Marketing support services

Who was it for?

Stagecoach Devon

Background

Power Marketing has worked with Stagecoach Devon for a number of years, principally in the areas of passenger and staff research. During 2008, the relationship grew to include our acting as an outsourced marketing support service.

Our remit extended across a variety of marketing services including campaign planning and management, tactical advertising, event management and PR, all of which formed a continuous programme of activity across the year.

Solution

Stagecoach Devon brand positioning:
Supporting all Stagecoach Devon activity is the positioning of ‘Stagecoach in the community’; Stagecoach is a company that provides a core service connecting local communities, businesses, friends and families.

From developing clear, friendly, consistent communications materials to involvement in local events and sponsorship of community awards, we ensured that all marketing activity we undertook supported this positioning and was ‘on brand’.

Driver recruitment campaign:
Running across January and February, the purpose of the campaign was to not only recruit new drivers but also for them to consider Stagecoach as a long term career option by using a more ‘lifestyle’ focussed creative solution.

The strap line, ‘What’s the view like from your office window?’, was coupled with commissioned photography showing a Stagecoach bus travelling a rural Devon route. This was used on large format 48 sheet poster sites at key locations across Exeter.

In addition, two single-deck bus rears were wrapped with a photograph showing a Dartmoor view taken from the driver’s perspective. These two ‘mobile billboards’ proved extremely effective and remained in place across the whole year.

‘Bayfast’ high speed ferry trial:
From late August to end of September, Stagecoach trialled a fast, high-speed water connection between Torquay and Brixham in order to test the viability of the introduction of a permanent service.

Working in partnership with Stagecoach Head Office, we were asked to organise the launch event, design and print all support communications materials and develop a cross media advertising campaign - all of which needed to be completed within a four week window.

Utilising a variety of media - and supported by heavyweight PR activity from Stagecoach Head Office - the campaign delivered a high level of activity in the Torbay area. Outdoor, radio, press and direct mail were all employed; ensuring residents could not fail to be aware of the service trial.

Bayfast received a very high level of media exposure and provoked a great deal of interest amongst both residents and visitors alike. Passenger research indicated that people were overwhelmingly positive towards the service and were keen to see it introduced permanently.

Communication of service changes, route promotions and general advertising:
Throughout the year, we worked with Stagecoach on the communication of service changes and route promotions as well as ongoing awareness advertising in a variety of publications.

Typically, these activities were turned around on short lead times and involved a mix of media: 6 sheet advertising at bus stops, press and online, on-bus advertising, direct mail and PR. They ranged from fairly large scale campaigns - e.g. service changes for the whole of Torbay - to a single last minute insertion into a local newspaper.

We were responsible for all media booking, design, copywriting, print management and print fulfilment with projects often running concurrently.

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