our workNetwork Rail / You Vs Train: stopping trespassers in their tracks
Every year in the UK, there are around 13,000 trespass incidents across our rail network. These incidents don’t only cause massive delays and disruptions, with over 400 trains affected daily. They can also lead to devastating consequences – with 20 lives lost on average each year. So we’re delighted to say that our Summer 2020 campaign reduced trespass incidents by 23%, in Network Rail’s first ever influencer marketing campaign.
We were briefed to stop a particularly stubborn sub-set of rebellious young adult trespassers in their tracks – but how do you get through to an audience with little time for being told what to do – and even less respect for finger waggy naggy authorities telling them to do it?
Driving change to save lives
80% of trespass incidents on the rail network involve adults over the age of 18. As Network Rail’s head of public and passenger safety Allan Spence says, “Although traditionally seen as a young person problem, the truth is adults are far more likely to put themselves in harm’s way – for everything from taking a shortcut or retrieving an item from the track, to anti-social behaviour.”
And these trespassers aren’t all ignorant to the risks. Our dig into Kantar data showed that they’re largely smart, switched-on, thrill-seeking types that see rules as guidelines at best and a challenge at worst. Traditional advertising simply wasn’t going to get through, so as Allan says, “we needed to try something new”.
The power of disruption
So how do you get adversarial, energetic rule breakers to play by our rules? By playing by theirs. It takes more than an ad campaign to change someone’s core values, so we worked with them, harnessing our audience’s naturally adversarial nature.
We worked with four carefully selected social media influencers, who each took on a ‘battle’ they felt passionate about in a short film – which was abruptly cut short by an ending the viewer simply won’t see coming. This ‘Trojan horse’ style approach enabled us to deliver simple, brutal messaging directly to our audience, while they’re in the mood to listen, from a messenger they respect – and in a way they’re not likely to forget.
The campaign, delivered through the influencers’ own social media channels and distributor SBTV’s, as well as in Silence digital display and Snapchat advertising, has so far delivered its message to over 2.2 million people. 80% said it made them feel differently about the railways, 75% said it taught them something new – and this led to change, with a 23% reduction in trespass incidents during the campaign period. Job done. “Our warning comes out of nowhere, as that is how the dangers on the railway can affect trespassers,” says Allan. “They don’t see it coming until it’s too late.”
This campaign was produced during the coronavirus lockdown in April 2020. Original plans to bring the influencers into a controlled studio environment with green screen had to be quickly reconsidered, so huge kudos goes to production partners Space Digital for taking raw footage and working VFX magic to deliver the wipe out moment. By coaching the influencers via Teams and briefing them on some simple practical effects they could easily achieve themselves, we delivered lockdown video content that doesn’t look or feel like your typical lockdown video content.
More information on the dangers of railway trespass and the campaign can be found on youvstrain.co.uk .