Press release -
Virgin Trains launches cheeky campaign to demonstrate why taking the train is a far better ride
- Risqué campaign continues drive to encourage the public to travel by train rather than plane or car
Virgin Trains is launching a new campaign in a bid to get more people out of cars and planes and onto their east coast trains. The campaign encourages the public to swap the inconveniences of domestic air travel (e.g. check-in, luggage allowance, lack of connectivity, and landing far from city centres), and road use (e.g. traffic jams, road works) for the ease and style of Virgin Trains.
Two sixty second campaign films, which will be shown on Facebook and across AOL’s ad serving platforms, feature couples engaged in ambiguous discussions which could be interpreted as an open exchange about their sex lives. In fact, the couples are comparing their negative experiences travelling by road and air with an altogether more relaxing journey on Virgin Trains.
The campaign runs alongside Virgin Trains’ ‘Plane Relief’ offer, where flyers between London and Scotland are able to take advantage of first and standard class discounts on the east coast route. Standard class tickets begin at £15 each way and First Class tickets at £30 each way*. Twenty thousand discount codes are up for grabs to entice the public to take advantage of the near half-hourly service connecting the centre of London with the heart of Edinburgh, and other destinations in Scotland on Virgin Trains’ east coast route. Visit www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/planerelief for more information.
David Horne, Managing Director at Virgin Trains on the east coast, said: “At Virgin Trains we like to do things a little differently, so we’ve decided to highlight the fantastic experiences we offer customers compared to road and air travel in an entertaining, playful way. With free on-board Wi-Fi, free movies, TV episodes, magazines and games on Beam, our new on-board entertainment service, delicious food from our revamped menus, refurbished trains, increased rail connectivity between the English and Scottish capitals, and frequent services to the heart of cities along the east coast, we’re hoping that our tongue in cheek approach will encourage even more people to hop onboard!”
Topics
- Art, Culture, Entertainment
Categories
- business news
- trains
- fun stuff
- events & launches
- east coast
Notes to Editors
*T&Cs apply – see below
For further information contact Hope & Glory PR:
jessie.godwyn@hopeandglorypr.com / 020 3588 9754 / 07766312888
alex.royce@hopeandglorypr.com / 020 7014 5316 / 07935856014
Virgin Trains worked with TMW Unlimited to create the videos for the campaign.
The digital campaign will run across AOL’s ad serving network and Facebook’s promoted posts from Monday 24 October.
The videos can be viewed here:
| CREDITS | |
| Creative Director | Dave Willis & Luke Clark |
| Art Director | Luke Clark |
| Copywriter | Dave Willis |
| Account Director | Clare Franks |
| Agency Producer | Tracy Woodford |
| Photographer | n/a |
| Director/ Production Co | Nick Collett with Salt TV |
| Producer | Zoe Waller |
| Editor | TBC |
| Post Production | Salt TV |
| Sound Design | Simon Buck |
| Typographer | n/a |
| DoP | Ricky Patel |
| Media planning/buying | Manning Gottlieb OMD |
Plane Relief Terms & Conditions
- This offer is valid on the following Virgin Trains East Coast services only, Edinburgh Waverley, Haymarket, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar, Inverkeithing, Kirkcaldy, Leuchars, Dundee, Falkirk Grahamston, Stirling, Gleneagles and Perth to/from London King’s Cross.
- The discount is not valid for Virgin Trains services on the West Coast
- This offer is only available through virgintrainseastcoast.com/planerelief
- To access this offer, please complete the form on this page. Evidence of an Edinburgh to/from London flight between 01/01/15 – 31/12/16 required for code to be issued.
- If your submission is valid, a promotion code will be shown on screen. The code will also be sent to the email provided on the form within 24 hours of submission. Your code is required to access these tickets
- Offer ends when 20,000 codes have been issued or on 03/11/16, whichever is sooner.
- The code is valid for one transaction only for up to four adults and four children (each way) for use until 23.59 on 10/11/16
- One promotion code will be issued per valid email address only. Multiple submissions will not be accepted
- Promotion code can only be used when booking through the promotional link on this landing page or on the email you may have received
- Valid for travel from 06/10/16 to 16/12/16 inclusive
- Where the booking and travel periods overlap, bookings can be made up to the day before travel
- Tickets are valid on booked date and train only
- Tickets are subject to availability
- No other offers, vouchers or discounts can be applied, including Railcards or child discounts. No changes, no refunds and no break of journey permitted.
About Virgin Trains:
Stagecoach and Virgin are working in partnership to operate the East Coast and West Coast inter-city routes under the Virgin Trains brand. Together, they are on track to revolutionise rail travel across the UK.
The combined network connects some of the nation’s most iconic destinations including Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, York and London.
Virgin Trains is committed to delivering a high speed, high frequency service, offering shorter journey times, more comfortable travel and excellent customer service. Customers consistently rate Virgin Trains as one of the top long-distance rail franchise operators in the National Rail Passenger Survey (NRPS) commissioned by industry watchdog, Transport Focus.
On the East Coast route, £140m is being invested to create a more personalised travel experience. We have already invested £21m to completely revamp our existing fleet and customers can now benefit from 42 additional services (22,000 extra seats) per week between Edinburgh and London. 2018 will see the introduction of completely new Azuma trains being built in the UK by Hitachi.
The West Coast route has a proud record of challenging the status quo - from introducing tilting Pendolino trains, to a pioneering automated delay repay scheme and becoming the first franchised rail operator to offer m-Tickets for all ticket types.
Visit the Virgin Trains Media Room - virgintrains.co.uk/about/media-room - for the latest news, images and videos. Subscribe here for regular news from Virgin Trains.
Press Office: 0845 000 3333.
