PUBLIC RELATIONS PLAN

Organization: Nice Ride Minnesota

Ksenia Perevozchikova
COMM 438 Prof. Dr.Heinrich

Table of Contents
Research...3
Media Relations...7
Social Media...11
Community Relations.14
Financial Relations.18
Consumer Relations....22
Special Publics....27
Crisis/Emergency Communications....32
Work Cited..35

RESEARCH
Nice Ride Minnesota is a nonprofit organization that provides public bike sharing to the
Twin Cities. It is a local independent organization which was created to own and operate the bike
share system.
Nice Ride Minnesota was formed through the Twin Cities Bike Share Project, an
initiative started by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak and the City of Lakes Nordic Ski
Foundation in July 2008. Together they developed a non-profit business plan based on a
combination of public and private funding. Nice Ride held its first board meeting in April of
2009 and received nonprofit status the following June. The City of Minneapolis was a founding
partner in the Twin Cities Bike Share Project, contributing $350,000 in start-up funding.
On the official website Nice Ride shares its mission: To enhance the quality of our
urban life by providing a convenient, easy-to-use bike sharing program that will provide
residents and visitors a healthy, fun, different way to get around town. The organization
believes that a bike sharing program will permanently change the way people experience and
perceive the city, as well as the way people experience and perceive transportation
(niceridemn.org).
Nice Rides Board of Directors is made up of local government officials, business
professionals and bicycle advocates. In early 2010, the Board selected Public Bike System Co.
(developers of the Montreal Bixi bike share system) to supply Nice Rides bike share equipment.
Much of the work was made possible with support from the National Parks Service. Nice Ride
also formed relationships with two local businesses, Freewheel Bike Shop and Sieco
Construction, to help assemble and install the bike share equipment. Blue Cross, whose mission
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is to improve the health of all Minnesotans by making the healthy choice, is the lead sponsor of
Nice Ride. Another important partner is Bike Walk Twin Cities (BWTC) that aims to increase
biking and walking, and decrease driving in Minneapolis and surrounding communities. Here is
a partial list of organizations that are/were donors to Nice Ride: National Park Service, U.S.
Department of Transportation, Target, Allina Health, MPLS Parking, ABS Ramps, Abbott
Northwestern Hospital, The Saint Paul Foundation, University of St. Thomas, Macalester
College and many others.
Since 2010 Nice Ride has expanded the bike share system. In 2011 the organization
added 51 stations and another 500 bikes. This expansion took the bike sharing into St. Paul and
more areas of Minneapolis. The 2012 expansion added 30 stations followed by a 24-station
expansion in 2013. During that same period the size of the fleet increased to over 1500 bicycles.
By mid-2013, riders had taken over 700,000 rides on Nice Ride bikes.
The research has been conducted into similar organizations throughout the country. In
August 2008 Washington, D.C., was the first city in North America to launch a bike sharing
system. Similar to Nice Ride, it is called Capital Bikeshare and approximately 1,600 people used
it during its first two years of operation. Boston has a similar bike sharing service called
Hubway, which was launched on July 28, 2011, with 600 bicycles and 60 stations throughout the
city; Hubway has celebrated two years of service and one million rides.
After doing some research about previous and current public relations efforts, I found that
Nice Ride was a client of Roepke Public Relations (Minneapolis, MN). Roepkes campaign was
from May 2010 until June 2010 and its goal was to actually launch Nice Ride Minnesota. Local,
regional, and national general consumer outlets were targeted. The results were great: about 500

attended the launch ride; the sold-out forum event attracted 950. Roepke says thousands of
stories have appeared in outlets including National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, and Men's
Journal (prweekus.com).
After visiting Nice Rides official website we can see that it is well taken care of. It is in a
great shape. First of all it explains how the system of bike renting works, then it provides the
history of the organization, talks about safety on the roads and provides the viewer with the latest
news in the bike industry. The website provides clients with the ability to log in to their account
and make a payment and/or renew the subscription.
One of the main goals of Nice Ride is to create a more vibrant green city, a place where
people want to work, live and play, a philosophy which goes along with my personal beliefs. For
the PR campaign I would like to focus on advertising and getting the word out about Nice Ride.
PR campaign should utilize uncontrolled media in order to inform the audience about its
benefits, events and promotions.
Some of the benefits of using Nice Ride are listed here:

Avoiding vehicular congestion

Reducing our carbon footprint

Less dependence on fossil fuels

More efficient movement from place to place

More opportunities for healthy physical activity

More interesting personal experiences interacting with the city

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In other words, the main goal of PR campaign for Nice Ride would be getting more
people to Nice Rides bikes. It will be nice to let people know about the advantages of riding a
bike not only in Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but also in the nearby towns. Since a lot of people
commute to the cities for work or just for pleasure on a daily basis, it would be nice to have ads
and posters or/and uncontrolled media talking about Nice Ride available in suburbs of
Minneapolis/St. Paul as well.

