The Award nominated campaign “Coachfinder.co.uk”
Overview
National Express wanted to expand their influence in the private coach hire market with a new online coach booking service: Coachfinder.co.uk. Working with its Kent-based company – The Kings Ferry, Adams Group created the industry-leading website and devised an unconventional marketing launch strategy that broke new ground in the sector. We combined an ingenious idea to build the campaign on, and brought this to life across multiple channels including social media, blogs, online editorial, radio, online advertising, video and email.
The essential ingredient to success? Personality.
Aims
When launching Coachfinder.co.uk to a national audience, we had two main goals in mind. The first was to create maximum awareness among as wide an audience as possible for the budget (as this was a totally new service) and the second was to build a brand that people would both trust and like from day one. Which brings us back to personality.
What we did
We approached Brendan Sheerin, the popular host of the TV programme “Coach Trip” to launch the brand as its ambassador. Brendan has a larger-than-life personality and is well loved around the country. His partnership provided instant recognition among the target audience, and gave credibility and gravitas to an otherwise unheard of company. Brendan jumped on board (pun intended) and worked his magic.
Firstly, we artfully wrapped a 48-seater coach with the brand’s visuals (and Brendan’s smiling face of course), and toured this up and down the country. We ran a competition on social media for fans to win their own mini-coach trip hosted by Brendan, and invited press and bloggers in London to join us for launch ride around the capital. Thousands of people engaged with the campaign on Facebook and Twitter, and fans and bloggers shared their selfies and stories online. Brendan worked his magic in front of the camera, where the hilarious photo’s and videos were captured for use across email and digital advertising. We ran a home-page takeover with the Daily Express and the Daily Star, and Brendan’s voice rang out over the airwaves on the Global Radio network in Birmingham. And all in less than 8 weeks.
Client Testimonial
“Adams Group created and executed a launch campaign that broke the mold in this industry, and with early results looking very positive, we are delighted.”
Ben Bhattal, Commercial Director – The Kings Ferry (Part of the National Express Group)
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Client Testimonial
“Adams Group created and executed a launch campaign that broke the mold in this industry, and with early results looking very positive, we are delighted.”
Ben Bhattal, Commercial Director – The Kings Ferry (Part of the National Express Group)