CARL SHEPPARD LARSON

Portland's open streets event, "Sunday Parkways," is a huge success for the city. Each year our bureau of transportation manages to attract over 100,000 people to these carfree neighborhood events. People were having a great time walking and biking in their neighborhoods but, somehow, our active transportation organization was failing to engage with them. Our table was very popular the year we handed out hotdogs but hotdogs weren't relevant to our mission, healthy, or cheap. We needed something worth stopping for, mission-aligned, and cheap. Ideally, it would help boost our brand, too. Inspiration for our solution came from a watershed restoration group that was handing out paper hats that looked like salmon. They were ridiculous, very visible, and everyone wanted one.

 

"Sunday Parkways" is a very friendly and diverse event where neighbors are met and new friends are made. What better way to facilitate that interaction than with nametags? I designed our BTA-branded "this is my bicycle" tags to be customized by the user and attached with pipecleaners. The front says "this is my bicycle" in Portland's top 8 most-spoken languages and the back has a quick membership pitch.

 

It worked. Once a few nametags were out on the course, everyone wanted them. Kids painstakingly decorated their nametags while we got petition signatures from adults. Meanwhile, everyone from the mayor and his wife to the dog in the trailer was riding around with our logo prominently displayed. The only problem: they might have been too sturdy. I still see them on the street today!