TRAVELINE HEROES

CAMPAIGN REPORT

AUTHOR: JO FOXALL

MARKETING MANAGER

DATE: 15 NOVEMBER 2013

INTRODUCTION

Traveline Cymru is the Welsh Government’s public transport information service in Wales providing route, timetable and fare information for bus, coach and rail services in the country via a bilingual website, bilingual contact centre based in North Wales and a suite of services for the mobile phone including a text messaging service, mobile internet service and apps for both iPhone and Android.

Traveline Cymru’s role is two fold. Firstly, it is to provide the travelling public of Wales with a method of obtaining unbiased and impartial information about their bus, coach and rail services. Secondly it is to encourage those not already using public transport and other sustainable modes, to consider doing so and therefore influencing modal shift in Wales.

One of the ways that Traveline Cymru strives to make an impact on modal shift is by conducting multi platform advertising campaigns across Wales to raise the profile of the business, the services available and to encourage people to think about how they travel. The Traveline Heroes campaign is one such campaign.

ABOUT TRAVELINE HEROES

The original idea behind the Traveline Heroes campaign was to feature existing, real life Traveline Cymru customers as brand ambassadors to encourage new customers and increase brand awareness. However, simply using the idea of brand ambassadors was not considered quite enough to capture and hold the public’s attention and imagination for the length of the campaign, so the Marketing Team sought the advice of the company’s creative agency, limegreentangerine and the idea of Traveline Heroes was born.

The Traveline Heroes campaign was a medium sized multi platform advertising campaign based on the idea that Traveline Cymru’s customers are their champions or ‘Heroes’ and using them as real life models in the campaign artwork and adverts would give the campaign weight and endorsement as well as encouraging more engagement from the general public.

The six month long campaign was focused largely online recognising that the majority of Traveline Cymru customers utilise our digital, online and mobile services. This was then supported by more traditional media to increase the reach of the campaign messaging.

The campaign messages were focused on the reasons our customers use Traveline Cymru to obtain information for different scenarios in their day to day lives, from getting to work, to visiting their grandchildren, to going to football training.

Customers were invited to tell Traveline Cymru why they thought they were Traveline Heroes and add their entry to the Traveline Heroes microsite or via a freepost form which were handed out at the events. The best ‘Heroes’ were selected and invited to feature in the Heroes Hall of Fame on the microsite and at the end of the campaign, a winner was selected at random to win an iPad.

CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the campaign focused around the following key areas:

Recognising and rewarding existing Traveline Cymru customers for using the Traveline Cymru services.

Using those customers as brand ambassadors to share the message about how using the Traveline services can help in day to day life, therefore encouraging others to use the services.

Educating the public about the various services available from Traveline Cymru and how they can be used to obtain information.

Increasing usage of the Traveline Cymru services. Increasing engagement with the various Traveline Cymru social media channels.

MEDIA & METHODOLOGY

The Traveline Heroes campaign combined traditional media, digital and social media to create a campaign which would be recognised by customers of all age groups and locations across Wales. The traditional media was focused on types which offered the most reach across Wales, such as radio and TV and offered the best value.

This media included:

Traditional Media:

Television advertising on ITV Wales Radio advertising on Real Radio (pan Wales) and Capital and Heart FM 48 Sheets in Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham Sponsorship of events such as Access All Eirias and Ponty’s Big Weekend Poster sites and hand to hand leafleting at sixth forms and colleges across Wales Attendance at major events such as the Royal Welsh Show, Pembrokeshire Show and university

and college freshers fairs across Wales Television advert displayed on large screens in Cardiff City Centre Leaflet drops to various venues across Wales

Social & Digital Media:

Twitter using the hashtag #TravelineHeroes Instagram profile running monthly competitions for the best photo of the Traveline Hero of your

journey (eg. Coffee, a good book, favourite music etc) Facebook featuring a Heroes Hall of Fame for entrants to the Instagram competition Pinterest featuring Heroes Boards Presence on the Student Room, an online Student’s Union for students across the UK Online support at ITV.com Campaign pages on Real, Capital and Heart’s websites Paid search on ‘Traveline Cymru’ and ‘Traveline Heroes’ on Google and Bing

The campaign also used the following to support the advertising effort:

A bespoke Traveline Heroes microsite where visitors could enter their reasons for being a Traveline Hero, they could watch the television advert or view our Heroes Hall of Fame to see other entrants to the competition.

