Case Studies

What Can We Help You to Achieve?

Increase Sales

Whether directly or indirectly, advertising is all about increasing sales. We understand this – we measure our own success in sales, too. It all gets down to numbers, to quantifying the success of the advertising campaign.

So, whether it’s pedaling a particular widget or promoting a national initiative, we keep our eye on the bottom line, establishing benchmarks and evaluating results to monitor our success and to justify your investment in our service.

Please read how we helped Virginia Railway Express successfully "sell" their train service to car-committed commuters.

Virginia Railway Express (VRE)

The Challenge: Selling seats on an empty train.

In 1997, Virginia Railway Express (VRE) had a big problem: very few people wanted to take the train to work. It was expensive, no one knew where it stopped, and a headline-making derailment didn’t help the cause. Our directive was straightforward: increase ticket sales (aka "ridership").

The Result: Sorry, this train is full!

By the conclusion of the campaign in 2004, VRE had become the second fastest growing commuter rail line in the country and the sales of fare cards had increased threefold. In fact, during the last two years of the campaign, the advertising objective changed from selling the benefits of rail travel to diverting passengers to less crowded train stations.

How did we help our client to succeed?

First, our research team identified a target market of moderate-income federal employees from strategic neighborhoods throughout the VRE corridor who would be most likely to benefit from rail service. Then, rather than attempt the near-impossible – to convince commuters to give up their cars entirely -- we developed an aggressive radio, TV and print campaign urging them just to try the train one day a week. A congo-like radio jingle promoting "V-R-E to-MOR-row" became the tune that people couldn’t get out of their heads.

To present the train alternative as a friendly and fun experience, we used whimsical hand drawn illustrations and maps of the routes in our print ads and direct mail. We also "wrapped" buses to look like VRE trains that sped along the HOV lanes of major highways -- past commuters stuck in gridlock traffic. Promotions with local radio stations included entertainment and give-aways at the train stations and a live DJ who interviewed riders as they traveled on the train.