Episode 175 - Trainline Get Your Bum on Board Ad Reviewed by Defiant, Penguin Random House and Haleon
How heroic is your booty?
Trainline’s got a punk, funky advert out as part of their “Get Your Bum on Board!” campaign, and we’re looking at the clip chosen for us by Contagious this week.
It’s colourful and eye catching, but beyond a brand play, does it miss a few opportunities to land messages with the consumer? The “pretty chaotic” ad stands out, but how effective is it at connecting with the audience and are they focusing on the wrong points?
Tune in to see the ad and hear from our guests Laura Lesser (Client Partner at Defiant), Hannah Bourne (Marketing Director, Children’s Books at Penguin Random House UK) and Tom Holmes (Head of Marketing, Altogether Dental at Haleon).
Episode 175 - Trainline Get Your Bum on Board Ad Reviewed by Defiant, Penguin Random House and Haleon
Transcript
This is automatically generated, so it’s not 100% accurate.
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands discuss other brands’ ads.
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative, the creative effectiveness adtech platform. And thanks to our sponsors, Contagious, who help us find the ad each week. So long time partner of the show and we love them very much. So thank you for that. So before we see this week's creative, let's meet this week's guests.
Laura Lesser 1:02
Hi everyone. I'm Laura Lesser. I’m the Client Partner at Defiant.
Hannah Bourne 1:06
Hi everyone. I'm Hannah Bourne, I'm the Marketing Director at Penguin Random House Children's Books.
Tom Holmes 1:12
And hi, I'm Tom Holmes, I'm Head of Marketing for Altogether Dental at Haleon.
So today we are going to be looking at Trainline's “Get your bum on board!” campaign. It launched in January this year. Fairly cheeky initiative to get us Brits to choose train travel over car journeys with the promise that trains can produce 67% less CO2 emissions. Featuring comedian Asim Chaudhry. Some kind of punky visuals, it's using humor and bold esthetics to promote sustainable travel. But is it any good? Let's watch this week's ad.
Tom Ollerton 2:28
Right. Okay. So scores out of five. One, two, three... Hold your fingers up. A three, three, and a four. Poor Trainline. I thought it was better than that. Right, Hannah, what did you think? What's going on?
Hannah Bourne 2:40
There's a lot going on is what I would say. I mean, I think it's like the “I came by train” strategy, like that kind of brand level strategy, that's been running for a few years, hasn’t it? And they've done various different things with it. And I think that is really interesting. Like that is like quite a brave and bold choice to make as a brand positioning because I think, you know, especially in a world of like cost of living crisis, like being, there's lots of other things you could do and things that the competition do around pricing that they're not doing, they’re being very kinda clear about the potential value. That being said, I feel like there's been some interesting creative choices. I'm not sure. Is punk having a revival that I wasn't aware of? It's super punky, and I don't entirely get that. It's possible I'm just not the target market, I guess, although, I do travel a lot by train. So yeah, I don't know. I think that there's some, you know, I can see the kind of, the kind of brand strategy behind it, but I guess I feel like the creative choices might have slightly been done in a closed room, let's say.
Tom Ollerton 3:27
Is it going after that age group? Is it sort of Gen X and sort of boomers, maybe? But yeah, it feels quite sort of young. But it's so different, isn't it? Stylistically, it does stand out from the alternatives, I guess.
Laura Lesser 3:38
It's pretty chaotic, isn't it? But it stands out and it's quite a fun, disruptive take on quite a what could be quite a serious topic. It's really good they're talking about it. They have to include the facts to sort of back up their claims, because otherwise you might be accused of greenwashing. It really grabs attention and you can imagine it translates really well to other platforms as well. So like imagine it would stop you scroll on social if you're seeing bums in your face. And I like the line they've got, “Take a stand just by sitting down,” as well.
Tom Holmes 4:09
It feels to me slightly at the wrong time. Train prices are going up. They've been going up this year and last year above inflation, whereas actually petrol prices dropped since the high of 2022. Politically, I feel like, you know, countries and corporations pulling away from their green commitments. So it just seems odd to me that you'd be focusing so much on the environment when it feels like consumers would be much more interested in cost and pricing.
Hannah Bourne 4:31
It's clearly a brand play, right? And they've clearly chosen this to kind of distinguish themselves in a crowded market. It's a fun creative. I definitely preferred the Glastonbury, like, they did all the black billboards around very specific events, didn't they? I definitely preferred that. What I thought was slightly missing around this one as well... Not just like that it was an interesting choice to choose this for their brand messaging versus like a cost messaging is, you know, there was an awful lot of commentary around this ad, like in the industry around the reality is that you can make a big difference with a small change, and that small change would be traveling by train. That's actually not the message that you get from this campaign, though.