MEDIA RELATIONS
The next phase for the PR plan for Nice Ride is media relations. It is important that it
goes right after the research part, because now we have collected some data that will help to
transition into media coverage. Media relations for Nice Ride started with the launching
campaign with the help of PR agency in Minneapolis, Roepke, which stated, thousands of
stories have appeared in outlets including National Geographic, Travel + Leisure, and Men's
Journal (roepkepr.com). Magazines such as Where Twin Cities and Twin Cities Living featured
Nice Ride in their travel sections with highly positive reviews. According to Huffington Post,
city bike-share programs are on a roll! More coverage of Nice Ride was featured in 2013 in
MPR News, CBS Minnesota, Star Tribune; all mentioned Nice Ride positively.

10 media Nice Ride might try to contact to do a story about its service:
1. Star Tribune, Minneapolis
The article can be a feature story about Nice Ride and its success in Twin Cities. To contact Star
Tribune media contacts and to submit news tip or story idea contacts the newsroom at 612-6734414.
2. Minnesota Daily
The Minnesota Daily is an entirely student-introduced and student-managed newspaper serving
the University of Minnesota campus and surrounding community. Therefore, its audience is
mainly student body. The article can feature a story-interview with students and their experience
with Nice Ride bikes. Their newsroom phone is (612) 435-5700 and the address is 2221
University Ave SE. Suite 450, Minneapolis, MN 55414.

3. MPR, radio
MPR radio is the best-known and most popular broadcaster in the region. Based in St. Paul,
MPR is reportedly the nation's second-most powerful public radio organization behind NPR. It
reaches all kinds of audiences, starting from stay-at-home moms and ending with business
people. The audience can reach thousands of people on a daily basis. Nice Ride can reach MPRs
media specialist Angie Andresen at 651-290-1373 or aandresen@mpr.org.

4. The Mac Weekly

The Mac Weekly is the student newspaper of Macalester College. It has a circulation of 1,600 and
it reaches the student body. Can be reached at macweekly@macalester.edu or 651-696-6212.

5. University Chronicle
Nice Ride can submit a story that might run in UC, SCSUs student-based newspaper, informing
SCSU students about their bikes and a great opportunity to rent them while visiting Twin Cities.
Can be reached at Ashley Kalkbrenner by phone: 320.308.3943 (advertising office number) or
email: stories@universitychronicle.net.

6. Live Well, TV channel, KSTP.

KSTP, channel 5, is a television station located in St. Paul, Minnesota serving as the ABC
affiliate for the Twin Cities television market. The audience is very broad and varies depending
on the program. This channel can run a video about Nice Ride bikes and promote healthy
lifestyle.

7. Mens Health (web).

National publication is the world's largest men's magazine brand with 40 editions in 47 countries.
The magazine's website, MensHealth.com, averages 38 million page views a month. The story
idea can be sent to mhletters@rodale.com.

8. Twin Cities Daily Planet

Twin Cities Daily Planet is local online publication that connects citizens in the Twin Cities of
Minneapolis and St. Paul with one another and with the global community. It reaches the
audience interested in what is going on in/around Twin Cities. The best option will be to contact
Editor Mary Turck by email: editor@tcdailyplanet.net or phone: 612-436-9187.

9. Bicycling
Bicycling is the world's leading cycling magazine that connects with millions of active, affluent
professionals who are interested in cycling. To submit a story query, the magazine asks to
summarize the idea in one or two paragraphs and email it to bicycling@rodale.com.

10. 101.3 KDWB

KDWB is a commercial radio station broadcasting in the Minneapolis and Saint Paul
metropolitan area. The stations format is usually pop songs and Top 40 Hits, so the audience
would range from people in their teens to middle-aged people. KDWB has around 237 million
monthly U.S. listeners.

Objectives
Impact
1. To increase knowledge of news about the client among community media representatives.
2. To enhance the clients credibility among media people.
Output
1. To be of service to the media-both proactively and reactively
2. To distribute feature stories to trade publications
Programming
The main event of the year for this campaign can be the celebration of four years of
service. The date has to be June 10, 2014. The campaign can be called Nice Four. The event
can be a form of celebration (of maybe opening a new station in St. Paul or Minneapolis) where
the founders, sponsors, and donors would gather together. Without doubt, media people and
journalists would have to be invited too. For Nice Ride new clients/ customers, this day would be
a perfect ability to rent bikes for free as a promotion. They also can buy a year pass with 50%
discount. Nice Ride could utilize social media, such as Facebook (1,673 followers) and Twitter
to attract current customers to the event and uncontrolled media to attract new clients.
Evaluation

The output and impact objectives can be measured by keeping records of all uncontrolled
and controlled media transactions. For example, how many times in 5 months has Nice Ride
been mentioned in Star Tribune/MPR/KDWB.

