Connelly Partners has rolled out a new campaign for Bus Éireann’s Expressway national coach service that puts the destinations served by its network at the centre of the creative.
The campaign, “Just an Expressway Away”, promotes destinations across nine Expressway routes, including Cork, Tralee, Limerick, Bundoran, Galway and Sligo, as well as Dublin Airport.
Rather than focusing on the coaches themselves, the campaign uses destination photography to highlight the experiences and locations that passengers can access through the Expressway network.
The out-of-home element has also been designed around the routes available from each location, with advertisements only promoting destinations that can be reached directly by Expressway from the town or city in which the advertising appears.
The campaign also taps into growing consumer interest in experiences including outdoor activities, live music, short breaks and visiting friends and family. Expressway is positioning the service around its ability to bring passengers directly into the centre of towns and cities, with many of the experiences featured in the campaign located within walking distance of its stops.
Connelly Partners creative David Register travelled around Ireland over eight days to shoot material for the campaign, producing 34 photographs and eight films.
The campaign also includes a travel magazine highlighting local attractions, cafés, pubs, walking routes and lakes across destinations served by Expressway.
Launched on September 7, the campaign is running across out-of-home, social channels, VOD and is also supported by creator-led content.
According to Eimer Callan, marketing manager, Bus Éireann, the campaign is intended to broaden awareness of the Expressway network while also supporting passenger growth.
“For this campaign, we wanted to move away from competing at micro level to competing at a macro scale, appealing to a broad audience across mass markets and raise awareness of the Expressway network,” she said.
“We took a dual-track approach which consisted of brand-building metrics and sales activation, with the ultimate objective to encourage consideration of taking the coach and drive passenger growth for the business.
“‘Just an Expressway Away’ positions our network as an enabler for real journeys, connecting people seamlessly across Ireland to who and what matters to them, offering a customer-focused, reliable and premium service.”
Mike Fleming, creative director, Connelly Partners, said the agency deliberately avoided making the bus itself the focus of the work.
“The best way to show off what makes the Expressway brand special is not to show pictures of a bus but to really hero all the incredible places in Ireland Expressway can connect you to,” he said.
Credits
Client: Bus Eireann
Head of Expressway: Andrew Yates
Marketing Manager: Eimer Callan
Digital Marketing Specialist: Thais Bacelar Araujo
Creative Directors: Mikey Fleming, Sam Moorhead
Copywriter: Ellie Baldwin
Art Directors: Ronan Doyle, Adam Murnane
Motion Design: Tom Lennon
Design: Shane Campbell
Account Director: Anita Freeman
Account Manager: Phuong Nguyen
Social Media Manager: Rachel Clarke
Photographer: David Register
Producer: Keeva Bolger
