LNER launching a mascot

[MrJeeves]

Seems like LNER are going to be launching a mascot for their services, similar to EMR Miles's introduction back in 2022.

They have rather ominously tweeted that "Something's coming..." with a fuzzy puppet-style hand in the corner of the attached image.

https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1744086511266455757

It's further been teased with an eyes emoji reply to someone pointing it out.

 

[Ashley Hill]

Something from the Muppets perhaps?

 

[800001]

Called Eleanor, and launched on ITV1 at 20:45 in Yorkshire, the North East and Scotland, during the show 'Vera'.

From Monday 8 January, everyone – including those in the South East – will start to see the new ad campaign across catch-up TV (places like ITVX and All4), billboards, social media and website banners.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Oh dear. What’s the purpose of that meant to be?

 

[800001]

Oh dear. What’s the purpose of that meant to be?

‘It’s all about freedom to travel by train’ from internal brief

 

[Adam Williams]

Is there a certain point at which marketing staff at train operating companies, with nothing better to do, feel compelled to work on gimmicks like this? EMR's was bad enough.

Back in the real world, passengers are dealing with an impending 5% increase in fares, continued ASLEF strike disruption & the DfT had to issue LNER with a breach notice (to be fair, for factors mostly outside of the TOC's direct influence) for breaching the permitted benchmark of service cancellations.

How much taxpayer money has gone on this "campaign"?

 

[MrJeeves]

How much taxpayer money has gone on this "campaign"?

I'm getting whiffs of an upcoming FOI from you here.

 

[azOOOOOma]

Cool name. El-ean-or almost sounds like ‘LNER’. I’m looking forward to seeing the campaign.

 

[Adam Williams]

El-ean-or almost sounds like ‘LNER’.

I am sure that that was no accident, and that someone in-house (or perhaps at a marketing agency) patted themselves on the back after coming up with it..

I'm getting whiffs of an upcoming FOI from you here.

As much as it's tempting, I feel like there's no shortage of actual work I should be focussing on for the foreseeable

 

[thomalex]

Oh dear

I wish it was the train coming rather than a mascot.

 

[greatkingrat]

I am sure that that was no accident, and that someone in-house (or perhaps at a marketing agency) patted themselves on the back after coming up with it..

Or maybe they just read this site a few months ago!

If you’re going to pronounce it then it’s better to call it “Eleanor”.

 

[High Dyke]

Oh goody. Another pointless gimmick mascot. The industry has far more important matters to resolve rather than wasting money on these things. Hopefully, it won't be as ugly as the East Midlands Railway (EMR) 'Devil from Hobbs End'.

 

[Adam Williams]

Or maybe they just read this site a few months ago!

Hope they're paying @AlterEgo royalties!

 

[TPO]

Is there a certain point at which marketing staff at train operating companies, with nothing better to do, feel compelled to work on gimmicks like this? EMR's was bad enough.

Back in the real world, passengers are dealing with an impending 5% increase in fares, continued ASLEF strike disruption & the DfT had to issue LNER with a breach notice (to be fair, for factors mostly outside of the TOC's direct influence) for breaching the permitted benchmark of service cancellations.

How much taxpayer money has gone on this "campaign"?

This.....

Oh dear

I wish it was the train coming rather than a mascot.

..... and this.

It's not a shortage of passengers that's the issue.

They need to fix the problems and run a reliable timetable not mess about doing marketing gimmicks.

TPO

 

[syorksdeano]

Something from the Muppets perhaps?

So I wonder which minister the Muppet will be based on

 

[Horizon22]

It's not a shortage of passengers that's the issue.

They need to fix the problems and run a reliable timetable not mess about doing marketing gimmicks.

TPO

People always say things like this. The marketing and communications teams are quite different entities to the performance, resources and control teams...

 

[MrJeeves]

People always say things like this. The marketing and communications teams are quite different entities to the performance, resources and control teams...

That's true, but people see their trains as operated by one entity. They pay money at the ticket office/machine/app to one entity. They complain at one entity when something goes wrong.

And they'll associate this waste of money (to them) to that one entity, too.

People will moan at station staff when a random TOC's train driver gets stuck due to weather!

 

[Adam Williams]

People always say things like this. The marketing and communications teams are quite different entities to the performance, resources and control teams...

The marketing team doesn't have a paybill of £0 either, though - and external agencies & TV placements can really work out to be quite expensive.