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SOCIAL MEDIA
Any business is able to reach a far wider audience by using social media than marketing
and advertising forms that were used in the past, because it provides an instant result. Nice Ride
is not an exception. Social media should be looked upon as an opportunity for Nice Ride to be
able to connect with its customers in a range of activities.
The current presence of Nice Ride in the social media world:
Facebook (NiceRideMN)
Twitter (@NiceRideMN)
The Facebook page currently has 6,446 likes, 55 people who are talking about it
(meaning Nice Ride was mentioned in their comments), and 35-photo albums from past events,
as well as contains general information about the company and has a link to the official web
page. The page has status updates approximately each week, sometimes as often as twice a day.
When a big event is taking place, Nice Ride makes more posts and updates throughout the event.
If we look at the Nice Rides profile statistics, we can see that the most popular week for the
company on Facebook was the week of 24 March 2013. The most popular city is Minneapolis,
and the most popular age group is people who are 25-34 years old. Therefore, we can say people
who represent the major audience are adults who reside in Minneapolis area. Nice Rides
Facebook page is friends with organizations such Women on Bikes Saint Paul, Mississippi
National River and Recreation Area, Bike Cops for Kids, National Association of City
Transportation Officials, Minneapolis Bike Tour, MPLS Bike Love, Capital Bikeshare and many
others.

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Nice Rides Twitter account has 6,921 followers and 1,312 tweets, and it follows 366
profiles. Most of the tweets are daily and contain information about station updates. A lot of
photos from events are present on the companys Twitter account.
The targeted audience would be current users/subscribers and potential users or future
subscribers. This applies not only to individuals, but also to the companies that have Facebook or
Twitter accounts and are able to like or follow Nice Rides page.

Objectives
Impact objectives:
1. To increase positive mentions by credible bloggers.
2. To have at least 7,000 likes on the Facebook page by the end of the year.
3. To have at least 7,000 followers on Twitter by the end of the year.

Output objectives:
1. To produce a stream of ten daily Twitter posts per day about the campaign Nice Four in
June 2014.
2. To create YouTube channel for Nice Ride and distribute at least three videos.
3. To create an online presence that encourages participation in a discussion forum
(Facebook and Twitter).

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Programming

For the programming section, Nice Ride could create various contests via Facebook and
Twitter. One example can be a post of a photo on Facebook page/Twitter page with the view of a
Nice Ride station somewhere in Minneapolis/St. Paul and whoever guesses what station is
featured can rent a bike for free for 24 hours from that station.
Two-way communication is very important and the second contest can be a great
example of it. This contest can be a photo contest where Nice Ride subscribers can show their
creativity and post a photo of themselves and the Nice Ride bike. The contest can go for a week
and then Nice Ride will chose 10 best and most creative photos, which will be uploaded in the
album where everyone could vote for the best picture. The prize would be a bus stop banner with
the winners photo as an advertisement for Nice Ride.

Evaluation

Awareness objectives can be evaluated using views for a Facebook page and a Twitter
page. Attitude objectives can be seen through the increasing amount of likes on Facebook or
followers on Twitter. By end of the year if Nice Ride achieves 14,000 followers on both social
websites, it means that the campaign had success. It is also possible to monitor how Nice Ride
was mentioned/tagged on Facebook by other bloggers. The output objectives can be measured by
the number and quality of posts, videos on new YouTube channel, and number of tweets and
retweets.

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COMMUNITY RELATIONS
As it has been stated before, one of the goals of this Public Relations plan is getting more
people to rent Nice Ride bikes that Nice Ride provides to Twin Cities residents. In order to do
so, Nice Ride is willing to build its reputation and to help the community in Minneapolis/St. Paul
area through the community relations with local leaders and organizations in the area.
A non-profit organization, Uptown Association, would be a great partner to work with in
community relations. It promotes Uptown, a district in southwestern Minneapolis, as a safe,
prosperous, accessible, well maintained and environmentally responsible commercial and
residential area (uptownminnapolis.com). The organization also aims to improve the economic
stability and vitality of Uptown and to celebrate its unique spirit and sense of community. It was
formed in 1975 and since then it has grown to over 175 members. Uptown Association creates
various activities and promotions in the area. Nice Ride can partner up with the organization and
participate in its events. One of the examples could be Uptown Art Fair, which is an annual event
that celebrated its 50th year in August 2013. It is the second most attended event in the state next
to the Minnesota State Fair; it attracts approximately 350 artists from around the world. Nice
Ride was a part of the festival this year and it presented complimentary valet bike parking not
only to those who came with rented bikes from Nice Ride, but also to everyone else. The Art
Fairs website says: Although the Nice Ride system is automated, their organization believes
that ALL bicyclists are VIPs and should be treated as such. For those who bike to the Uptown
Art Fair, Nice Ride offers free valet bike parking to reduce automobile traffic and provide a
stress-free parking experience at the fair (uptownartfair.com). Uptown Association mentioned
Nice Ride on its website under Resources: Transportation with the note: Minneapolis' public
bike sharing program. Take a bike when you need one and return it to any station in the system

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near your destination. It's quick, easy, and affordable; 24-hour 30-day and one-year subscriptions
available (uptownminneapolis.com).
Clean Energy Resource Team (CERT) would be a great business to build community
relations with because it is a part of local media. CERT empowers communities and their
members in Minneapolis/St. Paul area to adopt energy conservation, energy efficiency, and
renewable energy technologies and practices for their homes, businesses, and local institutions.
Nice Ride shares similar values, such as keeping our environment clean and reducing energy
waste. There is a blog on CERTs website that has an article dated June 2011, titled Bikeshare
Programs in DC and the TC: Summer's a Great Time for a Nice Ride!
Reaching out to the community through a leader is another way of building community
relations. Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak would be an excellent person to help Nice Ride to
reach community through his speeches and special events that he participates in. Since he is one
of the co-founders of Nice Ride, a lifelong Minneapolis resident and bicyclist who has been
named America's fittest mayor, he can be a great support for the community relations.

