LNER

LNER had big business ambitions to accelerate recovery post
pandemic and drive long term growth, so we needed to capitalise on the staycation opportunity of summer 2022 and make LNER the first choice to connect consumers with their destinations of choice.

To meet these ambitions the campaign needed to
achieve 32% spontaneous awareness and 56% brand
consideration.

Increased car travel had become more of a threat,
alongside domestic flights and the launch of direct
competitor Lumo, so the campaign needed to drive
emotional engagement to appear superior over the
cheaper competitor price and shake people out of default
behaviors in order to dominate travel along the East
Coast.

With the nation spending most of the pandemic on
the sofa, the TV had become increasingly important
to people, offering not only entertainment but comfort,
support, and escapism too – much like LNER itself.
In a bid to encourage the nation to get out and get
travelling, TV would allow us to reach our broad
ABC1 audience at scale, contextualise activity for our
‘anti-modal’ messaging (anti-car/flight) against key
programming and transport viewers from the comfort
of their home with storytelling assets, to deepen brand
affinity and inspire travel along the East Coast.

The role of the partnership was to capture our audience’s
attention with a one-off content series, re-building desire
and fame for the train and LNER quickly. And so, our
partnership with Channel 4 and production house The
Outfit was born, inspiring our audience to “Get Out There
with LNER”.
Working with much-loved channel talent Edith Bowman
we looked to engage all ages, leveraging her trusted voice
around key products and messaging. We showcased
destinations which had a tie to her life, featuring friends
and family and using their emotional connection to the
destination to drive consideration and brand love for
LNER (as a proud Fifer she has a long history with the
East Coast line).
To supercharge authenticity, the pre-production approach
was kept loose and unscripted, to create the most
believable and genuine lines from real conversations in
comfortable environments.