Arriva and FlixBus UK have each launched brand awareness campaigns for their respective services that major on video advertising across multiple media channels.
The Arriva work will initially run until 18 August and is part of a wider promotional exercise. It is built around a pilot advert under the strapline of ‘There’s a bus for that’. The group says that the campaign is intended to highlight bus travel as a whole, and not solely its own services.
FlixBus UK services will be promoted via other means in addition to addressable and online TV, with radio, digital audio, social media and display among them. It has adopted the ‘More Life in Real Life’ concept for promotion of its coach services, an approach that debuted in selected other markets during 2023.
Research by Arriva showed that for delivery of behaviour change, emotional engagement is key. Its campaign thus focuses on how a bus journey can connect people with where they wish to go and those they want to be with.
The Arriva pilot advert has launched in Luton, Merseyside and Milton Keynes, and it will be shown in cinemas and via on-demand streaming services.
Throughout the campaign, bus use will be tracked in those target areas, as will interaction of audiences with it, such as the number of views and clicks generated by online elements and the driving of ticket sales. If it is successful, it will be rolled out to further areas.
Arriva Managing Director Regions Alistair Hands says that the advertising forms part of a strategy for sustainable growth and that it targets potential customers.
Meanwhile, the FlixBus campaign is UK-wide and will run from late May until October. Like the Arriva work, the advertising aims to tap into “the emotional aspects of travelling as well as the positive benefits of coach over other modes of transport,” FlixBus UK says.
Its advert shows passengers enjoying real-life moments of fun on a coach as well as various social situations. Utilised is a Yutong GT12 coach from operator partner Belle Vue Manchester.
Flix Brand Team Lead Benedetta Chiumenti says that the business wanted to maintain “the authentic, real-life feel of the campaign we launched in continental Europe last year,” and that USPs of the service and range of destinations are clearly presented to the UK audience.
The brief here was to include stronger elements of the FlixBus green identity and to increase brand recognition, along with clear shots of the modern coaches utilised on its network.
FlixBus UK clip here.
