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What is the award for?

This award is designed to recognise the skills of individuals involved in the management and implementation of marketing projects in the UK public passenger transport industry.

Winner

• Chloe Leach, Arriva Yorkshire

Chloe has created high profile media events which have led to certain ideologies within the industry being tested. By using innovative and fresh ideas she has challenged the way the industry is perceived by both the customer and the media.  Her results have exceeded business expectations, whilst both the public and company staff have benefited from her hard work.

• The Judges' Verdict

Chloe has demonstrated very enterprising use of PR events as one means of getting across the message about Arriva Yorkshire’s initiatives and product developments. There was very clear evidence of original thinking in conceiving the strategy and her ability to implement projects and ideas very effectively. Positive PR activity is a vital and often under-used tool in managing and improving perceptions of the public transport product, and Chloe’s work demonstrates how valuable it can be.

Highly Commended

• Graeme MacFarlane, First ScotRail

Graeme Macfarlane dug deeper than ever before to know his market - and emerged with a record-breaking, highly profitable summer leisure marketing campaign.  The campaign - linked to core audiences and leading Scottish brands - achieved significant increases in leisure travel over the summer.  It generated more than £700,000 - a 151% increase on the 2006 campaign and a 7.2: 1 return on investment.

• The Judges' Verdict

Successful marketing in public transport is often about giving potential customers reasons to use services: tourism and leisure attractions offer huge opportunities to create additional demand at times when capacity exists, so making a vital contribution to improving the economics of operation. The judges felt that Graeme’s work showed exemplary implementation of this type of campaign, with a high degree of personal commitment and skill.

• Elaine Rosscraig, Stagecoach Group

Elaine leads Stagecoach UK Bus's central Research and Development Team, responsible for the multi award-winning ‘Where You Want To Be', a constantly evolving marketing acquisition programme, which is operated across the entire group. It is aligned to the Business Plans of each subsidiary, and their acquisition strategy or Kick Start activity.  The program is formulated around a set of templates which facilitate a consistency in brand communication across the UK.

• The Judges' Verdict

Elaine’s work for Stagecoach deploys another set of skills in the marketing toolbox, in the form of highly targeted sales development work. Her work in devising, implementing and refining the project shows a high degree of skill and commitment.

Who could be nominated?

This award was open to anybody working in a marketing, sales, advertising or public relations role within organisations associated with the public passenger transport industry in its widest sense. Nominees could therefore include people working for operators, local authorities, manufacturers, consultancies or industry suppliers.

... and by whom? 

Anybody working in the industry, or as marketing professionals in companies or organisations working with transport operators - though the nominee’s consent to the nomination needed to be obtained and demonstrated.

Criteria and Entry Requirements

The Judges in this category were looking for the marketing professional in an operating company, local authority, partnership or other organisation that could show how the spirited use of marketing methods for which they have been responsible had achieved its campaign objectives. Creative marketing wins hearts and minds and successful brands live: the winning professional delivered a project or projects that have an outstanding quality that fires the imagination of customers.

The judging was based on the quality of the submissions made, which had to: 

• Demonstrate the status of the nominee within the organisation, and show the relationship of the campaign to this
• Demonstrate the nominee's role in
• The setting of the organisation's overall marketing strategy
• The planning of specific campaign(s)
• The proposals for setting targets
• The execution of the campaign, showing methods used and why, how demand was stimulated and customer access to the product improved, and how potential customers were identified and informed
• Describe how the campaign was monitored and measured, with statistical evidence of its effectiveness