Some really good marketing videos that are models of city and/or transit promotion

1.  The American Institute of Architects online video promoting their upcoming 2018 national conference in New York City June 21-23, is a model for a punchy community tourism promotion video.



2.  Similarly, the DC Lottery video is way better than the videos produced by the city agency tasked with promoting the city.



I've been meaning to mention the DC Lottery "Neighborhoods" scratch off cards.  We can argue about the value of a lottery and how most of the players lose out, but promoting various DC neighborhoods (e.g., Capitol Hill) and landmarks on various series of tickets is a good idea.  Plus, in the "losers" drawing, the winner will get $500,000 towards the purchase of a house, which is a great promotional idea.

The program has been promoted through bus livery ads, in various ways in Union Station, and in other venues.  I don't know if the video ad has run on broadcast or cable television, or just online.

3.  Although to be fair, the DC Cool campaign seems to leave me cold ("Washington, DC Launches Yearlong Marketing Campaign with 'DC Cool'," press release).  This older Destination DC ad is better (but still pales against the DC Lottery ad).



4.  Transit agencies generally aren't at the forefront of marketing excellence, in print or broadcast formats.  Frankly, there aren't even a lot of examples of television ads for transit agencies, because commercial media time is so expensive.

But last night I saw an ad (probably via FIOS, and it was on a cable channel, not an over the air broadcast station) for WMATA's new promise that if your train is delayed 15 minutes or more you get a free ride automatically credited to your SmarTrip card, and I thought it was excellent.

-- WMATA Rush Hour Promise webpage

The only thing is, I thought I remembered a man's voice in the ad, and this one features a woman's voice.  I think there are different ads.