thetrainline.com TV Advertising Campaign

Choo Choo Choose the Trainline - TV Advert

At thetrainline.com we know that train travel can be expensive if you buy your ticket on the day and that with all the different sorts of train tickets on offer finding the right one can be confusing.

That's why everything we do is aimed at helping people make savings on train tickets.

•  How to save money on train tickets

  • We offer lots of great travel tools that can help you make savings - from our Best Fare Finder which, if you're flexible on dates, helps you find the cheapest fare to our free thetrainline.com mobile app which helps you check train times and buy tickets wherever you may be.

    That's not all; we offer train ticket alert emails so you're the first to know when Advance Fares come on sale. We're the only website to show you when peak and off peak times are and you can even print your own ticket at home.

    We're constantly working to improve the service we offer you. We want to make thetrainline.com your first stop for savings on train tickets. But what good is that if we don't tell everyone about it and make sure they remember thetrainline.com is the place to come...that is where our advertising comes in.

•  Read more about how Martin & Neil brought this to life in our TV Advert

  • Martin and Neil work for thetrainline.com as marketing executives. They've enjoyed a good deal of success with their last advertising campaign featuring sheep but sadly after three years they feel it is time to send the baa baas off to the great advertising abattoir and come up with a new marketing idea.

    They know what they want to tell people; that's pretty simple: 'Book train tickets at thetrainline.com and you can save 43% on average compared to waiting to buy them at the station.' They've been telling people that and it's gradually working but Martin feels that they need a bit of a rocket to really propel the thought into people's heads.

    "What we need is a way of making people immediately think thetrainline.com when they think of buying train tickets" says Martin.

    They play around with several ideas until Martin says "I've got it and it's genius" He then proceeds to tell Neil that what they need is a song. After all, everyone has a song these days. But they don't want to be like everyone, they want to be better than everyone. They want the best song ever, the best, most catchiest song ever.

    "And a dance to go with it" adds Martin doing a train piston move with his arms.

    As Martin wiggles his way around their office, Neil has a thought. He grabs the computer and types something into YouTube. A few seconds of buffering later and the fruits of his labour are playing on the screen.

    The video of Black Lace performing 'do the conga' appears. Amazingly Martin and Neil manage to track Black Lace down and they agree to write a special version of the classic tune.

    "This is bloody gold, this is" exclaims Martin after hearing it. "Wasn't that Spandau Ballet?" sort of jokes Neil!

    "Talking of gold, we need to spend some cash on this, make it a spectacular ad" says Martin. "I want dancing girls, real life trains, men, women and sheep, a conga line as far as the eye can see. I want pyrotechnics and gold, gold gold, everywhere, no expense spared."

    "We killed the sheep" replies Neil "and are you sure that won't all be a bit over the top?"

    "There's no such thing as too catchy" states Martin which becomes a bit of a catchphrase for him as he repeats it over and over during the next few weeks as they sell the idea in to their board of directors.

    View the new ad at the top of this page, or to see what fun Martin and Neil had making the ad click here.

    The new ad will be shown on TV. You'll also hear it on the radio and see adverts online.

    Choo choo choose thetrainline.com!

    To see more of Neil & Martin's antics and other people joining our conga, click here to view our trainline choo choob channel

•  What's the maths behind the 43% savings message?

  • We compared prices paid for Advance fare tickets on thetrainline.com (including the booking fee) versus buying on the day of travel.

    The average saving made by customers buying Advance fares on thetrainline was 43%.

    Advance fares are subject to availability and are not available on every route, but they are available on the vast majority of our most popular routes.

    Savings are available on Advance fares only, but thetrainline makes it easy to find cheaper tickets and make savings: the cheapest available ticket for a journey is highlighted in orange and we have some handy tools to make finding cheap tickets quicker and easier - click here to find out more.