From platform 5 to 35,000 feet

GTR Thameslink Airports campaign

From Bedford to Bologna, St. Pancras to St. Lucia, Farringdon to Florence… you can get anywhere in the world from your local Thameslink station. Tooting to Toronto, anyone?

The pandemic meant people made fewer trips abroad, but as the world opened up, and with 61% of people planning to travel abroad, Thameslink wanted to capture holiday makers and business travelers and encourage them to get the train to the airport rather than relying on car or taxi.

Because this audience find organising and getting to the airport for holiday stressful, we needed to find a new way to land convenience. We highlighted that Thameslink allows customers to travel from their local station directly to the airport and heroed destinations evoking emotional positive association between Thameslink and holidays.

We created headlines personalised and localised to stations on the Thameslink network, combining them with exotic far-flung alliterative destinations, such as ‘Go from Mitcham Junction to Milan” and “Go from Loughborough Junction to Los Angeles”. Every headline was localised and paired with Thameslink branded holiday props, enticing people to escape these shores in favour of destinations abroad. Launching in the depths of a dreary UK winter, each ad was a beacon of bright colour, running across out of home and localised press. To make this truly unique, we created our holiday themed props from scratch in 3D, meaning not only were they the perfect Thameslink pink, but that each was branded with a subtle Thameslink monogram.

Case study

Results
Running across digital OOH (BT Street Hub spots across London) press (local press and The Metro) and digital display the campaign increased awareness that the Thameslink could be used to reach the airport. Not only did people love the 3D props and seeing their local station but the campaign drove action too. It achieved +91% above planned increase in revenue and a +40% increase in ticket sales, GTR's best performing campaign post pandemic.