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Waking up to a unique way to travel | #BehindTheIdea

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Scottish train company Caledonian Sleeper recently launched its new brand positioning ‘Wake Up To A Unique Way’, a follow-up to the successful 2019 “Dream Big” campaign. The aim, as ever, is to drive traffic to the brand’s website while communicating the quality of the sleeper train experience, compared to driving or taking a flight to Scotland.

The new positioning and campaign is the first launched by full-service creative agency, TWELVE since being appointed to the account at the end of 2021. We caught up with Claire Fox, Business Director at Twelve, to go #BehindTheIdea and discover the unique comfort of sleeping on a train for ourselves.

What was the brief?

To develop a new brand campaign for Caledonian Sleeper that would bring to life their brand values and communicate the unique benefits of travelling by sleeper over car/flight. Key to this campaign was communicating that this was a welcoming and uncomplicated way to travel (in comfort) London to Scotland that really was accessible to all. 

How did the initial pitch/brainstorming phase go?

First off we had a great pitch team, where half were from Scotland and had experienced the benefits of the sleeper and the other half from London who were intrigued about this exciting ‘travel with a difference’ option.

The pitch phase also involved us working with our proprietary research consumer tool ‘Real Panel’ – giving us real-world insight and conversations with people who loved the Caledonian Sleeper (and lots of great reasons why) as well as those that didn’t know enough yet or had misconceptions and needed to be educated further.

What was the process behind ideating the concept?

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It was clear from our insight-gathering phase that this was a bit of a hidden gem with a lot of benefits over road/air/other train travel. It became clear that we needed to turn Scotland’s best kept secret into the best, most convenient and enjoyable way to get there.

Highlighting the many benefits and to give everyone else a wake-up to this different way to travel. So, wake up to the unique way to travel. Wake up to the Caledonian Sleeper.

What was the production process like?

The production process went really smooth predominantly down to the pre-production due diligence stages that we went through which  involved the production team actually taking the sleeper train, Euston and Glasgow station recces as well as visiting their main train depot plus we had the full involvement of the Caledonian Sleeper operational team from the word go. Our Client, Hollie Fraser (Marketing Manager) also really helped create a one team approach to the process.

What was the biggest challenge during production? How did you overcome it?

I would say that one of the challenges was filming around train schedules - ie we were only able to shoot the exterior platform footage between certain hours when the train was stationary and empty (which was between midnight and 5am)- this also meant a very strict filming schedule, with no flex to run over.

What kit/tools/software were used to create the project?

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With regards to equipment the ad was shot on an ALEXA mini with Canon Cine Prime lenses and a Move Rig for the walking shots. Various lights were used but we used a multiple mirror rig to emulate the motion of the lights in the carriage. The ad was edited in Adobe Premier Pro with VFX made in C4D and Nuke. 

What is one funny or notable thing that happened during production?

We were mainly shooting nocturnal hours and on the last day, which was 12am-5am,  it involved filming a dog on the platform (a real plus with sleeper travel is you can bring your dog with you).

So we had the most gorgeous dog Beau on set between 2am – 4am which was such a great morale and energy booster for all the crew and he was so well behaved. Overall we all saw very little daylight during the 4 day shoot which meant we all felt slightly jetlagged by the time we wrapped.

What’s the main message of this project and why does it matter?

That there really IS a different way to travel, one which it is hassle free, and allows you to travel in comfort and arrive feeling refreshed. You can experience a choice of delicious food, and it is accessible to families to older couples, for lone travellers as well as pet lovers. Hopefully it will challenge the misconception that this is a super-premium, occasional way of travelling.

How long did it take from inception to delivery?

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We won the pitch in November 21, started the pre-production in December, filmed early Feb and the campaign went live in March 22.

What do you hope it achieves for the brand?

I hope the brand sees a new audience of people booking and see experiencing the sleeper. 

Credit list for the work?

TWELVE - Creative/Strategy

Creative Director - Derek Bain

Business Director - Claire Fox

PINK BANANA STUDIOS - Production

Director - James Darnell 

Producer – Matt Critchfield

THE VILLAGE - Media

Digital Account Manager  - Kira Gilbert

Media strategist – Danial Long

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