Great Western Coffee Shop

Dear [mailing list member],

As you may have already seen, South Western Railway (SWR) has been the first of the Train Operating Companies to launch a dedicated campaign aimed at encouraging commuters back onto the train as we look to build back better after the pandemic.

Featuring our two new avian ambassadors Wes and Sandy, this campaign is based on detailed research into people’s working habits post-Covid and the shift towards working from home. Understanding this shift and how people will work in the future is particularly relevant for SWR as a network, as the demographics of the communities we serve show a greater number of people work in roles which can be carried out from home.

Our campaign is aimed at commuters and those who have a choice as to whether they work from home or travel to their workplace, with the aim to “nudge” them back into making additional journeys.
 
The campaign will include adverts on TV, radio, websites and streaming services, and social media, as well as in print and at our stations. Through the various mediums and channels used, we will be focussing on how returning to the office can help people to better connect with their colleagues and friends in person, both during the working day and socialising afterwards. This, as well as career progression, were clear themes from our research about what people miss about pre-Covid work life.

The importance of this campaign to SWR is clear, given that commuting and other peak time travel has always been a significant part of our business. Without encouraging more people to return to travelling with us, our revenue will remain significantly below what it was pre-Covid and mean continued pressure to alter or reduce the number of services we run to ensure we are supplying a right sized service of best value to taxpayers.
 
As well as the main campaign with Wes and Sandy, we will also look at running further promotional opportunities over the coming months to try and further encourage people back onto the railway. This includes the “Thank Goodness it’s Thursday” campaign we launched last week, which has already generated significant media interest and will run throughout April.Please do feel free to take part in this campaign over the coming Thursdays and share details with colleagues or others you think may benefit from it.

If you have any questions about our campaigns or the research which has supported them, please do let us know. 

Kind regards,
Andrew Ardley
Regional Development Manager
 
Context

Commuting and other travel into London at peak time has historically been the core part of the SWR business, accounting for over half of our revenue pre-Covid

How we work has been fundamentally altered by the pandemic and the recovery of commuting and business travel are?languishing?behind the?recovery seen in the leisuremarket

Without any intervention,?this trend is forecast to continue.?Research shows that commuting and business travel will remain significantly below pre-Covid levels, leading to a permanent reduction of revenue to rail and increasing the likelihood of further rail service reductions in the future

SWR is more exposed to this shift than others due to the demographic profile of our customers, being in more senior roles that can be carried out from home.

An opportunity exists to 'nudge' some customers to start making and/or make more peak-time journeys than at present and we have aimed to create an advertising campaign to encourage this, through:
 
Highlighting the professional, social, and cultural opportunities of returning to the office (which our research has shown people miss the most when working from home); and

Raising awareness of benefits like flexible season tickets and our Price Promise Guarantee to emphasise the positive experience people will have travelling with us

This campaign will run throughout the year, with the flexibility to allow us to use Wes and Sandy to focus on different offers or promotions as needed