A significant Traveline Heroes presence on our Traveline Cymru YouTube channel featuring the television adverts in both English and Welsh, a video showing some behind the scenes footage of the television advert shoot and a video of the launch event. These were all shared across social media throughout the campaign.

To encourage people to enter the competition and to provide their contact details for follow up research, we included a prize draw to win an iPad as well as other monthly prizes on the Instagram competition for travel related goodies such as rail tickets, headphones and magazine subscriptions.

We developed bespoke literature and freepost forms for the campaign to give customers the option of making their Heroes entries by post.

The campaign was very visual and we utilised the photographs from the launch along with several targeted press releases to generate significant amounts of Wales wide PR for the campaign.

To raise the profile of the campaign we arranged for Traveline Cymru Ambassador, Iolo Williams and a selection of the Traveline Heroes who featured across the campaign adverts and literature to launch the campaign at Cardiff Central Railway Station. This generated a significant amount of press and social media interest.

We also used our direct mail package to communicate with customers regularly throughout the campaign reminding them of the messages, advising about local events we would be attending to allow them pop along and make a pledge in person, and encouraging them to share the message with their friends.

CAMPAIGN COSTS

TRADITIONAL MEDIA: £32,787

SOCIAL MEDIA: £28,250

ARTWORK, PRINT & PHOTOGRAPHY: £7,547

PR: £2,915

TOTAL: £71,499

CAMPAIGN STAGES

STAGE 1: The Traveline Heroes concept is developed in collaboration with design agency, limegreentangerine in November 2012. At the same time, media briefs were issued to several media agencies to deliver the campaign media.

STAGE 2: Orchard Media & Events and Coup Media were awarded the joint media contract in November 2012 to deliver the media content for the campaign. It was a collaborative approach as Orchard specialise in traditional media and Coup Media specialise in social and digital media and it was deemed that both of their expertise would be needed for this campaign.

STAGE 3: Call put out for Traveline Heroes volunteers via social media and direct mail in December 2012. A number of real customers volunteered to feature in the campaign.

STAGE 4: Traveline Heroes television advert is filmed on a Cardiff Bus with real Heroes featuring talking about the ways that Traveline has helped them to be Heroes in their daily lives.

STAGE 5: Iolo Williams, Traveline Cymru Ambassador officially launches the campaign at Cardiff Central Station with some of the Heroes present in March 2013.

STAGE 6: Campaign advertising kicks off with the television advert on ITV during Coronation Street on Easter Monday 2013.

STAGE 7: Continued roll out of advertising and utilisation of the summer events calendar to raise the profile of the campaign and recruit Traveline Heroes across Wales throughout the summer of 2013.

STAGE 8: Student, schools and colleges element of the campaign completed in tandem with the university freshers fair events in September 2013.

STAGE 9: Campaign closes at the end of September 2013 and a winner is chosen from the 4,740 entries. A photoshoot is arranged to present the winner with his prize and to be issued with the closing campaign PR.

MEET THE TRAVELINE HEROES, HEROES OF THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT KIND

Find below the Traveline Heroes who came forward to feature in the campaign:

**Alex, could you insert all Heroes campaign pics with their stories alongside please? Stories below in the order I’d like them to appear:**

Gerri‘Gerri is a Traveline Hero because she uses the Traveline call centre to find out the times of the buses to visit her grandchildren. Aren’t Grans great?’

Beth‘Beth used the Traveline app to take her boyfriend by bus to see his favourite band! You’re App-solutely a Traveline Hero!’

Kieran‘Meet Traveline Hero Kieran … He used the Traveline journey planner last week to find bus times to visit his Nan! Oooo! He’s a good boy! ‘

‘MarkMark used the Traveline Twitter feed to make sure he could get his bus to work during the snow! That’s Tweeting Wonderful!

Sara‘Sara is a Traveline Hero because she uses the Traveline cycle planner to help plan her daily commute by bike. Sometimes she uses it to take her little girl out too.’

