National Rail has launched a new gaming campaign with an experience in Roblox, designed to promote the 16-25 Railcard.

With the help of Spark Foundry’s specialist gaming proposition, Publicis Play, National Rail has created an in-game experience that allows train travel as a key mode of transport between games in the Roblox universe. In the game, players are able to go into a 16-25 Railcard-branded train carriage and be transported to other worlds within the game. 

As well as being able to travel by train, players will also be able to fully interact with a train conductor to learn more about the benefits of the 16-25 Railcard. Where Roblox is extremely popular with younger generations, the campaign aims to meet its target 16-25 audience in a unique, more engaging way.

“Gaming is a core channel for National Rail’s target audience, and with 1.5m Roblox users in the UK each year, this campaign is a great opportunity to drive scale in an often-un-tapped space.” explained Tom Higgins, Business Director at Spark Foundry. He continued: “This audience is exposed to a huge amount of brand messages in the build-up to going back to university and we wanted a campaign that could cut-through the noise; Roblox provides the perfect opportunity to do just that.”

The campaign coincides with the start of a new university year and aims to showcase the benefits of railcards to students who may be travelling across the country to their new universities. 

 “As thousands of students begin or return to university this September, we want to show that a 16-25 Railcard is a must-have for the new term,” added Catherine Lyver, head of propositions and marketing at the Association of Train Operating Companies.

Running from September to mid-October, the campaign aims to capture the attention of students across the country looking to save money on train trips as they begin to make travel plans for the new term.  

The campaign media planning and buying was led by Spark Foundry, National Rail’s media agency, via the specialist Gaming division Publicis Play Working alongside National Rail’s creative agency Accomplice, Venatus a leading advertising solution in gaming, was responsible for the campaign concept and the gaming unit within Roblox.

By harnessing a digital experience to showcase the benefits of a rail card, National Rail is able to engage its target audience of 16-25-year-olds while making use of a platform popular with the demographic.