The Traveline ChallengeCampaign report

Traveline Cymru

Category 3: Travel Demand Management

AUTHOR: JO FOXALL, MARKETING MANAGER

2

2

Introduction

Traveline Cymru is the Welsh Government’s public transport information service in Wales providing route and timetable information for all bus, coach and rail services in the country via a bilingual website, bilingual call 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 in areas where awareness of Traveline Cymru is particularly low.

The Traveline Challenge is one such campaign.

3

3

About the Traveline Challenge

The Traveline Challenge campaign was a large multi platform advertising campaign which was focused in the Sustainable Travel Centres which are funded by the Welsh Government to introduce schemes to encourage sustainable travel. These Centres are Cardiff, Carmarthen, Haverfordwest, Aberystwyth and the Môn a Menai region in North Wales. Traveline then added a number of other towns / cities including Newport, Neath, Port Talbot, Swansea, Newtown and Wrexham to the campaign to increase reach.

The campaign messages focused on encouraging the public to consider how they travel by providing key statistics about making small manageable changes which could be positive for their health, bank balance, free time and the environment. They were then asked to make a pledge as to what that change would be either on the Traveline Cymru website or by filling in the Traveline Challenge pledge forms and sending them to us freepost.

4

4

Campaign objectives

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

• Educating the public about how much time / money and carbon can be saved by changing travel habits and the health benefits involved.

• Encouraging the public to think about their various journeys and how they currently make them and what they could do differently.

• Challenging the public to make pledges to change their travel habits over a sustained period of time.

• Advising the public to use the Traveline Cymru website, call centre and mobile services as information resources to assist with these changes.

• And finally asking them to visit the Traveline Cymru website to make their Traveline Challenge Pledge.

5

5

Media & Methodology

The Traveline Challenge advertising used local media in some of the towns / cities supported by the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Travel Towns funding to ensure synergy with local initiatives and to speak to the public on a local level about the campaign objectives.

This media includes:

• Advertising on local radio

• Sponsorship of traffic and travel / drive time shows on local radio

• Inserts into local newspapers

• Door drops

• Bus rear advertising

• Ticket barrier and other rail station advertising

• Floor graphics

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

• A bespoke Traveline Challenge microsite within the Traveline Cymru website which featured facts and figures about making changes to your journey, the Traveline Cymru journey planner for information about journeys, links to partner sites for other information as well as the area where the public could make their pledges.

• To encourage people to pledge and to provide their contact details for follow up research, we included a prize draw to win an iPad 2 as well as other relevant prizes such as cycling vouchers, and iTunes vouchers to incentivise the pledge.

6

6

• We developed bespoke literature and pledge forms for the campaign to give customers the option of making journey pledges by post.

• We 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 to pop along and make a pledge in person, and encouraging them to share the message with their friends.

• To raise the profile of the campaign we arrange for Traveline Cymru Ambassador, Iolo Williams to launch the campaign at Cardiff Central Railway Station, a place where the campaign was being advertised. This generated a significant amount of press interest.

• We also used our existing events programme which includes the Urdd Eisteddfod, National Eisteddfod, Royal Welsh Show, university and college freshers fairs as well as smaller agricultural shows, NHS Environment Week events and business events and encouraged people visiting the stands to make pledges in person.

• Finally we used our slots during regional Travel Champion Training to make people aware of the Challenge and equip them with information to pass it on.

7

7

Microsite & Blog

An essential part of the campaign was a microsite within the Traveline Cymru website. The focus of the site was to provide a portal for people to make online pledges. It also contained facts and figures about how people can make positive changes to their lives by making small changes to their travel habits, the Traveline Cymru journey planner to allow customers to plan their journey by public transport, links to car share, walking and cycling sites and links to other sustainable travel schemes in Wales.

To keep this page interesting and up to date and also to practice what we preach, our Marketing Manager who is a committed car driver pledged to travel to work by alternative means one day a week and blogged about it as the Diary of a Public Transport Virgin. This worked well and had a number of followers both through the website and through our social media networks.

8

8

Extract from the weekly Diary below:

“Day 2 - Looking the Part

Brr! Chilly walk to the station this morning! And for the second week running, I was the first at the station. ‘Why is this unusual?’ I hear you ask.

Well for those who know me, you’ll know that I’m late for everything!