Laura Lesser 5:04
They are putting the onus almost on the consumer a bit. Whereas, yeah, they're not talking about what other value they're giving back. So it would be interesting to understand, like are they doing anything on train journeys themselves? I know with their partnership they have with Premier League clubs, they give discounts to traveling fans, which is really great.
Tom Holmes 5:24
If you look at the comms around this campaign, they mention those partnerships. But to me there's... It makes a lot more sense there. Yes, it has its environmental benefit, but from a consumer, it's also actually you're not gonna have to pay for really expensive parking and it's gonna be really congested, loads of traffic. Whereas actually those barriers don't exist if I'm just doing a normal journey, you know, which I wouldn't have those, I wouldn't be facing that if I was traveling by car or even by plane, which many of my friends do. You know, for 4-hour journeys, because it's four or five, six times cheaper than getting the train.
Tom Ollerton 5:52
I think there's an emotive side of train, train travel, if it's just a nice train, an adventure, you know, you know, discovering new things. Then there's the... the cost or the financial side of it and then there's, yeah, there's this environmental bit as well. So my thing is they're trying to make you feel good about the Trainline. A warm, fuzzy feeling. Because, you know, they talk about climate change, which obviously a lot of people are concerned about, but they've done it in the kind of like, very tongue in cheek way. Hey, we've solved climate change and some dolphins, for God’s sake, and a leaf with like water dripping on it, you know what I mean? But yeah, we solved climate change, you may stick your bum on a seat, so...
Tom Holmes 6:26
I like the... the kind of the humor angle and the fact they try to take on that topic in a totally different way. And for me, I massively admire that. The only thing I would say, though, is... When I'm saying that how much I love it, I'm referring to kind of like the last 80% of the ad. I absolutely detest the first five seconds. Like, sort of... Stock footage... Even that first line, you know, they said it couldn't be done. I'm like, “What do you mean? That's not true. They said it could be done. We just need to take action now and see... you know, more aggressive action.” So just personally, if it was me that was a bit I would've, I would have amended that first five seconds.
Laura Lesser 6:57
The one thing that really stood out for me, is how they use the language, like, “Let's all crack net zero together.” Because first of all, when I've worked on this type of campaign in the past, net zero has come up as the phrase that people misunderstand the most. And they don't... Yeah, nobody really knows what it means. And also I just think with this you need to keep the language really simple. But then the second part is really it should be the government’s job to crack net zero, and it shouldn't have to be consumers doing all the legwork. So I think it's great that they are starting this movement and it's making it less daunting to do something for the better. But really, it should be big companies and government that are doing the most part of it.
Hannah Bourne 7:43
One of the biggest challenges with the sustainability crisis is how overwhelming it feels. And so much of the commentary is... it's not down to individuals, rightly so. It's around... It's down to governments and big corporations. But what this does slightly is kind of put the onus on the consumer, but then at the same time not actually make it clear that the small difference you're making makes a big impact in the long run. So I feel like it's got a few mis-... It's got some really good things to it, but it misses a few opportunities to land messages more strongly. And I think if we're saying that it is a brand play, that is a real shame because you only have like, we're in a world where actually generating brand loyalty, really tough. You know, there's more obvious ways to do that. So it is a brave choice to make, to use the sustainability angle, like I admire that, but I don't know that the execution is doing everything that it should be doing.
Tom Holmes 8:33
I don't know enough about Trainline's, like, business model. Is that because they can't really control pricing? Is the pricing set by like the train company? You know, so is it that they... it's harder for them to lever... because it seems odd to me that they wouldn't be looking at that more and looking at it as a way to, help, you know, help people make a sustainable choice, make it more affordable to do that. Whereas at the moment, like I say, it's five, six X more even, even big earners are gonna question like, you know, is that worth me paying that amount more? You know, just to... And I’d argue you'd be better off, you know, just driving and then offsetting your emissions. Yeah. I can't get my head around why they wouldn't be looking at, you know, something that talks about price and affordability, unless maybe it's just not in their... They don’t have that lever.
Tom Ollerton 9:18
Yeah I think you're right. I think you're right, Tom. They're an aggregator, right? Then they and they can't do that. So what can they talk about that's emotive and it’s probably that. Would you sign off this campaign in its entirety? Thumbs up or down? One, two, three... I can’t believe it, it’s harsh. Hannah, Tom, Laura, Thank you so much.
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