Scoring a Last-Minute Media Touchdown During Super Bowl LIII

Earned 10 media placements

Feature article in 8th-ranked daily newspaper

Tripled scooter ridership

Objective

Lime enlisted ARPR to help them earn local media attention to increase overall brand awareness and ridership during Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. With over one million people expected to attend a series of events over the 10-day period leading up to the Super Bowl, Lime sought to establish itself as the go-to option for an affordable and efficient way to move around the city.

The Super Bowl Host Committee and city government waited until the last minute to decide whether or not scooters would be allowed within the perimeter of Mercedes-Benz Stadium and did not finalize a scooter parking plan until four days prior to game day. By that time, local media had already been inundated with Super Bowl pitches, making it increasingly difficult to break through and earn impactful coverage. As an added challenge, Lime had to compete for media attention and rides with four other scooter operators in the market.

Approach

As soon as details about the scooter allowances were confirmed, ARPR developed a strategy focused on obtaining earned coverage in local print, TV, blogs and radio that highlighted Lime’s competitive advantages in comparison to other e-scooter operators in the city.

The next step was to raise general public awareness of Lime’s Super Bowl activations, including the deployment of 3,000 scooters throughout the city, availability of a special discount code developed in partnership with MARTA (Atlanta’s mass transit authority) and details about parking corrals near the stadium where Lime’s operational team would collect and redistribute scooters. Highlighting the fact that staff would be on-site was a key point in showing the company’s commitment to complying with city parking regulations during one of the busiest events in the world.

To complement this outreach, ARPR collaborated with Lime’s marketing team to develop an e-blast that was sent to local riders that had previously engaged with the brand.

As a result of media and marketing efforts, Lime’s Atlanta ridership tripled during Super Bowl weekend. In the media, ARPR secured a feature article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the city’s daily newspaper and #8th largest daily newspaper in the country. The article, titled “Super Bowl in Atlanta: Scooters seen as a way to get downtown from cheaper parking in Midtown,” highlighted Lime scooters as an affordable solution when traveling downtown to Mercedes-Benz Stadium and did not include commentary from any other operators. In total, ARPR earned eight digital media mentions, which garnered 12.94 million unique monthly views and 107 article shares on social media, along with two radio mentions, reaching an Arbitron Audience estimate of 40,100 listeners. Publications and outlets covering Lime’s Super Bowl activations included The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-AM, WXIA-TV, Atlanta’s Convention & Visitors Bureau news website, WABE-FM (NPR) and Metro Atlanta CEO, among others. ARPR's work on behalf of Lime during Super Bowl LIII earned our agency an honorable mention in PR Daily’s 2019 Media Relations Awards in the “Announcement Pitch” category.

ARPR's work on behalf of Lime during Super Bowl LIII earned our agency an honorable mention in PR Daily’s 2019 Media Relations Awards in the “Announcement Pitch” category.