Despite being first at the station, I end up being the last to get on the train. What’s that all about? I guess I’m too polite, will have to work on that.

Now boys, you might want to look away at this point because I’m going to be unashamedly girly! I’ve noticed that women who use public transport have a very specific kit; flat shoes and big bags. Flat shoes because as I’ve learnt to my detriment, hiking for miles in heels is a big no no. And big bags to carry your public transport essentials; said heels, iPod, book, lunch and gym kit if you’re so inclined to stop on your way home. I’m not.

So today, I’m wearing my flat shoes and I’ve got my big bag and I’m fitting right in! And for those who followed my journey last week, I managed to get myself a seat by the door this week so it was much easier to get off.

Conclusion: I’m learning, but think I’ve still got a way to go. But at least I now look the part!”

9

9

Social Media & Direct Mail

As well as the ‘paid for’ advertising, Traveline Cymru used other free methods of promotion to expand the reach of the campaign. In the main this was using our social media accounts and our direct mail package.

We used the Facebook and Twitter accounts to post updates about the campaign using the hash tag #TravelineChallenge, discussing the launch, posting photos from the launch, encouraging people to make pledges. We also tweeted about and checked in to events that we visited promoting the campaign such as the Eisteddfod, Royal Welsh Show and university and college freshers fairs and checked in using Facebook so that people could see that we were there. This was a successful part of the campaign increasing pledges and also encouraging people to engage with us at the events.

The direct mail was developed with a similar look and feel to the campaign artwork. It included the same facts and information as the microsite and included direct links to the pledge form and to the Traveline Cymru website. This direct mail was scheduled to be sent prior to the launch of the campaign as a teaser, when the campaign was launched, when we attended high profile events during the campaign and also in the weeks running up to the end of the campaign. The direct mail was sent to everyone on the Traveline Cymru newsletter databases.

10

10

PR

Traveline Cymru enlisted the help of Freshbaked PR to assist with the promotion of the campaign through launch, ongoing PR and the presentation of the prizes to our winners. It was felt that Freshbaked had the essential contacts required to ensure good press coverage of the campaign.

Freshbaked assisted with the launch of the campaign at Cardiff Central Station, booking the photographer and ensuring the Iolo Williams was interviewed by a number of journalists on the day. The launch was a success and secured interviews with Radio Hafren, Radio Pembrokeshire and print coverage from Cardiff University press. The team also worked to get members of the public to pledge and Iolo himself also pledged to only travel by train when coming to Cardiff.

Traveline Cymru Chairman, Alan Kreppel, Mascot, Traveline

Tim and Ambassador, Iolo Williams at the Traveline

Challenge launch at Cardiff Central Station:

11

11

Freshbaked also assisted in organising the presentation of the iPad prize to our winner from Neath Port Talbot College. This event also secured great press coverage, see below:

Source: This is South Wales Website (South Wales Evening Post)

Source: Cardiff & South Wales Advertiser

12

12

We also secured coverage for the runner up prize of cycling vouchers. See below:

Source: South Wales Guardian

13

13

Engagement

Traveline Cymru also enlisted the support of the local

authorities, transport operators and other stakeholders in Wales

to help spread the message about the Traveline Challenge with

the following results:

• Arriva Trains Wales included a segment about the campaign

in one of their e-newsletters to their customers.

• Carmarthenshire County Council sent out a bulletin to staff

offering tickets to see the Scarlets rugby team play for people

willing to volunteer as champions and change their travel

habits.

• Sustrans included a segment about the campaign in their

‘Active Commuter’ e-news bulletin.

• Newport City Council teamed up with Newport Transport to

provide discounted travel for people willing to be champions

for the campaign.

• The Vale of Glamorgan Council sent out a bulletin to staff

encouraging them to get involved with the campaign.

• Powys Council included a segment in their door to door

newsletter explaining the campaign to their residents.

• Newport Transport, Cardiff Bus, Arriva Trains Wales, Vale of

Glamorgan Council and many others helped us with the

Facebook and Twitter promotion of the campaign.

14

14

Costings

The costs for the project were broken down as follows:

Element Cost

MEDIA: £201,623

ARTWORK: £1,420

PRINT: £2,028

MICROSITE: £1,200 PR: £1,045

PRIZES: £469

TOTAL: £207,785

Campaign Stages

STAGE 1: Iolo Williams launched the campaign at Cardiff Central Station in March 2011. This generated media interest.

