TRANSPORT FOR LONDON
After a year at M&C Saatchi I was asked to help on the TfL business, as they had given us a mere 3/10. I immediately called Chris MacLeod, head of TFL and we arranged a breakfast. After a few cups of caffeine, I asked questions trying to get to the bottom of things and I said “Chris, if you could wave a magic wand, what would you like?” He replied, “Elspeth I just want to be Advertiser of the Year again. And I want to know the agency cares enough to help us get there.” As soon as I got back to the office I wrote an email to the relevant people expressing Chris’ ambition.
Alongside CEO Camilla Harrison, senior strategist Cressida O’Shea and
Business Director Ed Palmer, we worked our socks off. We listened more, engaged more in conversation, turned work around quickly. I made sure I presented every campaign that year. And week by week the relationship improved. The clients were amazing. They just needed to see a little more TLC for TFL.
By the end of the year, two things happened that made me proud. We went from a 3 out of 10 to an 7.8 out of 10. And TfL, thought they didn’t win ‘Advertiser of the Year,’ they did come runner up. A feat one would have thought impossible at the beginning of the year.
It was a great reminder that listening and care is one of the most important things we can do day in day out to make clients feel we are on their side. When they feel that, they trust the agency more and then it makes it that much easier to sell better work. I would call that a win win, and a great lesson to never forget.
Along with a couple of the films on my site, these are a few of the ideas that helped them with Advertiser of the Year. Some we did some, some they did, but overall a true team effort.
ATTENTION!
This ‘ad’ became a sell-out poster for TfL within 3 weeks. TfL encouraged a city of more than 8 million to make way for the world’s largest annual sporting event. In interviews after the event, nearly 2/3 of all Londoners felt they understood the impact the Tour De France would have, due to this campaign. We also made 101 bespoke Tour De France Barclay bikes to celebrate the occasion.
RUN FOR THE TUBE -
A PARTNERSHIP WITH NIKE
To help mark TfL’s 150th anniversary, TfL collaborated with Nike to turn the famous 1978 tube seat design into limited edition NIKE X Roundel trainers. They completely sold out in 1 day.
A BUS STOP MADE OF 100,000 BRICKS
TfL put the fun back into the daily commute by teaming up with the iconic children’s brand to make a fully functioning bus stop made entirely of Lego. “Many thousands of people pass along Regent Street each day,” Leon Daniels, Transport for London’s Managing Director of Surface Transport said, “we hope the new shelter will bring a smile to the face of even a hardened commuter.” The 4 week installation is part of TfL’s Year of the Bus.
#HOMESAFESELFIE
Where will your night end? At the crucial moment young women need to get home, we ask them to question where their night might end if they don’t book a licensed minicab. The print campaign shows the potential outcome using the ubiquitous selfie and the social allows travellers to show they did indeed get home safely. The likelihood of using an unlicensed minicab is now at an all-time low, more than halving since 2011.