On A Roll CATEGORY: AUTHORS: WORD COUNT: 3.1 Advertising Graeme MacFarlan 1,459 Victoria Milne Summary This 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. Background and context

ScotRail is ’s Railway and runs The Leith Agency and ScotRail have the length and breadth of the country, been working together since 2008 carrying over 700,000 passengers developing and running the hugely daily. The franchise has been run successful A Better Way to Go successfully by First Group for 9 years. campaign.

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

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 , 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 *Source: MRUK March 2012 Tracker brand back on track. The issues

Where is the love?

In early 2013, monthly brand tracking and customer interviews revealed Whilst customers recognised that ScotRail provide a reliable, user-friendly, that the relationship between ScotRail and its customers was becoming comfortable service (as seen in the 2013 August tracker*), customers were increasingly functional. struggling to connect with the brand emotionally.

‘I don’t view ScotRail ‘ScotRail is a service as a brand it is just I have to use rather than a train company.’ one I choose to use’ Male Customer, , 2013 Female Customer, Glasgow, 2013

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?

*Source: MRUK August 2013 Tracker

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).

*Source: MRUK August 2013 Tracker The Insight

Delivering an emotional campaign in The most popular reasons a low interest and low engagement for choosing the train are: sector is no easy feat. Historically ScotRail’s advertising had been led by • Speed of journey – a tactical strategy communicating 44% for long distance and specific promotions and benefits to 40% for short distance separate audiences. • Ease of experience – To deliver emotional cut-through and 38% for long distance engage both hearts and heads, we had • Frequency – to get under the skin of passenger train 39% for Short distance travel. • Convenience and hassle free Research from the Department of – 25% for short distance Transport† told us three key facts:

† Public attitudes towards train services: 1) Consumers viewed train travel as April 2012: Dept of Transport a quick, easy and convenient way to travel

2) Train travel offered people time to So, the key insight was to emotionally get things done (69% of travellers connect with our audiences we would And we planned to support this 1) Kids Go Free (Ticket where two kids using their time to read, 11% to need to wrap up all these positive emotional brand campaign with travel free with a paying adult) catch up on work) feelings about train travel and tactical product messages to drive communicate them in one fresh and sales and revenue via key segments: 2) Club 55 (Flat fare promotion for 3) Train travel gave people a chance to engaging way. The public felt inherently those 55 years and over) relax and enjoy some quality time positive about train travel, we just had (47% spend their journeys enjoying to remind them. the view). ‘The most effective campaigns are those † Public attitudes towards train services: April 2012: Dept that rely primarily on emotional rather than of Transport rational models.’ Thinkbox The ScotRail audience is a wide and Well-Off Families varied one: The Brief • Middle-class families – Light train users for leisure, although higher for business/ commuting. Convenience What were we asked to do? and ease of travel are the most motivating drivers for this audience. We were tasked to create a campaign We had a very single minded objective We needed to communicate how much to get young city types, middle-class for the campaign: fun a train adventure could be. And families and financially comfortable they needed to be weaned off the car. over 50’s to use the train more Increase brand positivity by at least frequently and switch from using 25% in year one – we wanted to grow • Comfortable older People – Comfortably-Off Empty Nesters the car every now and again. the love for the brand. This generation has a nostalgic perspective on Rail. It’s a form of This was still to be an extension of travel they enjoy. They want hassle the A Better Way to Go campaign and stress-free journeys wherever but it required a step change in style possible. Petrol prices/parking and tone. charges are a bug bear. They are flexible travellers, which makes them an ideal target for ScotRail. And, they’re responsive to last What did we want to say? minute deals.

We knew that the tactical messages of the current campaign were attractive • Younger City Dwellers – They’re to the consumer from a functional point of view, but we had insight that positive the most reliant on public transport Young Urbanites emotional attitudes towards the brand were declining. as many don’t have cars. They live in the now but if they stopped a Rather than allow the previous gains to erode, we decided to tap into the inherent moment, they could really benefit truth of the product and leverage the implicit consumer view that: from train trips to events, nights out etc. These people have really busy lives and they value any time to relax ‘Train travel is easy, fast and relaxing.’ or to use time more constructively. Public attitudes towards train services: April 2012: Dept of Transport They love an adventure. We had to tap into their common needs, and consolidate them into a focused We had to go out there with something surprising and fun that broke the mould in motivator which appealed to all. train advertising. An idea that would build love for the ScotRail brand. 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 FREEDOM TO BE YOU

Comfortably-off Young urbanites Well-off families empty nesters

Brand TV advert – wider train experience – TV and Cinema

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

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 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 Get travel. This creative strategy challenged Thanks traditional approaches in rail marketing ready – particularly because the advertising for rolling didn’t centre around trains. t roll with us

Whether you’re chatting, reading or simply daydreaming, we hope you Whether you’re going on a day trip, enjoy rolling with us. a night out or a weekend away, we hope you enjoy rolling with us. A BETTER WAY TO GO. A BETTER WAY TO GO.

Search roll with us online

Search roll with us online TV and cinema were the main broadcast channels used due to their proven effectiveness The Plan in delivering powerful, emotive messages. And return on investment. • TV delivers the highest return of any medium £4.5million per £1million spent • TV is the dominant medium used by brand leaders Media laydown and thinking • TV is 2.5 times more effective at creating sales uplift than press Source: Price Waterhouse Coopers, The Payback Study – 10 years of data over 700 brands. The media strategy was crucial in ensuring brand and product messaging reached each audience segment in the most efficient and effective way. • TV delivers the most profit – £1.70 for every £1 spent on average rising Three key target groups: to £2.37 for every £1 spent in retail • TV ROI is now 22% higher than 5 years ago despite the recession Young Urbanites Well-Off Families Comfortably-Off Source: Price Waterhouse Coopers, The Payback Study – 10 years of data over 700 brands. Empty Nesters 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 Outdoor, Cinema and Quality press, magazines (www..co.uk/roll-with-us/). Home to practical information on quality press and online Quality press, mid-markets ‘Kids Go Free’ and ‘Club 55’, the hub also contained softer content including and magazines Heavy use of internet, Early adopters; Smart TVs, competitions and community feature films. TV On-Demand and social tablets and smartphones Lowest users of mobile and networking sites social networking Trust and seek out user Highest smartphone, reviews and advertising to Don’t trust advertising, mobile, and games aid decision-making and it wastes their time console usage

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. And if we required further proof of increasing love for the The Results 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.’ 1) 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 ‘On 8 September Scottish skaters turned up to Glasgow’s Riverside Museum in their ad straight away because of the song 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 and the way it was set and everything.’ chain of roller skaters!’ Source: ScotRail.co.uk Female, Edinburgh, Dec 2013) 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 ‘Awesome advert!!’ projected targets. (Youtube comment, November 2013) 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. Conclusion

This 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.