V/Line Guilt Trips Campaign

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The Challenge

V/Line is Australia's major regional train operator. Our task was to encourage family and friends living in the city to visit their loved ones in the country.

Execution

Instead of us doing the talking, we recruited those who knew them best and harnessed the most powerful force in the universe- a mother’s guilt.

We invented the Guilt Trip. It was a pre-paid ticket that could be purchased by parents and friends. It all started with a microsite.

On the microsite abandoned loved ones could create a personalised guilt inducing message, then purchase a ticket. This was then sent directly to the guilty party in the form of an eDM.

We also created booklets to help refine their guilty messages, and print, web banners and radio all worked together to drive traffic to the microsite. Tickets wallets and posters in stations reinforced the campaign from a regional perspective.

The travel experience as we knew it was completely rebranded. People no longer went home to visit their parents, they went on a Guilt Trip.

Results

 11% increase in ticket sales 400% return on investment.