Ian ‘Ian is a Traveline Hero because he uses the Traveline app on his phone to find out train times to make sure he’s not late for football practice. Score!’

Allison‘Allison is a Traveline Hero because she uses the Traveline website to plan days out by train for her children. She’s a Super Mum!’

Olivia‘New to these shores, Olivia scooped super powers to whizz around Wales when she downloaded the Traveline Cymru App. With her new found enhanced iAbility, she literally knows her adopted home like the palm of her hand. Step into the Matrix Olivia!'

PHOTOGRAPHY

When it came to producing the campaign artwork, it was very important that our real life Heroes were lit and photographed in a certain way to allow for the artwork to be dramatic and striking. We chose a Cardiff based photographer, Kiran Ridley as his style of photography matched the look that was trying to be achieved. Please see below some examples of our Heroes Gerry, Olivia, Ian, Sara and Allison:

ARTWORK:

The artwork then incorporated these different Heroes photos and their stories into the bespoke and striking Traveline Heroes branding look and feel. This artwork was then also used on the television advert, mircrosite, leaflets, banners, social media and other campaign media.

Traveline Heroes Web Banner

Traveline Heroes 48 Sheet

Traveline Heroes Entry Form:

TELEVISON ADVERT

The campaign launched with a television advert airing on ITV Wales on Easter Monday. The advert featured three of our key Heroes and was shot on a Cardiff Bus in the car park at the ITV Wales Studios at Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff.

The advert came in a number of different formats, a feature length advert showing all three of our key television based Heroes and three shorter advert for each Hero. These adverts were then broadcast during key programmes at different times throughout the day during April 2013.

To close the campaign, the same adverts were repeated during September 2013 as a reminder of the campaign.

Stills from the advert can be found below:

MICROSITE

An essential part of the campaign was the Traveline Heroes microsite which was accessible from the Traveline Cymru website. The focus of this site was to provide a portal for those wishing to submit their reasons for being a Traveline Hero online. The best of those Heroes entries were then contacted and asked if they would like to feature in the Heroes Hall of Fame, a photo gallery of each of those Heroes. The site also featured the TV advert as well as updates from social media featuring the #TravelineHeroes hashtag.

SOCIAL MEDIA

A large focus for the Traveline Heroes campaign media from the outset was utilisation of a number of different social media platforms. Initially the call for Traveline Heroes to come forward to feature in the television advert and the other campaign artwork was pushed out via the existing Traveline Cymru social media feeds. This proved to be successful and Traveline Cymru received a number of Hero volunteers through these channels.

Going forward into the campaign, social media was then utilised to promote the #TravelineHeroes hashtag, to engage in conversation with potential Heroes, share campaign photographs and other media, to encourage people to sign up to the campaign and to raise awareness generally of the Traveline Cymru brand and Traveline Heroes campaign. The #TravelineHeroes hashtag was included in the television advert, on the microsite and across the campaign literature.

Social media platforms utilised included Facebook where we had a link to our Instagram Traveline Heroes gallery as well as regular posts and advertising, Twitter where we engaged directly with Heroes as well as posting updates about the campaign, shared videos, photos and campaign media and Instragram where we ran monthly competitions throughout the campaign encouraging people to submit images of things they consider to be their Heroes on their daily journeys (eg. Pictures of iPods, pictures of lovely views they see, pictures of helpful bus drivers etc) as well as sharing campaign photos. We also posted all campaign videos to our Traveline Cymru YouTube channel and had various #TravelineHeroes boards on our Pinterest profile.

It was essential that Traveline Heroes had a strong social element as it was important that the campaign was kept alive and fresh throughout the campaign period. It was important that the Heroes generated content between themselves and shared updates and images across social media to increase reach beyond the existing Traveline Cymru friends and followers and add weight and authenticity to the campaign. Coup Media, an agency specialising in social media management assisted with the management of the campaign’s social and digital elements.

Some samples of social media content:

DIRECT MAIL

Traveline Cymru have a regular programme of direct email which is used to promote the Traveline services to customers, stakeholders and the wider public. Traveline Heroes mailers were developed to encourage existing customers to submit their Traveline Heroes stories. These mailers utilised the campaign artwork and the social media hashtag, as well as containing direct links to the Heroes microsite for Heroes submissions. These mailers were sent to each of the databases that Traveline Cymru holds which includes our e-newsletter databases, our student databases, our stakeholder databases and business contacts.