Objectives
Impact Objectives
1. To increase by 30 percent this year community knowledge of Nice Ride operations.
2. To promote by 20 percent more favorable community opinion toward Nice Ride this
year.
3. To gain 15 percent greater organizational support from community leaders during this
campaign.

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Output Objectives
1. To prepare and distribute 15 percent more community publications this year than
previous.
2. To create two new community projects involving organizational personnel and
resources during the campaign.

Programming
Nice Ride is doing community relations with organizations, such as Uptown Association
and Clean Energy Resource Team, and works closely with community leaders, such as R.T.
Rybak, because all of the above share the same goal: to keep the planet green.
Nice Ride can perform the following actions and special events:
Uptown Art Fair 2014 in collaboration with Uptown Association
Coffee hours at the locations that have Nice Ride stations in front of the coffee
shops. Coffee hours can be partially sponsored by Nice Ride and the coffee shop.
Only for those who came with a Nice Ride bike.
Contests for Nice Ride users: whoever has the most mileage can win special
prizes.
Sponsoring community events, such as Minneapolis clean up.
Nature trails: using Nice Ride bikes going to outdoors events.
Public relations personalities: R.T. Rybak public speeches.
The controlled media will be mainly Nice Rides official website, the Facebook account
and Twitter. The website will mention the mentioning of the community events that Nice Ride
participates in. The copies of the events publications will be send out to the community leaders

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and local media. Direct mail will also be used in a form of updating major clients about
upcoming events or changes in a program. The uncontrolled media will be reached by an Internet
presence.

Evaluation
The measurement of impact and output objectives:
1. Count people at the Nice Rides events and measure the difference before and after the
campaign. Also, it is possible to give out surveys to people who showed up to know how they
learned about the event.
2. In the surveys mentioned about ask people about their overall experience about Nice Ride and
count the positive and negative feedback.
3. Conduct online surveys and the link can be published on Nice Rides Facebook and Twitter
pages.
4. Count how many times Nice Ride is mentioned in community leaders speeches.
5. Count how many times R.T. Rybak gave presentations concerning Nice Ride to the
community.
6. Make, count, and distribute community publications
7. Create two community events this year: coffee hours at the locations that have Nice Ride
stations in front and outdoor biking event to the nearby parks and nature (open to all bikers).

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FINANCIAL RELATIONS
Nice Ride is part of a growing community of people and organizations working for active
lifestyle in a vibrant city. With community relations Nice Ride helps to build that community by
making it easy for everyone to ride a bike and to feel safe and welcome on a bike. With financial
relations Nice Ride makes ideas come true to life with the support of many sponsors. It partners
up with large and small businesses, local government, transit providers, and universities. Having
a lot of partners shows that they see that Nice Ride has future. They see that the strength of Nice
Ride lies in its success. It has grown from an initial fleet of 700 bikes and 65 stations serving
downtown Minneapolis in 2010 to todays system serving (and connecting) both Twin Cities
downtowns with 1,320 bicycles and 145 stations. Ridership numbers have continued to grow,
from 108,000 total trips taken in 2010, to 217,000 in 2011 to 265,000 today.
The system is self-sustaining, and has, after capital investments paid for through
public/private partnership, met operating costs through a combination of subscription revenue
and private sponsorship.
The financial opportunities for Nice Ride can include but are not limited to: station
expansion outside of Minneapolis/St. Paul area, adding more stations at the points of interest (ex.
Lake Calhoun), adding stations in the low-income neighborhoods, and adding the locked helmets
that will come with each bike at selected locations.
Nice Ride has two primary subscriber types, referred to here as membership users and
casual users. Membership users sign up for a 1-year subscription online, create a Nice Ride
account, and receive a Nice Ride key. Membership users account for about 70% of the trips
taken in the system. About 90% of their trips are taken for a work-related reasons rather than a

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recreational reason. The majority of the trips are one-way (from one station to another). Casual
users dont create an online account or get a key. They buy a 24-hour subscription at a station.
In the past Target Corporation sponsored Nice Ride and helped with regular guided tours,
gave away helmets, and held introduction-to-cycling events in North Minneapolis, Phillips,
Frogtown and Cedar-Riverside. With Targets support, Nice Ride distributed 600 free annual
subscription coupons to low-income residents.
The City of Minneapolis is another sponsor that has taken advantage of Nice Ride,
signing up more than 200 city employees for discounted Nice Ride subscriptions. Through the
generosity of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Nice Ride gave away over 10,000
custom-designed helmets.
Taken from the annual report here is the list of some station sponsors of Nice Ride:
2011 sponsors: Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Birchwood Cafe, Equal Exchange,
Just Bare Chicken, Supervalu, Wedge Community Co-op and others.
2012 sponsors: Aveda, City of Minneapolis Public Works, Todd and Sydney
Taggart, Roepke Public Relations, Hiway Federal Credit Union and others.

