Laketran was honored to receive the Tom Ruffner Best of Show award at the Lake Communicators 14^th APEX Awards, which honors local businesses for excellence in communications and marketing and hosted annually by Lake Communicators, a local group of marketing and communications professionals.

Laketran received the top award for their “How to Ride the Bus” video that was produced to promote the agency’s Travel Training program that teaches first time riders how to use the bus service and new rider tools, like real-time bus tracking on the Laketran mobile app.

Produced by Euclid-based Burges & Burges Strategist, the video has reached over 35,000 viewers online.

“We know that riding the bus for the first time can be intimidating and people prefer to plan their transportation with apps, like Google Maps. The video teaches how to use new rider tools that help riders plan their entire trip online and successfully use public transit,” explained Laketran’s director of communications, Julia Schick.

“It also promotes our Travel Training program, which is an individualized program where Laketran’s travel trainer meets with residents to learn how to use our services and gain the confidence to travel independently. Travel Training is available to general public and mainly serves youth, seniors, and people with disabilities looking for more transportation options.”

This video has also become a model for transit systems throughout Ohio.

“In the transit industry, we don’t compete, we collaborate. Area transit systems in Portage and Stark counties were also looking to produce travel training videos, so we worked together to create one video that could be branded for each agency reducing production cost by half.”

Laketran took home three additional awards. A gold award for their mobile app, built by Willoughby-based digital firm Blackbird Interactive, that features real-time bus tracking, schedules and fare information; a silver award for a new brand identity guide, and bronze for Laketran’s 2017 propane fleet and fueling station ribbon cutting event.

“Laketran is honored to be recognized at this year’s APEX Awards, especially for our How to Ride the Bus video and mobile app,” shared board president Brian Falkowski. “Laketran has made several investments in technology and programming to make riding the bus more convenient, whether its tracking your bus in real-time or participating in travel training to get started riding the bus. All of this makes our services more accessible for Lake County residents and it’s great to see our public awareness efforts being acknowledged.”

Schick accepted the awards on behalf of the agency and credits partnerships with local creative agencies, printers and media that help get Laketran’s message out.

“We are honored that our work was so well received by the APEX committee and judges this year,” shared Schick on receiving the awards. “Taking home the Best in Show award honoring former Wickliffe Mayor and designer Tom Ruffner, who was a longtime friend of Laketran’s, is truly an honor. The ultimate goal is making sure residents of Lake County know about their transit system and what we can do for them, so I encourage everyone to check out the video on our Youtube or Facebook pages.”

“I am very proud of our communications team. They find fun and creative ways to promote what to most is a simple topic of how to get around town. They continue to work hard to keep up to date with marketing and transit trends to keep our community informed,” expressed CEO Ben Capelle.