Brand values: The greenest way to travel

German Rail’s 100% green energy powered trains are the most environmentally friendly way to travel in Germany.

The Brief

German Rail wanted a sequel to promote their summer offer.

They also wanted to raise awareness for eco-friendly travel and to convince Germans to travel by train instead of planes.

Meeting business objectives

- Awareness for eco-friendly travel with German Rail

- Increase of interest for the summer offer

- Increase of sales to the 2018 campaign

Creativity - powered by data and technology

To inspire travel enthusiasts, we showed them offers that exactly matched their needs.

Through social media data, we found travelers who are interested in specific destinations. Geo-targeting pinpointed the users’ current location – and the closest airport. Another algorithm found the destination airport. This data was sent to a search engine that determined the CO2 emissions of the flight and the cheapest flight connection.

We showed users how much CO2 the flight emitted and how much the ticket cost.

And made an unbeatable counteroffer. The best price and almost zero CO2 emissions using the train.

We created completely automated side-by-side ads in an infinite number of variations:

- One side:A picture of the desired destination abroad with high CO2 emissions and the ticket price.

- Other side: A picture of a similar-looking destination in Germany with low CO2 emissions and the train price.

We increase relevance and interest by establishing a personal connection.

Travel is a very personal matter. We need a destination the user is interested in and the current location of the user to define more user relevant data:

- Arrival airport at the desired destination

- Departure airport at the current location

- CO2 consumption via plane

- A destination in Germany that is visually very close to the desired destination

- CO2 consumption via train

Co-operations to turn complex data into simple stories

To make our ads truly relevant we had to use a complex dataset, cleverly integrated and targeted to the right people in the right context, adapting to daily events. Spirable combined the data and automatically processed all information into posts. Facebook served these videos to travel fans.

Each ad held a relevant message: Every user gets to know the exact amount of CO2 they’d save.

Data and technology gave each comparison ad even more relevance.

Through Facebook data, we found travel enthusiasts who are interested in specific destinations. Geo-targeting pinpointed the users’ current location – and the airport closest to them. Another algorithm found the destination airport. This data was sent to a search engine that determined the CO2-emissions of the flight (Atmosfair) and the cheapest flight connection.

We then showed users how much CO2 the flight emitted and how much the ticket cost.

And made an unbeatable counteroffer. The best price and almost zero CO2 emission using the train. These ads were completely automated. In an infinite number of variations.

The videos also reacted to daily events.

During Fridays for Future demonstrations special postings were geotargeted and directly addressed the young target group fighting for a more sustainable world.

Sparking a conversation that literally reduces CO2

The campaign changed the conversation from what you have to sacrifice to reduce your CO2-footprint to what you can experience. Users, magazines and associations picked up on #NoNeedToFly, resulting in positive sentiment for the brand.

The quantitative results supported the positive reactions as well:

We raised the VTR by 163 % in comparison to benchmark campaigns of German Rail. We raised the CTR in 2019 compared to 2018 Campaign by 113 %

In the end, we not only initiated an important conversation, but actually saved CO2. Sales increased by 26% compared to the previous campaign, promoting the switch from plane to eco-friendly trains.