Govia Thameslink Railway Encourages Passengers to ‘Open the Door to More’

Announced today, Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has launched a new integrated campaign encouraging people to travel for leisure across their networks. The new campaign highlights GTR’s shift from commuter railway to leisure brand that inspires audiences to discover the South-East.  

Created by integrated creative agency TMW, the campaign is called ‘Open the Door to More’ and is the latest iteration of its award-winning platform ‘Every Stop is a Story’ for GTR.  

The emotive campaign runs across OOH, display, social, radio and influencer activity.

The three hero (15’ second) spots show train doors revealing different scenes at various stops along the line. From Chips on Brighton beach, Scuba diving in Worthing, to Punting in Cambridge, the creative effortlessly glides the viewer from scene to scene showing that every stop is a story. Together, the snapshots weave a narrative of discovery and connection, inviting viewers to embrace the diverse experiences that await them. 

Tailored six-second videos have been developed to highlight single activities and destinations, aimed at specific audiences based on their life stage, location, and interests.  

The campaign will also show animated escalator panels inside London’s busiest tube stations, showing places to visit and how long the journey will be. For example, in London’s Victoria station the panels will show ‘Vineyards in Pulborough, just 8 stops away by train’.

Dynamic radio was utilised to create hyper-relevant ads that called out the origin station closest to listeners’ location and listed unique activities and destinations that would inspire day trips changing throughout the campaign based on listener demographics, location and time of week.  

The campaign used insights from Unlimited’s Human Understanding Lab to define key underlying motivations for train travel based on human psychology which were then used to define proof-points and drivers of customer behaviours throughout the work.  

Alex Briggs, senior marketing manager, GTR said, “TMW’s ability to deliver standout creative work is exceptional, and we are very excited to see the impact of this new campaign. The creative platform ‘Every Stop is a Story’ has already delivered on so many aspects for our brands and business. Not only has it been successful in shifting the dial on key brand health metrics, taking us from a transport business that delivers functional commuter journeys to an inspirational travel brand, but importantly it has helped to deliver measurable commercial impact” 

Graeme Noble, chief creative officer, TMW said, “There’s no shortage of sources to get information on days out – our job was to focus on inspiration rather than instruction. All the executions focus on sparking a sense of discovery – the fun and connection that comes with new trips. By telling less and showing more, we’ve harnessed the emotions that drive why people take days out.”