Working from a brief to capture the sentiment that the best things in life aren’t things, we created this new campaign for National Express that highlights the joyful everyday life moments that their unique network makes possible.

From the taste of an ice cream on holiday, to that first hug when you’re reunited with an old friend, to finally managing to get away from it all – National Express is there to get millions of people to some of life’s greatest feelings.

This campaign celebrates the possibility of this service, and together with the Express Yourself positioning, invites the people of the UK to get out there to their good time destinations.

A geographically targeted campaign running all through spring, it can be found across outdoor, social media, video on demand and audio streaming platforms in cities across the UK.

Thanks to the highly flexible nature of the creative idea – something we always start with at One Black Bear – we were able to roll out over 300 unique assets for this campaign across a myriad of shapes, sizes and runtimes.

With video formats brought to life by the remixed vocals of Charles Wright’s classic Express Yourself, we like to think this is a campaign that sings on so many levels.

National Express Student Ad Campaign

A new term is upon us but even as hordes of freshers across the land go berserk on cheap booze, noodles and lie-ins, nothing but nothing beats returning home for the first time when you’re a student.
Back in your own bed, washing all done, raiding a fridge full of (branded) food – not to mention the endless fuss.

No need to plan ahead

And the great thing about going home with National Express is you don’t need to plan ahead to get a low fare, because they’re always low.
This got us thinking that while students are having fun, what’s going on back home? After all, cat’s away and all that.

Bosom of the family

So our new student campaign poses ‘WHO KNOWS WHAT YOU’RE GOING HOME TO’ and features students returning to the bosom of their family only to find their respective folks indulging in some naked gardening or getting a bit too familiar with the neighbours in their newly acquired hot tub. The campaign plays out via digital video, OOH, CRM, radio and social as well as on-campus activation.

Our main goal was to improve key brand metrics amongst students, which was very much achieved. Take a look at the change from December 2018 – December 2019:

Brand consideration – 23.2% – 24.7%
Purchase intent – 4.8% – 7.2%
Positive impression – 11.5% 13.9%

National Express Student Ad Campaign

If you’d like to turn up announced and surprise us with an advertising challenge, you can find us here. We promise to be wearing clothes.

Look Beyond Ad Campaign for coach brand National Express

Summer 2018 saw our Look Beyond campaign for National Express continue with aplomb thanks to the efforts of a great team (and great client) working hard to get this beast of a campaign – over 900 separate pieces of artwork – landed in time. Phew.

Boasting a plethora of media channels from outdoor to press. Digital to social. Video to radio… and a whole bunch of variants written specifically for different regions, the campaign delivered incredibly strong numbers. Core revenue was up 10.1% and passenger numbers grew by 6%. And importantly ROI was up 33% against forecast. This really was an impactful campaign that it appears the public appreciated the targeting and local messaging.

Look Beyond Ad Campaign for coach and travel brand.

If you would like us to help you look beyond the norms of advertising, drop us a note saying: ‘I see further by standing on the shoulders of bears’ here.

National Wonders Social Media Content Campaign

Introducing our new social media campaign for National Express that will see us embark on a journey across this amazingly wonderful nation of ours, seeking out the quirkier side of what we get up to.

Travelling the length and breadth of the UK, we will film some brilliant events with our presenter Ben Kane. We’ll also be sending out a team of blogger influencers to cover even more the nation has to offer and finally we’ll unearth some truly delightful events and help promote them through both organic and paid social. A year long strategy creating content that can be used well into the future and will have something new and exciting to talk about every week.

Created against a backdrop of the doom and gloom of Brexit, the concept is a celebration of what makes us as a nation so unique and fun, National Wonders will take in the places that are off the path well trodden – so hop on board and join us as we ask ‘Is this really how the UK spends a day?’

National Wonders Social Media Content Campaign for UK coach company, National Express.

If you’d like to see what wonderful gems we could unearth for you, drop us a note saying: ‘I wonder if you could make me famous…’ here.

Three new pick up points to take travellers to Stansted in around an hour. Our idea? Ruffle some feathers with an eye-catching, engaging experiential stunt right in the heart of London.

We filled a National Express coach with 50 ‘pigeon heads’ and released our kit at Waterloo, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Trafalgar Square over the course of one morning – much to the delight and bemusement of commuters and tourists alike.

What were we thinking? Well, ahead of the Spring Bank Holiday, our client told us it was set to be the biggest weekend yet for travel, with some 300k holidaymakers set to fly from Stansted alone. And when you think of London and flying, our grey feathered friends came straight to mind.

Incentivised with a competition to win flights from Stansted for the best #catchthepigeon selfie, we wanted to create a buzz on the ground, on social and in the media.