The Award for Marketing Initiative of the Year sponsored by sponsored by Bus & Coach Buyer
Winner, Gold Award, The Comet, come fly with us – Uno Bus
The Comet, a new bus brand introduced by Uno Bus in September 2017, is a good example of how focusing a business on getting the product, service and customer offer just right for your market can lead to impressive passenger and revenue growth. With an engaged team, encouraged at every step to forget the ordinary and deliver the extraordinary, Uno Bus is already seeing year on year passenger growth reach an impressive 20%.
Winner, Silver Award, The Pops and the Cheshire Cat – Warrington’s Own Buses
Warrington’s Own Buses is making a host of improvements to reposition the company, aiming to provide buses that customers, colleagues and stakeholders love. This starts with two new networks – ‘The Pops’ and the ‘Cheshire Cat’ – which have seen new buses, marketing, better fares, punctuality and reliability improvements and better customer service. The company has worked with Warrington Borough Council with the aim to make Warrington multi-modal and accessible as well as taking away sources of anxiety that might prevent new customers trying the bus.
Winner, Bronze Award, Better by Bus – Merseytravel and partners
The Better By Bus campaign promotes the health, environmental and cost benefits of using bus travel throughout Liverpool City Region. The audiences were clearly defined to ensure that a stand-out campaign was created with a flexible identity and was supported by a suite of bespoke key messages that were to be communicated to our audiences. A fun and interactive website, mobile game (Ollie’s Fare) and competitions, as well as out of home advertising through billboards and digital screens, were all part of the delivery of the campaign. An interactive and engaging primary school assembly was developed in-house and collaborated with young people to co-create the Better By Bus Club activity books, which were given to each child that participated in the assembly. The activity books featured a range of fun and unique characters who all had their own reason for wanting to ride the bus.
Finalist, Big Days Out campaign – Go North East
Go North East made finding fun-filled activities enjoyable for the whole family even easier during the school holidays with its Big Days Out campaign. By purchasing a Family Day Ticket for just ú10 (discounted from ú13), up to two adults and three children under the age of 16, can enjoy offers such as reduced admission prices, kids eat free and free entry at top tourist attractions across the North East. The campaign focused on encouraging those who don’t ordinarily get the bus to try it by incentivising them with key drivers that are important to them, including exclusive promotions, hassle-free travel and offering a package that the whole family could enjoy. A part of the fun of a day out for children is taking a trip on the bus.
Finalist, Service 10 – Stagecoach North Scotland
November 2017 marked an investment of ú2.75m by Stagecoach North Scotland in a fleet of 10 brand new coaches to operate on the service 10 route between Aberdeen and Inverness – a route which is over 100 miles end to end. The new coaches have transformed the experience of taking the bus between Aberdeen and Inverness in their first three months of operation. A launch roadshow was created involving each of the four local authorities that the service connects, which saw the council leader from each area officially launching the vehicles ahead of being available in the centres of Inverness, Elgin and Aberdeen for the public to view ahead of beginning service. A marketing campaign supported the launch of the new fleet ensuring a balance of media coverage and advertising messages were in circulation throughout November and early December.
Finalist, Meet Violet, she’s on her way – Uno Bus Northampton
Violet is a new bus brand being delivered by the team at Uno Bus Northampton for the University of Northampton, the town and its residents. The route saw a ú1.5m investment in eight new double deck buses in October last year and is already experiencing outstanding double digit growth. Violet forms part of the company’s route based growth strategy. The team pride themselves on consistency, getting the product right every time all supported with an effective marketing campaign. The whole company is instrumental in delivering the marketing plans which work to enhance the customer experience, engage key stakeholder to retain current customers and win over new ones.
