Frog Ferry
Friends of Frog Ferry is working to bring passenger ferry service to Portland, creating another way for people to move through the region while reconnecting the city with its river.
For the first half of 2026, Avenue partnered with Frog Ferry to strengthen its organic social presence and build greater visibility, understanding, and engagement around that vision. Together, and in partnership with Little Bird Media, we transformed social media into an active community-building channel, using strategic storytelling to explain the project, amplify major milestones, and give supporters more ways to engage and get involved.
The Results
+71%
Increase in Instagram Community
+1,880%
In Shares on Instagram
+26%
Increase in Engagement Rate
The Challenge
Frog Ferry had a big vision for Portland, but bringing that vision to life required more than simply increasing awareness. Their social presence needed to help people understand the project, see its potential, and become part of the community supporting it.
Together, we set out to:
Shape the Frog Ferry narrative online: Establish clear, credible messaging that proactively explained the project and addressed misconceptions
Build an engaged community: Grow an active audience of supporters ready to engage with Frog Ferry and participate in future calls to action
Make a complex project easy to understand: Create accessible content that answered questions, reduced friction, and made the vision for passenger ferry service feel tangible and feasible
Services Implemented
Social Media Research & Strategy
Developed an organic social strategy, content pillars, story arcs, audience engagement tactics, and platform-specific recommendations across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Video Content & Storytelling
Developed Reels and other video-first content using testimonials, event footage, media appearances, direct-to-camera storytelling, and existing Frog Ferry assets.
Ongoing Social Media Management & Reporting
Created, scheduled, and managed ongoing social content, adapting our approach as new milestones, media opportunities, events, and community stories emerged.
Reporting & Strategy Refinement
Tracked performance against platform-specific benchmarks and goals, using audience response and content performance to continuously refine the strategy.
The Solution
A Stronger Social Story
We established repeatable content pillars and formats that made Frog Ferry’s story easier to understand and gave the team a consistent framework for communicating everything from project benefits and milestones to media coverage and opportunities to get involved.
As momentum grew, we increased the content cadence beyond the original scope, publishing as many as 5–7 planned posts per week during key periods.
We knew Frog Ferry’s social presence needed to do more than announce updates. It needed to help Portlanders understand the vision, see the momentum behind it, and hear from the people who believed in its potential.
With that in mind, we built an organic social strategy centered on consistent storytelling, community voices, timely project updates, and content designed specifically for each platform.
Video-First Content
We leaned into Reels, testimonials, media clips, direct-to-camera storytelling, and event footage to put people and place at the center of the Frog Ferry story.
That shift helped video emerge as one of the strongest formats for expanding reach and engagement, including a 713% increase in video views during the partnership.
Community Voices
Rather than making Frog Ferry the only voice telling its story, we amplified perspectives from business leaders, transportation advocates, educators, board members, community members, and other supporters.
Those voices became some of the partnership’s strongest-performing content.
Turning Milestones Into Social Moments
Major developments became opportunities to build momentum instead of standalone announcements.
For the launch of Frog Ferry’s Community Ownership Model, we created teaser and explainer content, amplified the launch event, answered common questions, and continued incorporating ownership opportunities into ongoing content. The launch ultimately became the #1 Instagram post by views and #1 LinkedIn post by impressions during our partnership.
Lori Spencer, Frog Ferry Board Member | CEO & Founder, Lori Spencer Consulting
“Avenue has made such a difference in how Frog Ferry shows up in social channels. Before working with them, our social media presence was something that had been missing for years, and they’ve really helped bring our brand to life. They took the time to understand who we are and what makes our business special, and it shows in the content they create for us. They ask the right questions, forcing us to think in ways we hadn't before. We’ve seen our followers grow, but more importantly, we finally feel like our online presence reflects the quality of our business. We’re so grateful for everything Avenue has done for us over the past year and couldn’t be happier with the partnership!”
