Bronze Best use of 2012 summer of sport

Client Transport for London

How did the campaign make a difference? The London 2012 Olympics was the largest ever peace-time logistical exercise in London. Transport would be under immense strain unless 30% of Londoners could be convinced to change travel habits. 35% of Londoners made changes; central London traffic was down by around 15% during the Games.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Over 12 million people use the Transport for London (TfL) network each day. The expected one million additional Olympics users would have put it under immense strain unless Londoners changed their travel patterns significantly. The multi-channel Get Ahead of the Games (GAOTG) campaign was underpinned by a sophisticated website providing travel impact summaries by station, by road, by day and how to cope. The campaign had to influence deeply entrenched travel patterns and convince people to plan ahead to avoid the busiest times and places. Customer emails played a crucial role in delivering key messages and driving website traffic. TfL's strategy was to use its database of over four million customers and road users to deliver unprecedented levels of sustained, increasingly targeted email, based on travel behaviours. This entailed an incredible 148 campaigns with 33 million emails before the Olympic Flame was lit and a further 73 million daily emails during the two Games periods.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Dynamic content displayed information based on individual customer data profiles. The emails were engaging and directed customers to the GAOTG site. There were three phases: raising awareness, driving behaviour change and making the change. Customers were encouraged to visit GAOTG for information, including online videos and a roads visualiser for details of temporary road changes, predicted wait times for trains and tubes, and alternative options. Once the Games started it was important to keep pushing messages every day about areas to avoid, targeted precisely according to each customer's actual travel patterns.

Results Around 35% of Londoners made changes to their travel, exceeding the target. Traffic was typically down around 15% during the Olympics. The forecast queues and gridlock simply didn't happen, despite a record 62 million journeys across the Tube network. Nearly 75% of respondents in the tracking study indicated that the messages delivered had been relevant to them, and nearly 80% had found the station advice useful, with the same number saying that road advice had been useful. ‘Thank you’ messages were sent to all registered customers and hundreds of positive responses were received.

Team Bev Newton, David Lathwell, Jon Myhill, Julie Dixon, Terri Lynam

Other contributors Dawleys – Database hosting and campaign data management, M&C Saatchi – Creative development