Appropriate Advertising

Advertising

Several Traveline regions are considering or experimenting with advertising. This is quite a recent change as until now there has been a strong presumption against including advertising. This has perhaps been on the basis that it can be distracting, and can degrade the quality, authority and perhaps impartiality of the travel information being provided.

In response to these concerns mock ups have been prepared by the Marketing Group, illustrating ways different types of advertising could be incorporated. A sample journey from Ellesmere Port to Matlock

Brand association

the example shows a single affinity advertising partner whose presence adds value to Traveline. The apple of the Bite Card could be thought to associate the Traveline site with a healthy lifestyle. Other affinity advertising examples could be a watch manufacturer to emphasize the time element and accuracy of Traveline, or a coffee shop chain that is found through the UK transport network who brings a note of luxury to the Traveline product.

Bring journey to life

The example page journey, across the Pennines, was chosen to illustrate the change in weather during a journey. Although not advertising it introduces additional information into the journey itinerary. The weather is specific to the location, time and date of each point in the journey. Lunch picture

Food may be seen as a pleasant part of the journey. As with the weather the link to catering can be chosen by location and time of day and as in these examples link to specific food outlets. Such information, although generating advertising revenue, can as much as possible be presented to the user as useful information that makes the journey itinerary more interesting.

The example includes some live Google advertising at the bottom of the page. Google uses the words on the page to choose what adverts to show. They are likey to be related to the places along the route and the transport modes. Such links will probably not be of much interest to the user but if they are, will distract the user from studying the journey itinerary and make it less likely that they will travel.

Destination advertising

The example shows a link through to more information about the destination. This could be a standard page that is fed by the journey planner, the coordinates for the journey destination, the time and date of arrival. This information is then used to populate the:

Page title and heading
Weather forcast
Map of destination
Google ads

The adverts are live but should pick up detail relevant to Matlock, possibly hotels and eating places. The adverts are seen by the user at a point when they have achieved their objective of finding a journey and are more likely to be considering other requirements they may have.

Few mediums for advertising are able to offer quite such as specific a profile of the advertising target than Traveline can. We know to the minute and metre where someone is going to be. This is a valuable assett.