National Express is the No.1 coach brand in the UK - it has 80% market share within the scheduled coach market, carrying 19m customer journeys every year. National Express needed to aquire fresh customers and deliver passenger volumes during the key summer period. This was considered essential for short-term volume growth, and also needed to maximise data acquisition on passengers who can make repeat journeys in the shoulder months.

To make National Express coaches the brand/mode of choice for cost-conscious consumers who are planning leisure journeys across the summer. This campaign was about short-term sales as a means of long-term acquisition.

A commercial editorial solution in paper, activated online - utilising an exclusive reader offer to generate front page exposure. The campaign focused on consumer interests i.e exploring the positive impact the credit crunch is having on domestic tourism, stirling exchange rate and the ecological impact of air travel. To drive engagement Mirror Innovations produced travel editorial supplements to inspire readers to reconsider caches. The exclusive £1 travel offer reccomended to gain front page exposure

5 Travel Features - 6 front pages across Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror & The People - 31 days activity - 34 executions in paper - 72,000 email signups - Approx. 80% of those were new customers 14,000 customer bookings - 28,000 one-way journeys booked - Generated in excess of £250,000 immediate business for National Express..!

We discovered that the combination of bespoke travel editorial written by Mirror journalists alongside the exclusive travel offer marketed off the front page, inspired readers to reconsider coaches. Mirror Innovations were able to measure the numbers of readers that followed the pathway that took readers from the front page, to travel editorial, to the microsite and on to the National Express retail site. This combination resulted in the strongest results ever realised from commerical promotion.