A little luxury train that could
Silence can speak volumes. Case in point: a recent Rocky Mountaineer TV spot in which a series of the Canadian train company’s riders are asked to describe the experience. Each rider (they’re real customers, not actors) is at a loss for words. Complemented by shots of gorgeous scenery, perfectly presented food and cheerful staff, it’s a stellar example of “show, don’t tell” storytelling.
It’s also the kind of ad that gets people to shell out big bucks for a train trip. Rather than cave in to today’s travel industry trend of discounting, Rocky Mountaineer made the bold move to maintain its position as a luxury experience—a strategy that has paid off.
• Canada is struggling to attract international tourists—arrivals are down 18% in the last 10 years. Add the fact that the Canadian Tourism Commission has had its budget cut by roughly half in the last three years and Vancouver-based Rocky Mountaineer had to up its marketing game. The company reached an extra 60 million U.S. consumers by increasing its penetration into new markets, including Ohio, New York and Arizona. “When we look at trying to market Canada as a whole, we have to stand on our own two feet a lot of times because we aggressively go after the U.S. market,” says Hubert Wat, vice-president of global marketing. Australia, the U.K. and Canada are Rocky Mountaineer’s other biggest markets. It enjoyed a record-breaking year of revenue growth in those markets: +35% in the US, +20% from Australia and the U.K. and +10% from Canada.
• Competing against tour operators and the plump national tourism budgets of other countries from around the world, Rocky Mountaineer was armed with a comparatively small marketing budget. Rocky Mountaineer is working with a budget that’s “single digits in terms of the millions.” Still, the privately owned company ran roughly 1,350 ads globally last year, and did the lion’s share of its marketing work in-house with a team of eight.
• Promoting premium train journeys that cost an average of $1,000 per day during a time when travel operators are touting all-inclusive two-week trips that include tours and travel for $1,200 is difficult, but Rocky Mountaineer excelled at the challenge. Rather than join the discount trend, it boldly pushed its top-of-the-line GoldLeaf service. “We make no apology for the fact that our product is premium-priced,” says Wat. Instead, Rocky Mountaineer educated and created awareness around the brand’s superior service, impeccable food and remarkable scenery, through things like in-market consumer shows that let potential guests get a taste of a day in the life of a Rocky Mountaineer traveller through presentations by train managers.
You can find out who will be named our Marketer of the Year on Jan. 29 at our Best of 2013 cocktail party. Want to attend? Lots of important people will be there. Visit us online for more information.
