A marketing campaign to target passengers attending local events and attractions is reaping success for Stagecoach East.
Press releases encouraging users take the bus to the Peterborough Beer Festival and the Bedford River Festival, and to see the sights of Cambridge, are among those that have been used by local press.
The operator has also promoted travelling by bus to a Peterborough shopping centre to see pictures on loan from the Natural History Museum, the food festival Feast on the Square, and the Peterborough Dragon Boat Festival, among other events.
The tactic is paying off with a claimed year-on-year increase in passenger numbers to attend some gatherings.
PR and Communications Manager Stephen Kiely says: “Our thinking is to promote the value of bus use to local people who may or may not be regular bus travellers. We often say that ‘people do not often get a bus just to get a bus, they get it to go somewhere’, so we can help them to see that there are events and activities locally that they can get to easily and at great value by bus.”
On success of the press releases, Mr Kiely adds: “We have been very pleased with the levels of readership and interaction. They are giving useful information, so it makes sense that they should be well read.
“Where we can directly measure the performance of our wider marketing activity, for example with the X12 ‘seaside special’ service between Peterborough and Skegness, we have seen significant passenger increase year-on-year.”
He recognises that not all operators have the manpower to achieve such PR output but adds: “Bus operators should always appreciate that we are an important part of our local communities, so local people will generally want to hear about our news.
“If a more in-depth story, which involves significant research, is not possible, there are still opportunities for human stories such as people who have won an internal award or who are doing something for charity. All this goes to humanise the people behind local bus operations.”
