Kevin Groves

Said the following about Network Rail Media Campaigns Team:

“The Media Campaigns team works tirelessly to promote the work that Network Rail and the wider rail industry undertakes to improve the rail network customers. The team has achieved great success over the past year delivering a number of high- profile campaigns including:

Small Talks Saves Lives

Developed in partnership with the British Transport Police and Samaritans, this campaign aims to educate and empower rail passengers to look out for one another – trusting their instincts if they see someone that might be in distress, speak to them to interrupt their suicidal thoughts and then hopefully set them on a journey to recover. Get the public involved in our suicide prevention work by looking out for people who may be in distress and getting help to them. Last year saw the team launch the latest phase of the campaign, seeking to increase awareness of the campaign awareness and reinforce intention to act. They achieved their goals, with their evaluation reporting that a third of people said they’d already approached and tried to help somebody who appeared to be in distress as a direct result of seeing the campaign.

Lorries Can’t Limbo

On average there are about 2000 railway bridge strikes a year, with each resulting in a £10,000 bill for repairs and compensation to train operators. The “wise up, size up” message of this campaign, sought to educate lorry drivers on the importance of measuring their vehicles and planning their route before they headed out on their journeys. Successfully run across the media, the campaign has been taken into some of the biggest hauliers, who are using the toolkit that we have created to educate their drivers.

You Vs Train

Trespassing on the railway is a growing problem and this campaign, again developed in partnership with the British Transport Police, targeted one of the worse risk groups for this behaviour – teenage boys. Run to coincide with the summer holidays, when the number of trespass incidents tend to peak, this campaign looks to raise awareness of the hidden dangers of trespassing by targeting both teenage boys and their parents. Focussing on key high-risk locations, the campaign has attracted nationwide media coverage as well as great awareness in is target audience. Feedback on the campaign has been very favourable (92% of children and 95% of adults said they were motivated to take positive action towards improving rail safety; 54% of children said they would take more care; 61% of adults said they would warn their children about the danger of being electrocuted) and, most importantly we’ve seen a reduction in reported trespass among young people at all our target locations.

On top of delivering these campaigns, the team has supported other parts of our business in securing media coverage for their work including level crossing safety, the dangers of being intoxicated around the railway, apprenticeship recruitment drives and much much more.

All the team members are collaborators par excellence, working across our communications functions – both within our central offices and those based across the routes and regions - as well as with the wider business and external parties to achieve the best possible communications outcomes. They have shown exemplary behaviours, building excellent relationships with clients and colleagues alike.

The team have achieved fantastic results -securing reams of media coverage, high visibility for their campaigns and multiple award wins to boot!

Passionate about their projects, they pull together and will work all the hours they can to ensure that they deliver their best work each and every time. And always finding the time to have a laugh together no matter how stressed things may get. A truly supportive unit, which is delivering great work, over and over again.“