VIA Rail Canada Pauses a Moment in Time for 'Book Your Comeback' Campaign

VIA Rail Canada, Canada’s national passenger rail service, has launched its new campaign 'Book your Comeback'. Created by Cossette, in partnership with media agency Touché! and digital agency Tink, this campaign seeks to re-seduce and welcome back previous VIA Rail passengers who may have foregone the train in favour of their personal cars due to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Inspired by movement, the centerpiece of the campaign is a 30-second video directed by Canadian director and Academy Award nominee Jeremy Comte.

The spot was filmed at the VIA Rail train station in Ottawa, Ontario where the production team installed rain rigs to simulate stormy weather and symbolize the challenges we’ve experienced collectively. A phantom High-Speed camera (1,000 frames/s) was used to film the first half of the spot to deconstruct each micro moment and create a climate of tension.

40 actors, all reflecting Canada’s diversity, were cast for the spot. 

Working with Canadian photographer Norman Wong, Cossette sought to recreate the look and feel of a moving train - in keeping with the idea of movement - for it’s digital OOH and web banners. In addition to shooting scenes at Union Station and across the city of Toronto, the agency and its production partners also built true-to-life mannequins of the actors. The mannequins were then mounted on rails and photographed while moving at high-speed to create the desired movement effect.