(The following story by Katy Bachman appeared at MediaWeek.com on March 11, 2009.)
With a nod to consumer belt-tightening, Amtrak bowed this week a branding campaign on spot TV. Scheduled to air through April, the spot is scheduled to air on network TV-affiliated stations in New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle. From mid-March to April, the spot will air in Orlando and Portland, Ore. The schedule calls for spots in a variety of dayparts including early morning news, prime time, sports programming, late news and late fringe.
The Amtrak campaign represents the company’s first branding spot developed by Arnold Worldwide’s Washington, D.C. office. In January, Amtrak launched a TV and out-of-home campaign for its Acela Express train service. That campaign will continue to run through April.
The newest TV spot contrasts two groups of children, those mimicking the frustration of traveling by plane and car, and a boy playing with a model train set as it speeds smoothly by on the tracks. The tag line: “The train has arrived indeed. Amtrak. Enjoy the journey.”
“This branding campaign is designed to leverage a confluence of factors that position train travel positively in American’s eyes,” said Gail Reisman, senior director of national advertising and marketing programs for Amtrak.
Amtrak is also running in parallel a online and print campaign, created by Images USA, for Acela Express targeting African American and Hispanic consumers.
Amtrak’s media spending, not including online, totaled $15.3 million last year, up from $14.8 million in 2007, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.