Objectives
Impact Objectives
1. To increase the investor publics knowledge of significant corporate developments.
2. To create more interest in the Nice Ride among potential donors.
3. To increase the donations from current and new sponsors/friends.
Output objectives
1. To distribute corporate news releases to 10 major outlets among the financial media.

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2. To make 10 presentations to current sponsors during the month of March and April.

Programming
Nice Ride can create two themes for investor relations: low-income populations and
safety (adding helmets). To enhance active living opportunities in low-income populations, Nice
Ride can install bike stations in neighborhoods with historic issues of poverty and high incidence
of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Nice Ride can partner up with social
service organizations in these neighborhoods to introduce active lifestyle choices and motivate
people to ride: Hope Community, the American Indian Health Board, The Link, the Northside
Residents Redevelopment Council, and La Clinica.
The second potential investment can be safety. The possible key message can be a
simple: Wear a helmet. Be safe. It is not a regular habit for a person to have a helmet in a bag
when we going to work or for a walk. However, we all know that it is crucial to wear a helmet
while biking: properly wearing a helmet when cycling is the best means of protection against
injury. According to recent research, helmets provide a 63 to 88 percent reduction in the risk of
head, brain, and severe brain injury for all ages of bicyclists (bicyclinginfo.org). Nice Ride can
partner up and ask Midwest Cycle Company to be helmet sponsors/donors. Midwest is located at
4300 Nicollet Ave. Minneapolis and their phone number is (612) 825-9774.
To reach out to the new donors and save the existing ones, Nice Ride can send its
messages through controlled and uncontrolled media. It is crucial to do media relations with
members of financial press to stimulate positive news coverage, do the company promotional
videos, financial advertising, and print and distribute materials with current financial coverage of
Nice Ride and its success to current/future donors/investors.

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Evaluation
For the financial relations evaluation the following methods can be used:
1. Compare companys overall incoming investments and donations annually.
2. After the donation is being made count how many new donors were attracted to invest in Nice
Ride after the campaign.
3. To check if companys name has been mentioned in a good way in financial media.
4. To count presentations made to the organizations and conduct informational surveys.

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CONSUMER RELATIONS
The audiences for financial relations were partners and sponsors; accordingly the
audience for consumer relations would be Nice Rides clients, both 1-year subscribers and 24hour subscribers. To provide the superior service, Nice Ride needs to know its clients needs.
Before we jump into that, here is a breakdown of how the renting system works: 1-year
subscribers receive a Nice Ride key, which allows them to take a bike from the dock; 24-hour
subscribers use a credit card at a terminal to check out a bike. 1-year subscribers in 2011-2012
seasons took about 64% of trips; 24-hour subscribers took about 46% of trips. In 2013 season 1year subscribers took about 56% of trips and 24-hours users took about 44% rides.
Urban residents and students typically invest in a 1-year subscription. Nice Ride is open
to anyone over the age of 16. Users under 18 years of age must have their legal guardians
purchase a subscription. Online subscription is currently available to those 18 and older.
Subscriptions are available to those ages 16 and 17 by calling their office at 1-877-551-6423.
The network of Nice Ride stations in downtown areas allows all subscribers to get on a bike
quickly and move around the city with ease. Because this group uses the bike share often, the
$65 cost for a Nice Ride subscription is a bargain. The second group, occasional users from the
Twin Cities and tourists and business travelers staying downtown, typically spend $6 for a 24hour Nice Ride subscription. Their use spikes on weekends and summer evenings. Short-term
subscriptions give occasional users the chance to get comfortable with urban riding and most are
surprised by how far they can get in 30 minutes.
Overall, 90% of trips by 1-year subscribers are for a transportation purpose. 98% of trips
by 1-year subscribers are under 30 minutes, so our regular users rarely incur a trip fee. 24-hour

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subscriptions in 2011 numbered 37,000. In 2012, 24-hour ridership had already reached 32,000
by midseason. This information about consumer relations was found at Nice Rides website:
Nice Ride has taken customer care to a higher level. When you call our customer service
number, the phone is answered by local staff in Nice Ride's Minneapolis office. This year we've
helped thousands of people over the phone, via e-mail, and in person. By moving our customer
care center to the Twin Cities, callers receive local, professional, and knowledgeable service
from people who bike in the Twin Cities and know the lay of the land. (niceridemn.org).
Objectives
Impact objectives:
1. To increase consumers knowledge about Nice Rides services and policies.
2. To promote more favorable consumer opinion toward Nice Ride.
3. To increase annual subscriptions of bike rentals for Nice Ride.
Output objectives:
1. To distribute more consumer publications during the period of April 1 to July 31.
2. To develop three employee consumer seminars for this fiscal year.
3. To prepare and distribute the brochures about bike usage to 10 major recreational
magazines in the area during the campaign.

