BIKETOWN

Launching North America’s largest bike share program

The Challenge

Portland has long been synonymous with biking. One of the moments that helped further cement this legacy was the creation of BIKETOWN, a city-wide bike share program between Nike, the Portland Bureau of Transportation and the City of Portland.

WPR was asked to lead the announcement of this five-year, $10 million partnership, spurring a fleet of 1,000 bikes – 900 orange designs modeled after the iconic Nike shoebox and 100 limited-edition wrap designs. At the time, BIKETOWN made Portland the largest, smart bike share program in North America.

Our challenge? Managing a distinct number of stakeholders and coordinating an iconic launch event that would successfully bring everyone together and capture the public’s attention.

The Goal and Strategy

We gathered more than 150 founding members and influencers from across Portland to participate in a historic ride across the Tilikum Crossing Bridge. Keynote remarks were delivered by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer; Portland Commissioner Steve Novick; NIKE, Inc. Vice President of Global Community Impact Jorge Casimiro; and PBOT Director Leah Treat. By leveraging these influential Portlanders to create awareness for this new program, we simultaneously helped amplify the city’s identity around biking, wellness and sustainable transportation.

After the kickoff, we kept the energy high through the release of the #BeTrue bikes during the Portland Pride Parade, followed by the highly successful BIKETOWN Design Challenge where we invited Oregonians to show their love for Portland and its internationally renowned public bike share system by bringing new BIKETOWN bike wraps to the fleet. The five winning designs, representing the five Portland neighborhood quadrants, were the perfect showcase for the city’s creative and innovative culture.