National Park Service
Muir Woods Parking and Shuttle Reservations
Nearly 1 million people visit Muir Woods National Monument each year. The famous redwood grove, located in a secluded valley just 20 minutes from San Francisco, suffers from its popularity. With just several hundred parking spaces, there are many days when 9000+ visitors arrive to experience the Woods. The result has been traffic backed up for miles; cars parked illegally and unsafely along a narrow road, sometimes miles from the park entrance; and a high level of frustration and aggravation that tarnishes the visitor experience and majesty of the Woods. Covive was hired by the National Park Service and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy to develop messaging and a communications campaign to educate visitors in advance of the launch of a new Parking and Shuttle Reservation which launched in January 2018.
Postcard and Poster Series
Covive explored a straight-forward communications approach, using simple, clear colors and icons to encourage visitors to think about the arrival journey as part of the experience. Covive recommended the URL GoMuirWoods.com and developed a graphic style and series of headlines for a postcard and poster series that was distributed to tourism agencies and operators, car rental offices, local businesses, and hotels.
Web graphics and social media assets
Covive developed digital assets for social media campaigns conducted by NPS, the Parks Conservancy, and the reservation system concessionaire. Graphic buttons and banners were also featured on the NPS.gov website to inform visitors of the new reservation system and direct them to the reservation website. Signs at Muir Woods explained the new system to visitors, and parking assistants were able to hand out business cards to guests without reservations, to direct them to GoMuirWoods.com.
