PR campaign to RI drivers: Come back over the Washington Bridge, and bring your money with you

PROVIDENCE – Stay tuned for a $400,000 TV, radio, billboard and social media campaign to try to persuade Rhode Islanders to forget what they think they know about "The Bridge" and come back to Providence, East Providence and the East Bay with their money.

The theater! The Philharmonic! The shops! The dentist office! Their own offices for work! Miller's Famous Sandwiches at the intersection of Warren and Pawtucket Avenues in East Providence and every other restaurant reporting losses from the bridge closure and the spillover of backed-up traffic onto city streets.

While Gov. Dan McKee, who lives in Cumberland, still publicly questions the validity of accounts of extra-long commutes, he told reporters earlier this week that crashes are up "three times" over what they were previously on the open span of the Washington Bridge over the Seekonk River.

His administration recently contracted for two new messaging campaigns to try to change public perception and consumer behavior:

• One, assigned by the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation to the Providence-based RDW Group, is aimed at reminding Rhode Islanders who are bridge-shy of what the hardest hit cities and towns have to offer.

• The other was awarded by the Department of Transportation to DLL Advertising in East Providence for media buys. The goal of this public-relations campaign: to urge drivers traveling in both directions over the six narrow traffic lanes on the open eastbound side of the bridge to "stay in their lanes."

"Especially in this driver awareness month that we're in right now, we need to make sure that we keep people safe, keep people off their phones and keep people in the lanes," McKee told a media gaggle earlier this week.

Why it matters

Businesses on both sides of the bridge have told legislators – and media outlets – that their sales took a major hit in the first week of the bridge disaster as traffic jams descended into chaos.

Things have stabilized, but it appears people on either side of the bridge are less willing to travel to the other side, and there is no immediate end in sight with the teardown and rebuild expected to take at least two years.

At Miller's Famous Sandwiches (628 Warren Ave.), business is consistently down 20% to 22%, co-owner Gwen Graham told The Journal in March.

Businesses recently told lawmakers they want grants, not loans to add to their debt. The McKee administration has asked the lawmakers, in turn, to redirect $300,000 in leftover federal relief dollars to direct grants for eligible small businesses.

Do businesses think the PR push will make a difference?

Asher Schofield, the proprietor of the eclectic Frog & Toad in Providence's Hope and West End neighborhoods, told the Journal the "crisis calls for some creative problem-solving."

The immediate need for a lot of the affected businesses "might [be] a little bit more in the way of some grant money to help them get through. And I know that there are plans for that from the administration, which is heartening. But I think that taking a holistic, creative problem-solving approach is important."

Jessica Leach, owner of Opt Eyewear Boutique in Wayland Square, is not convinced an ad campaign will make a difference.

She took part in the recent filming of one of these public-service announcements, along with fellow Wayland Square shop owners, but when asked if she expected it to be helpful, she told The Journal: "No."

"We don't need the help reminding people that we're there," she said. "We need help with things like labor costs or the unpredictability of the traffic patterns of the way that the customers come in."

"There are specific things we need. I don't think spending the money on public-service announcements is necessarily the best way to do things," she said, while lamenting her dashed hopes of bringing an international eyewear conference to Providence.

"I can't bring a two- or three-day international trade show to Providence right now because people that could commute from the Cape and from Southeastern Massachusetts aren't going to come."

McKee acknowledges uptick in crashes on the bridge

"Our accidents are up almost three times," the governor told reporters earlier this week. "We were averaging about an accident a day..." Now? "We're averaging about three accidents a day."

Going deeper on the PR campaign

RDW is a standby for state public-relations contracts, reaping $1.5 million in state contract money so far this year and $3.5 million last year. Commerce spokesman Matthew Touchette says the new $400,000 push will be covered by the firm's contract of up to $4 million.

The goal? "To support those businesses most impacted by the Washington Bridge reconstruction" in Providence, East Providence, "even in the East Bay sections of Bristol and Warren," he said.

"I think the overall marketing campaign is to remind people not to abandon those businesses that rely on Rhode Islanders; those dentist offices that are seeing canceled appointments," Touchette said. "Gyms, restaurants."

He said it appears some people "are under the impression that the traffic is still like it was the day after the westbound lanes closed ... [where] it's going to take you three hours" to get from here to there, when that is no longer the case.

The theme: "I think the bottom line is we're all in this together."

'Stay in your lane'

The DOT, meanwhile, has contracted with DLL Advertising in East Providence for $69,898 worth of media buys for radio, digital and display ads between April 15 and May 31.

The campaign name – "RIDOT_195_3Lane" – reflects the addition of a third lane on each side of the two-way traffic crammed onto the eastbound span of the bridge.

The radio script for the 30-second version that began airing late last week:

"By Monday, April 22, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation will open two additional lanes on the eastbound side of the I-195 over the Washington Bridge. All trucks must use only the right lane.

"Please drive safely, stay in your lane and obey the speed limit."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Media campaign hopes to get RIers driving over the Washington Bridge again