Via Rail Canada
Why Don’t You Take The Train?

The Challenge

To get people who travel by car between Windsor and Quebec City to consider taking the train instead of driving. About half a million people a day can be found stuck in traffic on the segment of the 401 that passes through Toronto, making it the busiest stretch of highway in North America. Montreal isn’t much better, with regularly heavy traffic across Autoroute 20 clogging arteries north of the city daily. Despite the frustrations experienced by drivers along this heavily travelled route, 77% of those people still tend to prefer their cars. Not enough of them have seriously considered VIA Rail as a viable alternative to driving. The challenge of this campaign was to get them to break that habit.

The Insight

Everyone has annoying habits that are really difficult to change. How does one get them to stop? It’s a scientific fact that if information is associated with an intense emotion, people are far more likely to retain the message. The agency made use of this insight by reaching drivers at key moments of anxiety before and after the trip, as well as at the moment of their highest frustration: when they are stuck in traffic.

The Idea

Instead of telling consumers what to do, the agency asked them: Why don’t you take the train? A traditional mass campaign that extolled the virtues of train travel would have fallen on deaf ears. Telling people what to do and why they should do it is never as effective as asking them why they are doing it – especially while being exposed to real time data that makes what they are doing look like a bad idea. This would require mapping the entire journey and identifying every possible touchpoint along the way, before, during and after.

The Plan

To hit drivers before, during and after their journey with a campaign that integrated TV, pre-roll, social, digital display and out-of-home ads with tactics that use real time data on road conditions and travel time.

The Strategy

Before: The campaign was launched with a quirky YouTube video pre-roll that used people’s annoying habits as a reason to ask the question, “Why don’t you take the train?” The same question was asked on digital banners and page takeovers for both mobile and standard sites like the Globe and Mail and La Presse. The agency then identified drivers about to travel by targeting those who looked for weather or traffic information for a destination outside their home town with digital banners and SEM communicating real-time travel times for car versus train.
During: All elements of its integrated campaign changed every season to take advantage of the different kinds of pain drivers experience with seasonal weather. It targeted all the rest stops on highways 20, 40, 417 and 401, in order to reach drivers throughout their entire journey. Each creative piece was linked to the chosen location and highlighted a specific advantage of taking the train rather than a car. With digital out-of-home, the message was adapted in real-time, displaying the estimated arrival time based on the location of each sign and current traffic conditions. Because it was based on the geo-location of each board, the message was customized.
After: The agency collected all mobile device IDs of drivers exposed to the advertising as well as drivers who were stuck in traffic jams. It then re-targeted these drivers as they arrived at their destination, displaying a personalized message that reminded them of the frustration of being in traffic and the benefits of taking the train.

The Results

The campaign reached 31.4 million people in the first four weeks. Train ridership rose by 11.7% YOY. The client saw a 13.9% increase in revenues, at the expense of car travel and a 7.27% increase in organic visits to viarail.ca. There was a 39% increase in consideration for train travel, 9% increase in ticket sales, 8% increase in completed trips, 14% increase in conversions on VIA Rail's booking engine and 20% drop in Cost per Customer Acquisition YOY. The campaign had over 1.5 million unique mobile device IDs collected in its DMP, increasing the volume of audiences that can be activated in its always-on campaigns.