Virgin Trains

Virgin trains used a tongue-in-cheek door drop to fill empty seats.

Background

Virgin Trains needed to fill seats on off-peak trains on their Manchester to London route.

Solution

They created a tongue-in-cheek door drop – ‘The Northerner’s Guide to London’. By taking the proverbial out of Southerners, it forged an immediate allegiance with their Northern audience, and a £10 voucher off their next journey offered a tangible reason to travel. The door drop targeted core Virgin Trains audience segments in areas around key Manchester stations.

Results

The door drop achieved a response rate of 0.14% - beating the industry benchmark of 0.1%. A 40% uplift. 11% of households (11,648) targeted with the door drop went on to purchase a Virgin Trains ticket generating £2.4million in revenue.

Source: Virgin Trains - DMA Award Entry