sell-out event

Blog Coverage:

http://smchawaii.org/2012/04/17/dabushnl-app-launch-and-tweetup-case-study/

Media Coverage:
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/17373669/honolulu-mayor-to-help-test-dabus-mobile-app

Download The App:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dabus-the-oahu-bus-app/id503701268?mt=8