The winner of this award will demonstrate the creative use of a range of marketing tools to grow their business and increase consumer awareness.

Any methods in the marketing toolbox can be used: branding, business-to-business, direct mail, media advertising, the internet, PR or a combination of all these techniques.

The important thing is that they will have delivered measurable results. At the heart of this success will be well-researched travel markets and clear monitoring criteria to judge results and fine-tune campaigns as necessary.

Results 2019

Winner, Gold Award: National Express

Give the greatest gift

Over the Christmas period in 2017, over half a million people travelled with National Express, making the festive season a key trading period for the business. The services operate throughout the period, running on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day, in contrast to the annual rail shutdown and engineering works. The 'Give the greatest gift' campaign conveyed how National Express brings friends and family together at Christmas, with secondary messaging showing how the company 'saves' Christmas, running services 365 days of the year when other forms of transport (rail) are shut down or offering limited services. Nearly 750,000 journeys were made across the National Express network during the 2018 festive period, an increase of 15% on the previous year. More passengers than ever travelled on both 25th and 26th December with Boxing Day being the busiest single day in company history with over 74,000 passenger journeys.

The judges praised Give the greatest gift on many levels. The scheme had a good focus and produced excellent results. The panel noted the impact of using social media influencers that reached a market that are the future coach travellers.

Winner, Silver Award: Stagecoach East Scotland

Express City Connect

The marketing activity carried out for Express City Connect coach services across the central belt in Scotland, has created modal shift through numerous targeted marketing campaigns. Investment in new vehicles has provided opportunities to promote the high quality services and vehicle features. Targeted marketing activity has increased usage of specific routes when a new customer proposition is available, such as the 'Fife in the Fast Lane' campaign which launched alongside the opening of the Forth Road Bridge as a public transport corridor, highlighting longer bus lanes, improved connectivity and smart ticketing. It was designed to reach commuters, so roadside and high footfall sites, along with commuter period radio slots, were selected. Messaging is always specific to each customer segment. For example, the messaging for a resident on the X51 Glasgow/Dumferline route, who may be unaware of the luxury coaches available, differs from an existing Edinburgh commuter presented with improved frequency using the new public transport corridor.

Fife in the Fast Lane must be the strapline of the century, commented one of judges. The panel were also impressed with depth and breadth of the market research undertaken as part of the marketing strategy. The scheme showed good partnership working and continues to produce modal shift from the car.

Winner, Bronze Award: Scottish Citylink Coaches

923 Glasgow to Belfast - targeted digital and outdoor marketing

Scottish Citylink undertook a jointly funded marketing campaign with StenaLine and Ulsterbus to promote the 923 service which operates between Glasgow and Belfast. This service operates three times a day and is an important competitor to air and the car. In early 2018 the company sat down with its partners on this route and decided that a marketing campaign was appropriate to boost awareness of the service and focus on the unique selling points that the 923 service has to offer when compared with alternative modes of travel. The combined budget allowed extensive media activity and delivery of a more targeted campaign for a modest investment, that produced a very impressive return on investment of £6.63 for every pound spent.

Scottish Citylink impressed the judges with this good example of partnership working that producing an excellent return on investment and expanded the market.

Finalist: Shearings Holidays

This is 2018

The 'This is 2018' campaign launched in January 2018 as an extension to Shearings previous 'This is' activity. 'This is' serves two purposes: an illustration of how proud the company is of its brand and what it offers to customers; and, when used alongside relevant imagery, it can be used to show customers that Shearings offers a range of products that might be different to what is expected. 'This is 2018' was developed to deliver an increased brand awareness and differentiated product offering to new and existing Shearings customers. The aim was to launch and deliver a multi-channel, multi-product campaign that brought the Shearings brand to life, engaged existing customers and attract new customers through illustrating what they could enjoy with Shearings in 2018, as well as changing perceptions of the brand. This campaign covered key channels such as TV, direct mail, e-mail, social media, press advertising, display and programmatic media and websites.

Finalist: Skills Group

Centenary Brochure

Skills Holidays is celebrating its centenary year in 2019 and the company launched its centenary brochure in September 2018. The strategy was to increase sales, but more importantly, to reward Skills' long standing customers. As a local Nottinghamshire family-run business, the company's main emphasis is on the loyalty of its passengers and it wanted to thank them for supporting the company over the years through the creation of Nigel's Golden Ticket, which offered £15 off per person.

Finalist: Stagecoach North Scotland

Service 10 - Aberdeen - Elgin - Inverness

Stagecoach North Scotland's express coach service 10 carries over 720,000 passengers each year and is a vital transport link for commuters, as well as those travelling for leisure between Aberdeen and Inverness. The service operates seven days a week up to every hour. In November 2017, £2.75 million was invested in new luxury coaches with leather seats, free wi-fi, toilet, climate control, and USB charging points. A marketing campaign supported the launch of the new fleet, resulting in an additional 5,000 journeys per week and a 40% uplift in the use of onboard wifi.

Finalist: Stagecoach West Scotland

Relaunch of X76 and X77

Stagecoach West Scotland identified that customer confidence in its express coach fleet had declined due to reliability, lack of value for money and age of vehicles. Patronage had reduced and customer complaints had increased. Major investment was made to introduce 11 new double decker coaches to the X76 fleet and replace the X77 fleet with 10 newer, refurbished single decker coaches, a first for this route. To support the introduction of new vehicles, revised timetables, better trained drivers, and a marketing strategy to engage with lapsed customers and attract new non-bus users was launched. The company changed direction in its approach by not publishing the monetary investment in the new fleet, but focussing on what travelling by coach could do for customers with an integrated offline and online campaign. This included promoting cost saving in comparison to car and rail, benefits of coach travel for commuters health and well-being, and positive attitudes to coach travel. In addition, the campaign emphasised that the express service was direct between Ayr, Kilmarnock and Glasgow, there was free wifi on board, leather seats, USB charging points and the route used low emissions vehicles.

Who could be nominated?

This category was open to coach operators or other organisations participating in the securing, marketing or promotion of coach services.

… and by whom?

As well as coach operators and suppliers of services to coach operators, we welcome nominations by customers, local authorities and tourist attractions. Where nominations are made by third parties, the nominee will be contacted and asked for additional information. Self-nomination is acceptable.