CATEGORY:3.1 Advertising

AUTHORS:Graeme MacFarlan Victoria Milne

On A RollWORD COUNT:1,459

Su mma ryThis paper demonstrates how a bold change in strategy and creative direction – to engage both heads and hearts – helped breathe life into an already very successful campaign, increasing consumer positivity by 105% and delivered a £223k increase in revenue (in the first six months).

The Roll with Us campaign delivered cut through and built a level of personality and emotion to the brand never seen before.

Ba ckground a nd contextScotRail is Scotland’s Railway and runs the length and breadth of the country, carrying over 700,000 passengers daily. The franchise has been run successfully by First Group for 9 years.

The Leith Agency and ScotRail have been working together since 2008 developing and running the hugely successful A Better Way to Go campaign.

But, all good things must come to an end. In 2013 ScotRail’s favourability started to stall at around 40%. The campaign was losing relevance and suffering reduced cut-through.

Despite a year-on-year increase in rail usage, like every train operating company, ScotRail faced the enduring trend of increases in car ownership and usage.

They also faced an ongoing battle to maintain levels of customer spend within the discretionary leisure sector. A bold change in strategic and creative direction was required to build on the momentum of the previous campaign and get the ScotRail brand back on track.

The campaign saw favourability towards ScotRail grow by 105% from Nov 2011 and Feb 2012.

*Source: MRUK March 2012 Tracker

The i ssuesWhere is the love?

In early 2013, monthly brand tracking and customer interviews revealed that the relationship between ScotRail and its customers was becoming increasingly functional.

We needed to move to a more emotional strategy that would forge a closer connection with our customers.

And, we were confident that it would work – emotional strategies are 94% more profitable than purely rational ones according to a 10 year study by Price Waterhouse Coopers (The Payback Study).

‘ScotRail is a service I have to use rather than one I choose to use’Female Customer, Glasgow, 2013

‘I don’t view ScotRail as a brand it is just a train company.’Male Customer, Edinburgh, 2013

*Source: MRUK August 2013 Tracker

*Source: MRUK August 2013 Tracker

Having stalled in May 2013, our passengers positivity scores towards our messaging dramatically declined from 46% in May, to 23% in August 2013.

How did the advertising make you feel towards ScotRail?

Whilst customers recognised that ScotRail provide a reliable, user-friendly, comfortable service (as seen in the 2013 August tracker*), customers were struggling to connect with the brand emotionally.

And we planned to support this emotional brand campaign with tactical product messages to drive sales and revenue via key segments:

1) Kids Go Free (Ticket where two kids travel free with a paying adult)

2) Club 55 (Flat fare promotion for those 55 years and over)

The InsightDelivering an emotional campaign in a low interest and low engagement sector is no easy feat. Historically ScotRail’s advertising had been led by a tactical strategy communicating specific promotions and benefits to separate audiences.

To deliver emotional cut-through and engage both hearts and heads, we had to get under the skin of passenger train travel.

Research from the Department of Transport† told us three key facts:

1) Consumers viewed train travel as a quick, easy and convenient way to travel

2) Train travel offered people time to get things done (69% of travellers using their time to read, 11% to catch up on work)

3) Train travel gave people a chance to relax and enjoy some quality time (47% spend their journeys enjoying the view).

† Public attitudes towards train services: April 2012: Dept of Transport

So, the key insight was to emotionally connect with our audiences we would need to wrap up all these positive feelings about train travel and communicate them in one fresh and engaging way. The public felt inherently positive about train travel, we just had to remind them.

The most popular reasons for choosing the train are:

• Speed of journey – 44% for long distance and 40% for short distance

• Ease of experience – 38% for long distance

• Frequency – 39% for Short distance

• Convenience and hassle free – 25% for short distance

† Public attitudes towards train services: April 2012: Dept of Transport

‘The most effective campaigns are those that rely primarily on emotional rather than rational models.’Thinkbox

The ScotRail audience is a wide and varied one:

• Middle-class families – Light train users for leisure, although higher for business/ commuting. Convenience and ease of travel are the most motivating drivers for this audience. We needed to communicate how much fun a train adventure could be. And they needed to be weaned off the car.

• Comfortable older People – This generation has a nostalgic perspective on Rail. It’s a form of travel they enjoy. They want hassle and stress-free journeys wherever possible. Petrol prices/parking charges are a bug bear. They are flexible travellers, which makes them an ideal target for ScotRail. And, they’re responsive to last minute deals.

• Younger City Dwellers – They’re the most reliant on public transport as many don’t have cars. They live in the now but if they stopped a moment, they could really benefit from train trips to events, nights out etc. These people have really busy lives and they value any time to relax or to use time more constructively. They love an adventure.

We had to tap into their common needs, and consolidate them into a focused motivator which appealed to all.

The BriefWhat were we asked to do?

What did we want to say?

We knew that the tactical messages of the current campaign were attractive to the consumer from a functional point of view, but we had insight that positive emotional attitudes towards the brand were declining.

Rather than allow the previous gains to erode, we decided to tap into the inherent truth of the product and leverage the implicit consumer view that:

‘Train travel is easy, fast and relaxing.’Public attitudes towards train services: April 2012: Dept of Transport

Young Urbanites

Well-Off Families

Comfortably-Off Empty Nesters

We were tasked to create a campaign to get young city types, middle-class families and financially comfortable over 50’s to use the train more frequently and switch from using the car every now and again.

This was still to be an extension of the A Better Way to Go campaign but it required a step change in style and tone.

