ABOUT

Background:
For nearly 30 years, c2c rail has been connecting South Essex to London. This local train line, just like the communities it serves, has a lot of personality. Except that when it came to sharing important travel information there was a distinct lack of personality. Station announcements have a bad rap for delivering negative or boring news, so busy passengers simply weren’t taking any of their messages in. c2c needed a way to stand out and find some character. Or rather, create a character.

Solution:
Cue - Pip! A friendly, big-eyed character to stop people in their tracks and bring some character and charm to a range of station and travel updates: from planned engineering works to how to top up a Smartcard. We wanted to root Pip firmly in the train world, borrowing the shape of the front of a train to create their big, blocky, distinctive shape and large, headlight eyes. As the face of c2c, and deliverer of often dry information, we also needed Pip to be approachable and likeable; a figure which passengers could instantly warm to and feel connected with. Once Pip had been designed - a deliberately non-binary, versatile character - they were joined by a series of friends, from a grandpa to a skateboarder to a station master, as well as quirky yet relevant objects and props. Each illustration trod the line between nuance and simplicity, so viewers would instantly understand the message, even if they didn’t have time to read all the copy because they were rushing.

Results:
Pip has sparked discussion on social media, been coloured-in by beloved, smaller fans, and promoted holiday campaigns. For the first time in the brand’s 30-year history, c2c have a personable, loveable Travel Assistant who can ease the pressure on staff on the ground and complement c2c’s customer service promise. And the community had a friendly face for their favourite local train line.