PR

Another key element of the campaign was PR. It was important that we could spread the message of the campaign as widely as possible and engage interest from the public. The launch event at Cardiff Central Station was an important part of this. The event took the form of a Travel Information Event hosted by a Traveline Cymru Ambassador, Iolo Williams and a selection of the Traveline Heroes complete with capes and masks.

The sight of Iolo and the Heroes in their capes on the concourse of Cardiff Central Station certainly piqued the interest of the travelling public and saw flocks of visitors to the stand wanting to find out more and sign up to be Heroes themselves. This also provided a great photo opportunity and these photos were issued with the official press release. Because the photographs were so striking, they and the story were picked up by a wide variety of media outlets.

Source: South Wales Evening Post

Source: South Wales Echo

Source: Merthyr Express

The PR was continued throughout the campaign, Heroes case studies were issued to local press when particularly good ones were received which generated press on a local level. Releases were also issued when the Traveline Heroes attended events across Wales to promote the campaign and enlist new Heroes recruits. These events included the Royal Welsh, Pembrokeshire Show, university and college freshers fairs and business events.

OUR TRAVELINE HERO WINNER

The team closed off the campaign by doing a press photoshoot with the iPad winner, David Holmes complete with cape and supporting Heroes. David is from Cardiff Bay and his Heroes story was drawn at random from the 4,740 Heroes entries.

His reason for being a Traveline Hero was: 'I'm lost without my Traveline app. Working shifts I can never remember when the next bus is, especially early in the morning. By checking the app as I crawl out of bed it has saved me being late on many occasions.' Kind hearted Hero, David proved his Hero status by donating the iPad to his niece to help her with her university studies.

See David below with some of our Traveline Heroes:

OTHER TRAVELINE HEROES STORIES

See below some examples of the best Traveline Heroes stories we received:

‘I am a Traveline Hero because when we went on holiday in Wales and our car broke down, I saved the day by suggesting Traveline and not only did we have a mega fun day out, we helped towards saving the planet! Plus ate some lovely sherbet ice cream as well!’

‘I am a TRAVELINE HERO because I make it my aim to smile at every person sat in my vicinity. I was told as a child that if you smile at people they find it almost impossible to smile back. I tested this out every day, in the car on the way to school. Sure enough people smiled back and I loved knowing that I must have brightened their day for half a second. These days I travel on public transport but still play the same game. Smiles are my super power!’

'I help elderly passengers with their heavy shopping bags when getting on the buses and give up my seat if necessary.'

'When the Cardiff-Coryton rail service was disrupted due to engineering works I used Traveline Cymru and found a great alternative by bus. Traveline Cymru is an excellent tool for visitors from far afield.'

'My friends think I have special powers knowing the bus and train times, but really it’s with the help of your app.'

'Why am I a Traveline Hero? It's not the cape. Nor is it the outside underwear. Both of these get me thrown off public transport (unless it's Friday evening, go figure.) It's not because of my superpowers (as short-sightedness and being really good at 80s platform games don't count I'm told). It's because Traveline is my go-to guide for all public transport anywhere I need to go. It let me navigate my way from Mid-Wales to Manchester using buses alone. That takes some doing.'

'I am a Traveline Hero because... with the Traveline app, I have braved treacherous journeys criss-crossing the Vale of Clwyd, over hill and dale at any time of day or night, I have assisted fellow travellers by letting them know when their next bus home is and helped reunite lost tourists with their treasured hotels.'

'I'm a Traveline Hero because I have been using the service since I was stopped from driving following a seizure in 2009. I had held my driving licence for 10 years and, if it was too far to walk - I drove! Occasionally I would use the train for long journeys. Traveline Cymru has helped me get around and get the full use of my concessionary bus pass. It has saved me hundreds as I have been able to plan many journeys accurately and avoid using taxis. Combining train and bus times of the different companies has enabled to get to work, get to my evening class, visit family and have a social life.'