We had a very single minded objective for the campaign:

Increase brand positivity by at least 25% in year one – we wanted to grow the love for the brand.

We had to go out there with something surprising and fun that broke the mould in train advertising. An idea that would build love for the ScotRail brand.

How did we want to say it?

This campaign was a step-change. It set out to surprise, delight and maybe even get some people dancing. Not a usual rail approach. The tone of voice had to be joyful, light and liberating. It had to make people sit up and take notice.

Ultimately we set out to inspire people to get the train.

THE FREEDOM TO BE YOU

Young urbanites Well-off families Comfortably-off empty nesters

Brand TV advert – wider train experience – TV and Cinema

Kid Go Free – cut down – TV Club 55 – cut down – TV

We knew that all audiences value time to themselves, convenience and hassle-free travel. This led to a single-minded proposition which sums up the benefits of the train in a very emotive way:

‘The freedom to be you’

This proposition had the lightness of touch and inspirational sentiment that could lead us to celebrate the wider rail experience and capture the freedom train travel offers.

The Work

We didn’t want to hold a mirror up to people’s lives or create something unbelievable and cheesy. And, importantly, we didn’t want to show people on trains.

We decided to use a metaphor to communicate the effortless joy of train travel. This creative strategy challenged traditional approaches in rail marketing – particularly because the advertising didn’t centre around trains.

Get rea dy t roll

Whether you’re going on a day trip, a night out or a weekend away, we hope you enjoy rolling with us.

A BETTER WAY TO GO.

Search roll with us online

Tha nks for rolling with us

Whether you’re chatting, reading or simply daydreaming, we hope you enjoy rolling with us.

A BETTER WAY TO GO.

Search roll with us online

The Pl a nMedia laydown and thinking

The media strategy was crucial in ensuring brand and product messaging reached each audience segment in the most efficient and effective way. Three key target groups:

The flexibility of this media strategy allowed us to create targeted cut downs for the families and empty nester audiences. This meant that we could tactically promote specific ScotRail products (Kids Go Free and Club 55) under the umbrella of the wider brand campaign.

TV and cinema were the main broadcast channels used due to their proven effectiveness in delivering powerful, emotive messages. And return on investment.

Broadcast media was underpinned by tactical, product focused activity in press, on social media (Twitter and Facebook) and online.

All communication drove traffic to one place – the ScotRail online hub (www.scotrail.co.uk/roll-with-us/). Home to practical information on ‘Kids Go Free’ and ‘Club 55’, the hub also contained softer content including competitions and community feature films.

• TV delivers the highest return of any medium £4.5million per £1million spent

• TV is the dominant medium used by brand leaders

• TV is 2.5 times more effective at creating sales uplift than pressSource: Price Waterhouse Coopers, The Payback Study – 10 years of data over 700 brands.

• TV delivers the most profit – £1.70 for every £1 spent on average rising to £2.37 for every £1 spent in retail

• TV ROI is now 22% higher than 5 years ago despite the recessionSource: Price Waterhouse Coopers, The Payback Study – 10 years of data over 700 brands.Young Urbanites

Outdoor, Cinema and quality press

Heavy use of internet, TV On-Demand and social

networking sites

Highest smartphone, mobile, and games

console usage

Well-Off Families

Quality press, magazines and online

Early adopters; Smart TVs, tablets and smartphones

Trust and seek out user reviews and advertising to

aid decision-making

Comfortably-Off Empty Nesters

Quality press, mid-markets and magazines

Lowest users of mobile and social networking

Don’t trust advertising, and it wastes their time

‘On 8 September Scottish skaters turned up to Glasgow’s Riverside Museum in their hundreds to take part in our ‘Roller Conga’ world record attempt. 254 people formed an unbroken chain for 17 minutes, setting the official Guinness World Record for the longest chain of roller skaters!’ Source: ScotRail.co.uk

An additional and welcome result of this campaign was a 67% increase in revenue, on projected targets. The business had set a target of £300K increase in year one and in the first 6 months we had already generated an increase of £223k, representing a 67% uplift on projected targets.

The online hub received 107k page views over the campaign period – with 66% of visitors going on to further pages. The ScotRail homepage received 3.2m page views in the same period.

Finally, the Roll with Us ad received over 134,000 views on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLSo5-V1LeU&feature=youtu.be) – an especially impressive statistic when compared to the East Coast Trains ad which aired over the same period and received only 67 YouTube views in five months. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjwqMl8vftM). ScotRail’s success on YouTube further highlights how their advertising achieved measurable cut-through in a low interest sector.

The Results1) 105% increase in positivity towards

ScotRail over campaign period. (Dec 2013 tracker)

We wanted to increase positivity towards the brand by 25%. We did that and much, much more, with a 105% increase in favourability. This increase in favourability demonstrates the power of cut-through creative advertising combined with exemplary media planning. Moreover, we had reversed any losses suffered between May and August 2013.

Independent qualitative research and audience feedback online backed this up:

‘I thought it was brilliant….trendy, fun, retro, nostalgic. I connected with the ad straight away because of the song and the way it was set and everything.’ Female, Edinburgh, Dec 2013)

‘Awesome advert!!’ (Youtube comment, November 2013)

And if we required further proof of increasing love for the brand – hundreds of game passengers turned up on a rainy September Saturday and helped ScotRail break a world record for the ‘longest chain of roller skaters.’

Conclusi onThis paper shows that a bold change in campaign direction, tapping into the freedom and joy of train travel, helped shift consumer perceptions with favourability scores soaring and revenue increasing beyond targets.