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Programming
The programming section describes the plan and communication with some publics,
employees and customers to bring the efficiency of consumer relations to the next level. In order
to do that the following actions should be taken in consideration for Nice Ride:
1. Advise management and all employees about consumer issues. All employees
must know how the bike renting system works, even though not everyone might be
working with consumers directly.
2. Develop an efficient consumer response system. Those employees who work with
customers must react and respond as soon as possible to customers questions or
complaints. For example, it is crucial to know how to answer questions, such as My
Nice Ride key has been lost or stolen. What do I do? or I've had an accident involving
my Nice Ride bike. What do I do?
3. Handle specific consumer complains through a customer relations office. The
most common questions the customer relations office might encounter can relate to the
stations problems, such as What do I do if there are no bikes available at my station? or
What do I do if there are no empty bike docks when I want to return my bike? The
answer to the first question would be to search for the nearby station using the map
located at the current station or the app on your phone. The answer to the second question
would be to insert your credit card to the slot and get another 15 minutes free of charge,
which you can use to find neighbor station, once again, using the mobile app or the map
provided at the station you are currently at.

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4. Establish a consumer education program, including meetings, information racks

with printed materials on bike usage as well as training videos (posted on website), online
service (ex. renewing subscription) and maps of the areas (ex. biking trails in Lake
Calhoun).
5. Hold conferences and seminars on consumer relations for employees.
6. Establish a presence on a social media: update Facebook and Twitter posts and
engage subscribers into conversations online.
7. Keep a mobile app, called Spotcycle up-to-date.
Controlled media for consumer relations will include printed materials about Nice Ride,
such as handouts and brochures. There will be two types of them: ones for internal
communication (handouts for Nice Ride employees) and the other ones for the external
communication, such as consumers and media. The brochures are to be created and placed at the
each bike station next to the map. Each brochure has to contain 1-2-3 step tutorial how to use the
bike (how to unlock, bike and return), a map of Nice Ride stations, a link to the website and a
QR code for the mobile app Spotcycle. Handouts will be distributed at during the conferences
with the media and open houses. Safety videos and tutorials will be published on Nice Rides
website, as well as on social media, Facebook and Twitter.
Interpersonal communication plays a significant role in consumer relations program. Nice
Ride can employ a spokesperson who will potentially work with consumer groups, address
community organizations and represent company in mass media. Two-way communication is
also crucial to Nice Ride; it is important to hear the consumers and respond to them in a form of
dialogue.
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Evaluation
The evaluation of the project should be based on how to measure objectives and program
activity. The evaluation of impact objectives should heavily rely on measuring Nice Rides
presence in social media; to increase consumers knowledge about Nice Rides services and
policies and to promote more favorable consumer opinion toward Nice Ride can be done through
daily/weekly posts on Facebook and interactions on Twitter. Nice Ride also can count how many
new users have visited its web site in a monthly period. Counting the increase in annual
subscriptions can be done with the data that company has access to. The output objectives can
also be evaluated with the counting method. It is possible to count how many brochures and
handouts were distributed at the events. It is also possible to count how many brochures were
taken through from the bike stations and therefore count the awareness level.

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SPECIAL PUBLICS
Nice Rides consumer relations are built upon clients needs. However, not all clients
have the same needs. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge diversity and implement steps to
each of the publics. For this PR plan Nice Ride chose struggling neighborhoods in Minneapolis/
St. Paul area as its special publics. To enhance active living opportunities in low-income
populations, Nice Ride can install bike stations in neighborhoods with historic issues of poverty
and high incidence of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Nice Ride can
partner up with local social service organizations in these neighborhoods to introduce active
lifestyle choices and motivate people to ride.
Minneapolis is increasing physical activity through the expansion of Nice Ride bikeshare kiosks to underserved areas of the city. For this project, Nice Ride can focus on special
publics that struggle either with poverty, high crime rate, health problems (ex. obesity) or both,
and following neighborhoods were chosen to work with: North Minneapolis, Phillips (South of
Minneapolis) and Cooper (Southeast of Minneapolis). There are one or two Nice Ride station
already installed at these neighborhoods; however, Nice Ride could add more stations to help
people to better their lifestyle.
North Minneapolis
After some research we found out that by 2013 Nice Ride has added eight new kiosks in
North Minneapolis, for a total of 11 kiosks in that part of the city. North Minneapolis has
significant health disparities, including some of the highest rates of chronic diseases linked to
obesity in Minneapolis. While the north part of the city does not enjoy the same level of bike
access and infrastructure as other areas of Minneapolis, this effort is increasing transportation
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options for residents and is contributing to the area's biking and walking culture. Over a threemonth period, residents took more than 1,800 rides from new bike kiosks (cdc.gov).
Phillips
Phillips is a neighborhood and a community in Minneapolis, just south of downtown. For
the past couple of decades, it has been considered the most blighted and crime-ridden area on the
south side of Minneapolis, although there are efforts to change that. To bring the changes in this
situation and help people make the right choices, Nice Ride can install more kiosks there. East
Phillips is a very walkable neighborhood, which means it is also bike friendly. For this project,
Nice Ride can work closely with Phillips Neighborhood Network (PNN), which was created by
people of Phillips to bring awareness to public about any social, political and cultural changes in
the area.
Cooper
The Cooper neighborhood is located in southeastern Minneapolis. It extends from 38th
Avenue South in the west to the Mississippi River in the east and northeast. From north to south,
Cooper extends from the 27th street railroad tracks to 34th Street East. The neighborhoods name
is derived from an elementary school named after James Fennimore Cooper, an American
novelist born in 1789. In 2005 this elementary school was forced to close, forcing Cooper's
children to commute to a neighboring school in Longfellow area: a good reason to build more
Nice Ride stations, either for parents or for kids. If look at the table below, we can see that the
bike score is quite low compared to other neighborhoods, taking into consideration the
population number. If we do simple math and compare, lets say Page neighborhood and its bike
score and its population number with Coopers, then proportionally Coopers bike score would
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be 144. Currently, the bike score is only 78: another reason to build more kiosks. The big
advantage of this neighborhood would be its proximity to the river and plenty of parks.

