Peter Hess - **HAS LEFT**

Said the following about London North Eastern Railway (LNER) Communications Team:

“Category: Marketing & Communications Team Award

Entry: London North Eastern Railway (LNER) Communications Team

The challenge

London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is one of the newest brands in the UK rail industry. It replaced the previously failed private operator, Virgin Trains East Coast in June 2018.

LNER had less than 12 months before it was due to launch the first of 65 new Azuma trains into service on the route. A new in-house media team was appointed only three months before launch.

Not only did LNER need to establish the brand but also promote the new Azuma trains in an LNER livery, replacing the association with Virgin Trains to customers, media and stakeholders with a new LNER narrative.

Internally, the team faced a similar challenge. In a short time they had to generate excitement about the new brand amongst a dispersed workforce and get them engaged in one of the biggest transformation projects the East Coast has ever seen.

Our approach

With just three months until launch of the first Azuma train in passenger service, the new media team had to establish new relationships with internal and external stakeholders, media and industry authorities to develop and deliver a media launch plan and schedule, working to very ambitious deadlines. This was in synergy with creating new media office assets, processes and databases after the previous operator provided no transfer of database or handover.

The team also needed to establish a new press office function for day-to-day media activity at a time when public interest and media scrutiny in the newly-created public train operator was high.

After several previous well-documented failures of franchisees on the East Coast route, the need to demonstrate commitment, certainty and consumer confidence was key but also among colleagues with effective internal communication. In order to give the Azuma trains a chance at receiving positive coverage at the impending launch, we needed to work out a way to move our story on. A new company narrative and messaging framework was crafted to shape internal and external communications for the new business, which tapped into the rich heritage that sits with the LNER brand. It also brought to the fore messaging about transformation – of our business and the railway – and also our focus on putting our customers first, all through amazing people working with diverse communities.

The Communications team conducted a benchmarking exercise with journalists as well as informal conversations about how best to support increasingly under resourced media organisations after various cuts in local and regional newsrooms.

As a result the team very quickly coordinated a series of photo and video opportunities to capture rare moments when Azuma trains were on the route, prior to entering service, at a series of iconic landmark locations along the LNER route. This would help replace existing images media would use when covering the story of Azuma and help create a new LNER library of new imagery ahead of the planned launch events. A target of 200 downloads from the portal was set to demonstrate value of creating the site.

Images of the new Azuma trains and the various benefits they offer – from ergonomic seats, USB sockets, and accessible toilets to slow-closing coat hooks – were seeded on social media to create excitement as well as inform audiences. This was a key learning after some other train companies did not pre-promote on-board benefits of the new trains until they were launched into service and resulted in many customers being underwhelmed and ill-informed of the advances of the new train.

A strategy to better inform customers via the media was developed. Most proactive media releases would link back to championing the various benefits of the new trains that would be delivered with their entry into service. This was also helpful in reactive responses to media queries regarding the existing fleet, where existing problems could be dismissed as soon to be a thing of the past due to the many advantages of the new fleet. This was part of a wider piece of work to improve customer education of the new trains.

A special media portal was created to host broadcast quality B-roll video, high-resolution stills of Azuma trains at various points on the East Coast route and other media assets. These images proved an invaluable resource for media to access and use as part of the planned series of national and regional media launch events. A target of uploading both raw material such as general videos and interview clips along with an edited highlights package would be available within three hours of any event taking place. Pre-prepared content was also often used for media previewing launch events in breakfast bulletins and morning editions of newspapers.

The Azuma trains were the first new fleet to be introduced on the East Coast route in over 30 years. It was therefore important that the Communications team capitalised on this significant opportunity. Held across three days from 14-16 May 2019 in three locations - London, Leeds and Hull - the Azuma launch successfully captivated media, customers and staff alike.

A special media preview service was run on the first day, where media were given time to explore the new train and talk to key spokespeople. The decision to separate out the media launch from the first passenger service allowed the team to keep control over the message and focus solely on the experience of the journalists.

As Azuma had been out testing on the route prior to the launch, it was important that there was still a strong visual moment to celebrate the launch. Therefore, LNER gained permission from Network Rail to create a wall of smoke exactly as the train started to enter the platform at King’s Cross station, meaning the train dramatically emerged into the platform right in front of guests.

Further events were planned and hosted at key moments during the introduction of Azuma into passenger service. Designed to excite the general public and maintain momentum from the previous launch, each event has been given its own regional look and feel.

The launch of Azuma services to York saw the team work closely with the National Railway Museum (NRM) as the city is home to the historic headquarters of LNER. To make the media launch impactful, they asked ‘the impossible’ of the NRM – to release Mallard – one of the most iconic of the original LNER trains designed by Sir Nigel Gresley and the ultimate record breaker in steam train speed records. The team asked for permission to move it out of the Museum to York station, to welcome the new Azuma train to the city. This was a highly unusual request that required extensive negotiation, collaboration and engineering involvement. Once permission was granted, we were informed it was likely to be the last time Mallard would leave the Museum.

LNER also worked with the NRM to secure the involvement of another icon of LNER’s heritage, Flying Scotsman, to greet Azuma during a special media preview journey to Darlington station. By bringing together two titans of the British railway – both in service during the time of the original LNER – we were able to evoke the pioneering spirit and excellence for which LNER was known, and link it to the introduction of the first new trains on the line for 30 years. This created engaging, outstanding and memorable images that were highly shareable and became a new part of the LNER legacy of creating iconic moments.

Working in tandem, the Internal Communications team also managed to excite, inform and engage colleagues both in the build-up and during the launch. Work around this included, but was not limited to:

• Designing animations to tell the story of the Azuma customer experience

• Creating booklets with the detail behind how the trains work

• Supporting colleagues with rehearsal trains to trial our new processes

• Organising visits to depots so colleagues could see the trains being built

• Distributing Azuma collateral up and down the route so you couldn’t miss it

• Collaborating with our Azuma Pioneers and making the most of their knowledge

• Sharing videography to give colleagues sneak peeks of behind the scenes details

• Providing live Yammer streams for our colleagues who couldn’t attend launches

Results

Following an intensive period of building the team, systems and assets from a standing start and implementing a fast-paced launch programme for the new Azuma fleet, industry ‘bible’ RAIL Magazine ran an editorial with the headline “LNER Sets PR Example: openness and honesty are key to railway winning trust”. It stated: “LNER ‘nailed it’…LNER knew its audience, knew exactly the message it wanted to convey, and was open and transparent… Forward thinking companies such as LNER show what is possible…”

Extensive local, regional and national media coverage from each launch event reflected many of the key messages and imagery intended to promote the benefits of Azuma trains. Thirty-seven journalists and influencers attended the launch event at King’s Cross resulting in 377 pieces of coverage across international, national and regional titles.

The fantastic external results were replicated internally. The 2018 / 2019 annual colleague engagement survey took place earlier this year. It featured 12 categories, one of which was ‘communications’, which saw an overall increase of 14 per cent to 62 per cent since the last survey (this included the question “LNER does an excellent job of keeping me informed of company matters”). This was the single biggest category increase in the survey, and one of two categories in which LNER ranks above industry norm.

The approach taken by the team created a real excitement not just about LNER but about rail travel. LNER gained positive endorsements from business, industry, political and civic leaders and also brought colleagues on the journey.

Full coverage reports can be found at:

- Azuma Entry into service King’s Cross launch - https://rlsd.co/p/7I4BPw

- York and Edinburgh Azuma media launch - https://rlsd.co/p/okUD0w“