To reconnect a fractured America, ahead of the most polarizing election of all time, amid a loneliness epidemic that affects one in two US adults.
Pre-election, nearly three quarters of Americans (73%) were reported to feel anxious about the political climate.
At Flash Pack, our mission is to create more than a million new friendships – so we created The Friendship Bus to encourage conversation and connection, regardless of political beliefs, in the build up to election day.
This tour was about celebrating what unites us, not what divides us. Spreading friendship, one stop at a time. Arrive solo, leave as friends.
Our goal was to reach our target audience -- solo travelers in their 30s and 40s in the US -- through news and social media with compelling but meaningful content, as a proof point of our brand positioning as 'The Friendship Company'.
We created The Friendship Bus (inspired by the iconic Presidential campaign buses) and drove it through various Swing States, providing a safe space for conversation and connection, whether you’re red or blue.
We traveled through Chicago, Washington, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York, stopping at various spots across the areas for passers-by, influencers, media, and customers to board, offering a pop-up platform for people to connect, and serve as a reminder that, regardless of background or beliefs, we all have something in common.
One of the new friends we met on board helped us to park the Friendship Bus at Time Square, as the power of connection was immediately showcased: we'd been trying for months to get a permit there.
The process was simple: passers-by were signed in by one of our staff outside the bus (consenting to be filmed, etc), before boarding the bus with a randomly selected stranger.
Facilitated by Flash Pack's bespoke conversation cards - developed over more than a decade of connecting strangers on our group trips - the pairs then engaged in ice-breaking conversation. But no partry tricks or cliches here - just hard-hitting prompts, often triggering emotional responses, and meaningful connections.
Managing the logistics of the multi-city trip threw up the most challenges, as we all as parking permissions, with bureaucracy no friend of ours... thankfully, it's not what you know, it's who you know, and our journey was fast-tracked by new pals picked up along the way.
To amplify our efforts, we targeted 20 hyper-local and relevant influencers to share the story at each stop, as well as social media collaborations with Good News Movement and Secret NYC, and Secret Washington.
We also made sure to harness the content and stories to email our existing customer base with, offering a powerful proof point of our mission and USP.
Our PR team reliably informs us that this campaign drove an initial reach of 225million, with more than 400 pieces of coverage, including seven broadcast placements in the US.
The killer media hit was landing amid Mail Online's election coverage. Broadcast titles included Fox, NBC, Univision, ABC1, Despierta América.
Our social collaborations had a reach of 7.5million+, and more than 1 million views.
And our influencer strategy reached more than 1.3million followers, and spawned a plethora of shareable content.
Thousands of people saw the bus every day, including an approximate 330,000 who pass through Times Square daily.
Within a fortnight of the activation, we'd already secured 12 trip bookings.