Nice Rides website says that kiosks or bike stations cannot be installed anywhere; the
area needs to meet certain standards. A typical Nice Ride station is at minimum 52 feet long by
5-1/2 feet wide. The location needs to be level, and preferably on a hard surface. If more than
one stations need to be built, then should be located no further than 1/2 mile apart from each
other, preferably closer. The best locations have easy access to other bike infrastructure like bike
lanes and paths, as well as public transit like buses and trains.
Installing new stations can be great advantage to the program, but there is also a
weakness, and its hidden in finances. Modern bike share equipment is costly; adding a single
station and bikes to the system costs about $45,000 with ongoing costs of approximately $58,000 per year (niceridemn.org). As a non-profit, Nice Ride depends on a public/private
partnership for funding for new bicycles and stations. Funding is often tied to specific areas and
goals which determine when and where Nice Ride is able to site new stations. In this case, Nice
Ride can communicate with local leaders of Cooper and Phillips neighborhoods.

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Objectives
Impact objectives
1. To increase the knowledge of Nice Ride among the population of North
Minneapolis, Phillips and Cooper neighborhoods.
2. To promote more favorable opinion about Nice Ride among residents of North
Minneapolis, Phillips and Cooper neighborhoods.
3. To stimulate greater participation (and usage) of Nice Ride bikes among residents
of North Minneapolis, Phillips and Cooper neighborhoods.
Output objectives
1. To prepare and distribute materials about upcoming (and existing) stations to the
residents of North Minneapolis, Phillips and Cooper neighborhoods.
2. To schedule four meetings with community leaders of North Minneapolis,
Phillips and Cooper neighborhoods.
Programming
Both the theme and messages will concentrate on bringing awareness to the people of
North Minneapolis, Phillips and Cooper neighborhoods about upcoming and exciting bike
kiosks. One of the best ways to promote them would be to meet with neighborhood leaders and
talk to local organizations. For example, PNN would be one of the choices for Phillips
neighborhood. This organization also aims to bring awareness of health and wellness to the

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communitys residents. It can also link Nice Ride to other Philips organizations, such as
Midtown Phillips Neighborhood Association and East Phillips Improvement Coalition.
As for the special events, Nice Ride can create an event Wellness for family and
community event where participants will take a ride on bikes (doesnt matter if they belong to
Nice Ride or not) down the river, park or garden trails. Luckily, all neighborhoods that are
targeted in this research have plenty of trails and nature. All contestants that participate in this
event will get a discount on a year subscription for Nice Ride. Through this event, residents are
being encouraged to use biking and walking in nature and spending time with the family over
driving cars and being away from kids. Nice Ride will also prepare and distribute flyers,
brochures and poster at the local events. Uncontrolled and controlled media will be highly used
in preparation for the events.
Evaluation
The evaluation of impact objectives would be mainly done by distributing surveys in the
neighborhoods; it is also important to measure the awareness level of Nice Ride kiosks before
and after the event Wellness of family and community. The participation and bike usage can
be measured simply by counting how many people have rented Nice Ride bikes. The output
objectives can be measured by counting the speeches presented by Nice Ride at local events and
counting the meetings with local leaders. The success of the Wellness of family and
community can be measured by counting how many times it is featured in media: local
newspapers, radio stations and TV stations.

