We created a best-in-class rail magazine for leisure passengers – at high speed
Our brief
Rail operator Abellio secured the rights to run the Greater Anglia franchise in summer 2016, and then had only a couple of months to deliver one of their bid commitments – a new passenger magazine. With the railway virtually at capacity at peak times, we were challenged to produce a magazine that encourages leisure travellers to use the railway in the evenings and weekends.
Our solution
After pitching our proposal to the team at Abellio, we then had just over two weeks to turn the first issue around. The result is a beautiful, contemporary travel magazine which marries the best of consumer and independent formats, and celebrates the destinations, experiences and events that can be enjoyed across the network.
The travel content is complemented by tips from local people, as well as practical travel advice on how to make the most of a journey. In order to encourage readers to look for each issue we commissioned comedian Arthur Smith to write a regular travelogue column and we also created two pages of children’s activities hosted by ‘travel bugs’ Col and Chester (named after the network’s most central station).
The results
- The client is delighted with the magazine, and latest recent readers survey quantified the popularity with passengers.
- 60% of respondents planned a trip as result of reading the magazine.
- 32% of respondents said they had talked to family or friends about Greater Anglia as a result of reading the magazine
- 74% of readers said they felt very valued (23%) or somewhat valued (52%) as a result of reading the magazine.
The results
“Quality of articles shows that you are reaching out to the customer, which makes me feel as though Greater Anglia values its customers.”
“It’s nice to know Greater Anglia is online and asking for a response from those using their services. It looks like a lot of skill, money and time was spent creating this. Very stylish and competes with national publications.”