MEASUREMENT

We have measured the effectiveness of the Traveline Heroes campaign in a number of different ways, these are as follows:

Heroes Entries:

Firstly we’ve looked at the number of people who submitted their Heroes stories. We used our most successful campaign to date, the Traveline Challenge from 2011 as a benchmark and hoped that we would either match the number of Heroes submitted to pledges submitted during the Traveline Challenge, or even exceed it. We were delighted that we received 4,740 Heroes stories which just pipped the Traveline Challenge to the post (we received 4,565 pledges during the 2011 campaign) but as the budget for Traveline Heroes was circa 30% of the budget of the Traveline Challenge, we felt that the campaign was even more of a success.

Business KPI figures: Traveline Cymru business KPI figures for the campaign period April – September show an increase of 47,379 user across the Traveline Cymru services compared month on month to the same period in 2012. Again, comparing this to the success of the Traveline Challenge in 2011, the Challenge saw an increase of 30,064 users across the services during 2011 compared to that in 2010. This obviously needs to include a caveat that there may have been other environmental factors influencing this, but nonetheless the team were delighted to see such a marked uplift of users across the business.

Social Media Followers & Engagement Measures:

As the campaign had such a strong social and digital element, it was important for us to monitor our social media followers and measure levels of engagement throughout the campaign. We monitored fans and followers and we used Klout to measure our levels of engagement.

Our Facebook Fans increased by 577 during the campaign period, our Twitter followers increased by 151 during the period and at the launch of the campaign, our Klout score rose from 52 to 56, then steadied around 53 during the campaign and then peaked again to 54 at the end of the campaign.

Brand Awareness Survey:

The final way we measured the effectiveness of our campaign was through our annual awareness survey conducted by an external agency. This survey is conducted year on year to help us monitor the awareness of the Traveline Cymru brand and to measure the effectiveness of any campaigns.

The 2013 survey was conducted towards the end of the Traveline Heroes campaign and demonstrated that the awareness of Traveline Cymru had increased by 11%, with 41% of all respondents being aware

of Traveline Cymru and the various services. Amongst 16-35 year olds, a key demographic for the Traveline Heroes campaign, mid campaign 19% of those surveyed had heard of the Traveline Heroes campaign. This compares to an uplift in awareness of 8% for the Traveline Challenge in 2011.

LESSONS LEARNED

We made a couple of mistakes along the way which we will learn from for the next time we run this campaign and any other. They were as follows:

The first lesson we learnt was that it is essential when running a campaign such as this and promoting it at events, that we use specifically trained events staff who are confident enough to dress in the Heroes costumes and approach members of the general public to recruit Heroes. We did make the mistake at the beginning of the campaign of using normal temp staff who were not confident enough in the costumes or to approach the public to talk about the campaign, so we quickly changed tact and started using events staff.

The second area we misjudged was the success of the launch event at Cardiff Central Station. We hadn’t realised how much attention Iolo and the Heroes would draw and due to this, we hadn’t printed enough Traveline Heroes leaflets with the competition entry. We got around this by using the iPads we had with us to register people online, but it made the process take an awful lot longer and we weren’t able to give people who didn’t want to fill out a form there and then, the information to take away with them. In future, we will ensure that all campaign artwork is completed in plenty of time for the launch in order to have plenty of literature available at the launch event.

CONCLUSION

The Traveline Heroes campaign was only one of very few campaigns we have run on this scale in Wales and certainly the first campaign we have run featuring real customers and real stories to attract new customers.

The results of the campaign far exceeded our expectations in terms of the numbers of people coming forward to tell us their reasons for being Traveline Heroes and increasing awareness and usage of the Traveline Cymru brand and services available.

In terms of the creative of the campaign, we were thrilled that people really seemed to understand the campaign and were inspired into telling their Heroes stories. We had slight reservations that the Heroes theme may only appeal to a certain segment of the market, but our Heroes were male, female, all ages and from across Wales and some of them were even willing to don the capes themselves!

We believe that it was because the campaign was bright, vibrant and fun it really inspired people to come forward and really contributed to the success of the campaign. We would certainly consider

running the campaign again in the future, but we would need to feature different Heroes and different stories to keep the campaign fresh.

Until that time, we will continue to work closely with our customers who are our Ambassadors and our Heroes because there is a Traveline Hero in all of us.