36%* of Swiss people say, they feel lonely from time to time. And around 480.000* people in Switzerland have nobody to spend Christmas Eve together. To maximize the awareness and the engagement for the topic of loneliness on Christmas, we opted for storydoing instead of storytelling. To increase the loyalty we wanted the brand to really do something for the people. So we literally changed the “Christmas story” of lonely people in Switzerland and invited them to our Christmas train. And told this true Christmas tale via PR and Social Media. And we raised massive awareness by telling this story to the whole country.

(Source: Thomas Steiner, Specialist for psychotherapy (FSP))

The campaign kicked-off on November 15th as a simple post on Facebook from the Swiss Federal Railways, SBB. Five ads and advertorial articles got placed in 20min on- and offline. The articles talked about the number of lonely people in Switzerland and this special occasion created for them – and the different steps of preparation of the Christmas train.

From November 20 over December 1st, 7th and 18th some ads were placed and until December 27th the campaign got coverage in 20min – Switzerland biggest free newspaper. And the community talked about it online the whole time.

Dozens of employees of the Swiss Federal Railways turned their old-timer train “Red arrow - Churchill” into a festive Christmas train. People from the SBB Marketing baked hundreds of Christmas cookies and helped to organize and decorate this special train. And some even contributed their Christmas Eve to accompany this event.

80 lonely people, who were not lonely anymore on Christmas Eve. ??

Positive Brand Perception: ?+38%??

Campaign Likeability: ?73% ??

Brand Credibility: ?69%??

Paid Reach: ?5 Mio. People??

Total Reach:?19 Mio. People??

Earned media?: 454’100 Swiss Francs

??Social Media (earned): ??

Interactions: 49’617??

Views: ?51’248??

Likes:? 8703??

Shares:? 1879