Rail Business Awards 2010 Review


Katie Silvester and David Whitley


RAIL PROFESSIONAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR Presented by Katie Silvester, editor of Rail Professional


Dominic Booth (right) and Sir William McAlpine (left) present Ben Akroyd from Angel Trains with his prize, after his donation to RBF was drawn out of the hat in a prize draw


Digging deep for charity


Dominic Booth, chairman of RBA sponsor the Railway Benefit Fund and chief operating officer of Abellio, outlines the importance of the charity’s work


I’m passionate about the RBF, proud that we are the only charity offering help exclusively to people within the UK rail industry. Every year, for more than 150 years, we have given financial assistance, practical help and advice to hundreds of current and former railway people. Our help comes in many forms: it could be helping working families with debts, accessing treatment for disabled children, helping retired staff afford a stairlift; providing education grants to students, or helping with those dreaded final expenses. Of course, to carry on our good work, we need money. Our work has cost around £500,000 in each of the past three years and we aspire to give more to meet growing demand.


Many awards entrants made a donation with their entries and I’d like to say a big thank you to all those who did, with special mention to Northern Rail and Southern Railway for their generosity. The RBF is a great industry cause. Hopefully, you will never need our help but remember that we are there if you, your colleagues or your staff do.


n A collection on the awards evening raised around £10,000 for the Railway Benefit Fund, including a single donation of £1,000


‘Of course, to carry on our good work, we need money’


Finalists:


TfL London Rail for the wide range of marketing activity to drive awareness of the benefits of the East London Line extension First TransPennine Express for its campaign designed to beat the recession London Midland for the Great Escape, which allowed passengers to travel anywhere on the London Midland’s network for £10 off-peak, upgrading to first class for just £10 more Southern Railway for its new website, which was launched when the franchise was renewed Translink for a multi-layered marketing campaign promoting the new rolling stock and improved service Merseyrail for managing the closure of the Hants Cross and Liverpool Central Line East Midlands Trains for its summer 2010 campaign which achieved a turn- around in its sale of leisure products


Winner: London Midland Highly commended:


Southern Railway, Translink, Merseyrail, East Midlands Trains David Whitley, London Midland’s head of marketing, said: ‘We’re delighted! Last year we won on a price campaign, this year we’ve won on a similar price campaign – it just shows that people want something that’s simple and easy to remember. ‘We’ve had returns on investment of


about 7:1. We’ve run it three times and people are starting to ask, “When’s the next one?”’


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