STAGE 2: National roll out of Traveline Challenge advertising. Stage 1 and 2 happened in tandem.

STAGE 3: Traveline Cymru utilise summer events programme to promote the campaign and secure pledges.

STAGE 4: Campaign closed at end of September 2011. Prize winners were selected by an independent third party and informed.

STAGE 5: Winner of the iPad (a student at Neath Port Talbot College) is presented with his prize by Traveline Cymru Ambassador, Iolo Williams at Neath Port Talbot College and features in a photo shoot which also generates media interest.

15

15

Campaign Artwork

The Traveline Challenge artwork needed to be bright and eye catching as well as reflecting the various modes we were promoting; public transport, cycling and car share. It also took different forms depending on where it appeared. A selection follows:

Standard Bus Rear

Standard Mega Rear

16

16

Campaign Artwork

Railway Station Banner

Floor Graphic

17

17

Campaign Artwork

Pledge Form

Website Imagery

18

18

Campaign Photography

Traveline Cymru Chairman, Alan Kreppel, Mascot, Traveline Tim and Ambassador Iolo Williams at the Traveline Challenge Launch at Cardiff Central Station

Ticket Barrier Wraps at Cardiff Central Station

19

19

Campaign Photography

Bus Rear

Banner at Carmarthen Railway Station

20

20

Campaign Photography

Floor Graphic at Port Talbot Railway Station

Banner at Haverfordwest Railway Station

21

21

Campaign Photography

Banner at Newtown Railway Station

Traveline Cymru Ambassador, Iolo Williams presents our prize winner with his new iPad

22

22

Measurement

We have measured the effectiveness of the Traveline Challenge in a number of different ways. Firstly we’ve looked at the number of people who made pledges during the campaign. We’d initially hoped that more than 1,000 people would pledge, but the final pledge numbers truly exceeded that with a massive 4,565 people pledging journey changes.

Traveline Cymru KPI figures for the campaign period April – September show and increase of 30,064 users of the Traveline Cymru services compared to the same period in 2010. This obviously needs to include a caveat that there may have been other environmental factors influencing this.

The final way we measured the effectiveness of our campaign was through our annual awareness survey. This demonstrated that the awareness of Traveline Cymru had increased by 8%, with 50% of all respondents being aware of Traveline Cymru and of those interviewed, 13% were aware of the Traveline Challenge campaign.

23

23

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:

Firstly, we neglected to put a box on the written pledge forms to allow customers to opt in / out of further communications, so we were unable to use the many email / postal addresses we collected during the campaign for future direct mail campaigns. For future campaigns, we will ensure we add this.

Secondly, we neglected to develop the microsite data capture section in a way which would allow us to sort the pledges by postcode. This meant that when different local authorities and public transport operators asked us how many pledges they’d had in their area, we had to count it manually. The microsite will be developed with a section for postcodes allowing us to sort by postcode.

Finally, because we underestimated the number of pledges we were to receive, we underestimated the time it would take to input the written pledges on to the system. Therefore it took us far longer than anticipated and held up the process of selecting a winner. We would need to allow far more time for this for future campaigns.

24

24

Conclusion

The Traveline Challenge was the first campaign of this scale that we’ve conducted in Wales and we have been delighted by its success. It has far exceeded our expectations in terms of pledges and increasing awareness of the Traveline services and has achieved far more than we set out to. So much so, that we are now planning to run the campaign on an annual basis in different areas of Wales.

Taking the Traveline Challenge forward into 2012, we will be running a new campaign which will span the summer months targeting more tourism areas to capture the tourism / ‘staycation’ market. We are considering areas such as Colwyn Bay, Pwllheli, Cardigan, Tenby, Brecon, Vale of Glamorgan and other tourism focused areas. We are also considering speaking to Visit Wales to see if they would be able to assist with the campaign.

We believe that the Traveline Challenge campaign had such good engagement because of the messaging. By not asking people to give up their cars entirely, but asking them to make a small change to their habits, we believe that people found it a more palatable option. So we will continue to focus the Traveline Challenge messaging on ‘Small changes make a big difference!’.