A new ad campaign for Thetrainline.com highlights how its bespoke app (available for Android and iOS devices) is (as the tagline says) “Brilliant for train stuff, but rubbish for anything else.” The campaign launched earlier this week, and demonstrates how simple it is to use the app to book train tickets and check detailed travel information. It does this by using a clever bit of reverse psychology to show how useful the app is for all train related scenarios, and how useless it is for anything else. The app can be downloaded for free either via the Google Play store, the Apple App Store, or the official thetrainline.com website.
The campaign launched earlier this week, and demonstrates how simple it is to use the app to book train tickets and check detailed travel information
The first 30-second ad devised by DLKW Lowe and directed by Hungryman film's Tim Bullock, begins by advertising the fact that thetrainline.com customers save an average of 43% on train tickets. It then dovetails into an amusing series of situations in which the app isn't quite as useful, such as being locked out of your car, using an ultrasound scanner to hear a babies heartbeat and skydiving. The ad is voiced by Inbetweeners star Simon Bird, who lends the ad a delightful tone that's undeniably jovial and undeniably British. Additional content will be rolled out throughout the year, which will continue using the same theme, but will focus on other benefits of the app, such as live departure information, which users can track to make sure their trains are on schedule.
A still from the classic 'Be Sensible' thetrainline.com ad, also by DLKW Lowe
Thetrainline.com marketing director Iain Hildreth explains that the campaign is engineered to appeal to a perpetually growing demographic of consumers who are “Accessing information and purchasing on the go.” He believes the campaign serves to court this market by communicating how “Thetrainline.com app can help make travelling by train that bit smoother.” He goes on to say that there has always been a touch of humour to all thetrainline.com ads (as anyone who has ever seen the infamous 'Be Sensible' ad will attest) and that he feels they've done that again with the new campaign. He says that he hopes the campaign will help consumers see that their fore “Really does lie within the train sector,” and jokes that as much as they would like to, they can't help users out of certain, non train-based predicaments.
The ad is voiced by Inbetweeners star Simon Bird, who lends the ad a delightful tone that's undeniably jovial and undeniably British
Jamie Elliot, managing director at DLKW Lowe, says that it's “Always exciting to evolve a successful campaign for a stand-out brand,” and believes that the app “Is a wonderful tool, with lots of great focused functionality, which deserves to be celebrated in an honest and irreverent way.” Few would argue that his agency have failed to do just that with the new campaign.
Benjamin Hiorns is a freelance writer and musician from Kidderminster who doesn't drive (doesn't have the patience for it), so often relies on thetrainline.com to help ferry him across the country.
