Trainline Turns Delay Compensation into a Hit with ‘Tap That App’ Campaign

​Trainline, Europe's leading rail and coach platform has launched a sound-led campaign spotlighting its new 'Delay Repay' feature, which notifies customers in real-time of compensation they’re owed and helps them get repaid. The feature is designed to cut through the common complexity and frustration of claiming compensation for train delays.

With only 1/3 of delayed journeys claimed by British commuters, Trainline has partnered with Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam to help the nation get back the money they're owed.

Brits are no strangers to learning about travel PSA’s through rhymes and slogans that become part of everyday lingo, so the campaign led with the ‘Tap That App’ song, a catchy ear worm with a repeatable chorus, designed to build habit amongst commuters of claiming Delay Repay with Trainline.

Performed by buskers in busy commuter areas, broadcast across UK radio and brought to life with a playful music video on Social — the track was engineered to enter the minds of the British public and never leave.

So Trainline and W+K Amsterdam enlisted the help of 7 train station buskers to spread the word to commuters passing by in high-traffic areas across the country:

Liv Harland at London King’s Cross

Jason Allan at London Euston

Amber Mason at Liverpool Lime Street

Alex Spencer at Manchester Piccadilly

Robbie Culley at London Liverpool Street

Dan Treget at London Paddington

Mohsin Naksh at Birmingham New Street

The buskers shared their performances on TikTok and Instagram, further amplifying the song’s reach to their digital communities. Trainline, together with McCann Content Studios also partnered with a range of UK creators who reinterpreted the track in their own way— from parody music videos to playful riffs on what else people might be leaving behind on the train.

The song was also broadcast across UK radio stations, Heart and Capital Radio, and the full-length song was made available on Spotify for travellers to download to their commuting playlists.

A ‘hands-on’ music video, running as pre-roll ads on YouTube, features a playful visual world with fingers dancing and tapping the app, all in-sync.

Complementing the sound campaign, cheeky digital out-of-home 'poked' commuters to try Trainline’s Delay Repay feature across major UK stations including London Bridge, London Waterloo, Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central and more, with the key visual also living on Trainline’s website and across digital banners, all coordinated in close partnership with media agency Wavemaker.

​Leah Knighton, brand director for Trainline said, “At Trainline, we’re all about making train travel simpler — and our new Delay Repay feature does just that. Claiming compensation for delays shouldn’t be a chore, so we're giving customers more of a helping hand. With Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam, we’ve turned a once frustrating process into something genuinely much simpler. ‘Tap that App’ is more than a tune — it’s a habit-changer. By meeting commuters where they are, we’re helping more people not leave their money on the train, with just a tap of that app!”

​Ramona Todoca and Edouard Olhagaray, creative directors at Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam comment, “Every day, people are leaving money on the train. So we wanted to stop them in their tracks with the simplest message: Tap that App, which we’ve engineered into a sticky song that gets stuck into their minds and reminds them how easy it is to claim their Delay Repay with the Trainline app.”