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CRISIS/EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS
Every organization is vulnerable to crises. Crisis communication planning can help Nice
Ride to deal effectively with those unexpected disasters, emergencies or other unusual events
that may cause unfavorable publicity for the organization. Below we can see some possible
scenarios that can go wrong with Nice Ride bike sharing system:
website can go down and people wont be able to pay the subscription fees
natural disaster (flood, hurricane, tornado, etc.)
pay stations can go out of order
the whole sharing system can have damage and all bike locks in all station unlock
Emergency public relations in this case will be reactive. The public relations office must
monitor the situation, detect potential issues and be ready to react.
Audience research includes a list of internal and external publics to be notified in case of
an emergency. Internal public includes Nice Rides staff members, making I.T. director, Mitch
Vars, and operations manager, Chad Belcher, top priority. As there is no person who is
responsible for public relations, it is important to work closely with Katherine Roepke, president
of Roepke Public Relations, who is also on the board of directors. External publics will include
local media and social media. In case of emergency, such as major troubles with locks, pay
stations or website, Nice Ride will have to rely heavily on social media (Facebook and Twitter).
Local media will include newspapers, radio stations and television, such as Star Tribune, Radio
K 104.5 and Kare 11.
Objectives
1. To provide accurate, timely information to all targeted internal and external audiences.
2. To demonstrate concern for the safety of lives
3. To maintain a positive image of the organization.
Programming
All four possible emergencies mentioned above might happen; some of them are more
likely to occur than the others. To each of them there is a possible solution. The first one, that is
when the website can go down and not operate properly, will not cause major troubles and will
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not have any horrible effect on clients. If the website for some reason does not function correctly,
Nice Ride will need to contact IT technicians as soon as possible who will fix the problem.
Meanwhile, it will be necessary to apologize for any inconvenience and announce it via
Facebook and Twitter. Same way of dealing with emergency applies in cases when the pay
stations wont operate correctly.
Nice Ride is located in Minnesota, a state that is famous for occasional floods and a lot of
tornadoes. Usually, media announces the upcoming of any natural disaster beforehand. If this
occurs, Nice Ride has some time to prepare and relocate all bikes from the stations to storage
places. It will be necessary to cooperate with Public Storage, which can provide two places
where Nice Ride can store its bicycles: 3245 Hiawatha Ave. S. in Minneapolis and 2516 Wabash
Ave. in St. Paul. If its a tornado, then the locks that hold the bikes should be strong enough and
keep the bikes in place. If its a flood, then its possible that some bikes might be damaged after
being held in the water and dirt for long time. This year an eight-day-long rain hit Boulder,
Colorado in September, causing a lot of structural damage, the death of at least four people and
destruction of 345 homes. Not to mention, Boulder has its own bike sharing system, which is
called B-cycle that had some troubles operating after the flood. However, while it looked like
the stations and bikes had been dragged across the ocean floor, the physical damage to the
equipment was minimal. Only three of the 150 bikes suffered significant impairment and the
stations, while wet, were all still operable (bikeshare.com). Even though the bike damage was
not serious in Boulder, it will be better for Nice Ride to think ahead and bring all bikes to the
storage place mentioned above. For clients personal safety Nice Ride will announce through
Media Information Center that if a disaster suddenly came while a client was operating Nice
Rides bike, and if it is easier for him to be safe with the bicycle, he is to keep it until the disaster
is completely gone. Nice Ride does not want to risk any health of its clients. After the disaster is
gone, all clients will be asked to return the bikes to any of the stations within 3 days. All bicycles
have built-in chips so it will be possible to locate and rescue them if they are not returned within
3 days after the disaster. Again, local media and social media will be heavily relied on for the
communication with Nice Rides clients.

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Evaluation
The evaluation for emergency relations will be non-quantitative and more general. If any
of all four possible emergencies mentioned above happen, Nice Ride will have to wait a week
and have a meeting with Roepke PR and staff that took part in dealing with emergency to discuss
what went well and what they could have done better. Also, if there was any media coverage,
Nice Ride should review it and analyze it.

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Work Cited
"Bikeshare Programs in DC and the TC: Summer's a Great Time for a Nice Ride!" Home. Web.
17 Oct. 2013.
http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/get-answers/23/06/2011/bikeshare-programsdc-and-tc-summers-great-time-nice-ride>.

"Bike Share Program Picks up Speed." PRWeek US. Web. 10 Sept. 2013
http://www.prweekus.com/bike-share-program-picks-up-speed/article/213082/

"Boulder B-cycle and the 100-year Flood." Bike Share. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
<http://bikeshare.com/2013/09/boulder-b-cycle-and-the-100-year-flood/>.

"Capital Bikeshare." About. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.

http://www.capitalbikeshare.com/about

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25
Oct. 2013. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dch/programs/CommunitiesPuttingPreventiontoWork/com
munities/profiles/obesity-mn_minneapolis.htm>.
"Cooper Apartments." Walk Score. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.
<http://www.walkscore.com/MN/Minneapolis/Cooper>.
"Minneapolis 81." Minneapolis 81. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
<http://minneapolis81.com/2011/07/cooper-neighborhood-tour/>.

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"News." Midwest Cycle Supply: Great Prices On Parts, Accessories & Service. Web. 31 Oct.
2013.
<http://www.midwestcycle.com/home.php>.
"Nice Ride Minnesota." Nice Ride MN. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
<https://www.niceridemn.org/about/>.

"Nice Ride MN: Minnesotas Bike Share Expands." Streetfilms Nice Ride MN Minnesotas Bike
Share Expands Comments. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.
http://www.streetfilms.org/nice-ride-mn-minnesotas-bike-share-expands/

"PNN - Phillips Neighborhood Network." PNN - Phillips Neighborhood Network. Web. 26 Nov.
2013.
<http://www.pnn.org/index.htm>.
"Self-Storage Units in Minneapolis." Public Storage Minneapolis MN. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
<http://www.publicstorage.com/minnesota/self-storage-minneapolis-mn/>.

"Tag Archives: Nice Ride." Roepke Public Relations. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.
http://roepkepr.com/tag/nice-ride/

"Uptown Art Fair." Uptown Art Fair. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.

<http://uptownartfair.com/nice-ride-park-and-pedal/>.

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UPTOWN MINNEAPOLIS. UPTOWN MINNEAPOLIS. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.uptownminneapolis.com/index.html>.

"Wear a Helmet." Bicyclinginfo.org.Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

<http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikemore/helmet.cfm>.

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