Who wants to bet on whether revenue will be able to be attributed to the performance of this campaign or not, to determine if there was actually a return on investment?

 

[Horizon22]

The marketing team doesn't have a paybill of £0 either, though - and external agencies & TV placements can really work out to be quite expensive.

Who wants to bet on whether revenue will be able to be attributed to the performance of this campaign or not, to determine if there was actually a return on investment?

Who can tell? Evidently the DfT are involved as this is a nationalised industry, so it is seen worthwhile of money. The marketing team will have a budget to spend accordingly. Neither you nor I are marketeers, and why shouldn't any train company advertise to try and improve passenger numbers? LNER has a particular competition against airlines, a little different from other operators. It's obviously risky, as any disruption makes the advert a little sour. But the immediate RailUK response is always like "Why don't you just run the trains on time??" when something like ghastly advertising comes up!

And they'll associate this waste of money (to them) to that one entity, too.

In your opinion it's a waste, but never advertising/marketing is also not an ideal strategy. Just because it's one entity, doesn't mean different approaches are tried.

 

[alistairlees]

How on earth can they afford to do this out of 5% commission for selling tickets? Oh, wait. They can't. They get to spend money that should be going on operations, staff, cleaning, stations, trains, etc. on marketing campaigns instead. All of this state-subsidised too.

 

[TPO]

Surely though, it is better to get the core offering sorted first, otherwise the marketing campaign can backfire as it brings in new customers who cannot be accommodated, so both the existing and new customers are (even more) disappointed leading to 1. Initial increase in customers 2. Increase in dissatisfied customers then 3. Those new customers plus some of the existing customers even less likely to use the service in future.

Business (marketing) basics.

Of course, if the business only monitors to step 1 it looks like a success whereas in the overall it was counterproductive.

One wonders if anyone in DfT has a clue......

TPO

 

[Adam Williams]

Evidently the DfT are involved as this is a nationalised industry, so it is seen worthwhile of money

The DfT has seen lots of things as "worthwhile uses of money" in the last few years which I have my own opinions about.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Oh goody. Another pointless gimmick mascot.

So, the mascot might possibly have been 'Eleanor' the cuddly snail? You can all provide your own punchlines!


Pic of cuddly snail. Not necessarily LNER's new mascot.

 

[Horizon22]

The DfT has seen lots of things as "worthwhile uses of money" in the last few years which I have my own opinions about.

Well quite! However, the general and immediate response from this forum is probably quite detached from the target audience.

 

[MrJeeves]

In your opinion it's a waste, but never advertising/marketing is also not an ideal strategy. Just because it's one entity, doesn't mean different approaches are tried.

Actually, I did say it's a waste to them. I'm not opposed to a mascot, and I understand the benefit the marketing will have to the general public or those on the edge of car vs. public transport.

I do, however, understand the majority of people on RailForums won't choose to travel/not travel because of a fuzzy figure with a cute-sy and gimmicky name, and this type of marketing is quite literally not targeted at us as a result.

 

[InTheEastMids]

Seems like LNER are going to be launching a mascot for their services, similar to EMR Miles's introduction back in 2022.

They have rather ominously tweeted that "Something's coming..." with a fuzzy puppet-style hand in the corner of the attached image.

https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1744086511266455757

It's further been teased with an eyes emoji reply to someone pointing it out.

Am I the only one that thought this looked like a muppet's hand making an obscene gesture to LNER?
The perils of only having 4 digits on the hand...

 

[Adam Williams]

Am I the only one that thought this looked like a muppet's hand making an obscene gesture to LNER?

Well, now that you mention it...

 

[dorsetdesiro]

So LNER joins these TOCs on the mascot bandwagon so far:

GA - Origami hare
TPE - Bucket & spade
SWR - Piegon & seagull (why?? The latter absolutely would tear to shreds & devour the former in real life!)
GWR - Famous Five
EMR - Miles the cat like muppet

 

[HullRailMan]

Oh my, I hate this sort of gimmick. Aside from the marketing team, who exactly thinks this nonsense is necessary? It’s like supermarkets paying through the nose for a ‘celebrity’ to be in their Christmas advert but not spending money to have humans in-store.

As has been noted already, LNERs main competition for London-Scotland traffic are airlines. They compete by being cheap and reliable. LNER are neither, and a teddy isn’t going to fix it.

 

[FGW_DID]

Shock, horror! A train company runs a marketing campaign with a “mascot”

Not exactly a new idea:

‘This is the age of the train’