Case Study

Brief

The Arriva Group safely deliver more than 1 billion passenger journeys across Europe each year, so they want to provide the same dependable services online. The FTSE 250’s bus division need a website that reflects their warm and friendly brand and encourages more passengers to ‘Get on board’ Arriva Buses.

Also, garnering longer term customers who will buy higher value monthly tickets makes better business sense for Arriva. So how do they attract customers to the longer term option? And once Arriva advertise offline, where do customers go to find out what’s on offer and why it benefits them?

Strategy/Execution

Through our thorough Scope and Define process, designed to fully understand Arriva’s brand, business and customers, we are able to create a roadmap for Arriva’s digital journey. We take that information and create a website that meets everyone’s needs. With so many updates to services, the website needs to be bang up-to-date with accurate and easily accessible timetable and ticket information. Through Freestyle’s Elite Partnership with Ektron, one of the world’s biggest Content Management System providers, Arriva’s regional managers drive the customer experience further by uploading and managing local content. For Arriva’s customers, it means access to the latest relevant service information and offers, and for the business it means more ticket sales.

But success online is more than just a clever and attractive website. Getting to know their customers and measuring what works and what doesn’t work is the key to Arriva’s success in the digital space. The website is supplemented by multi-channel campaigns so that it becomes the destination point for all of their online and offline campaign work. The beauty of this: we create a cost effective marketing and information portal which increases revenue, cuts overheads and allows Arriva to harvest vital customer data for use in future targeted campaign activity.

Results

Arriva’s website is evolving from an information provider to an intelligent marketing tool which drives acquisition and retention while lowering spend. In the first month, 370,000 unique visitors viewed over 3 million pages and downloaded over 230,000 timetables and route maps on the site. Hundreds of new customers register with ‘My Arriva’ each week to take advantage of targeted information. The “Buy Online, Save Big Time!” website launch campaign sold six times as many 4-weekly Saver tickets than any previous campaign, opening Arriva’s eyes to the potential of digital as a primary revenue generation channel.