Balancing Purpose and Play to Deliver Measurable Media Impact
How we helped Heathrow Express blend purpose-led campaigns, seasonal activations and creative stunts to secure national coverage and drive engagement
Client challenge
Heathrow Express sought to elevate brand visibility and reinforce the core strengths of its rail service - speed, convenience and accessibility - within a competitive and fast-moving travel market. Alongside this, the brand aimed to demonstrate visible support for diversity and inclusion during key cultural moments, including Pride Month, while continuing to engage audiences through lighter, more playful brand activity.
The challenge was delivering these varied campaigns that could span serious purpose-led initiatives and imaginative, attention-grabbing concepts without fragmenting the brand message. Each activation needed to generate meaningful media coverage, resonate with different audiences and maintain credibility within a crowded news agenda.
Brief
Heathrow Express asked us to deliver a programme of creative PR campaigns that could operate across very different tones and moments - from values-led initiatives during Pride Month to imaginative, topical activations such as April Fools’ and festive campaigns.
The objective was to elevate brand visibility beyond traditional advertising, reinforce the speed, convenience and accessibility of the service, and generate both strong media coverage and meaningful public engagement. Each campaign needed to attract attention without diluting brand credibility, ensuring that purpose-driven and playful activity alike contributed to positive brand perception and measurable impact.
Our solution
We structured the programme around disciplined campaign planning and clear message control, ensuring that each activation - whether values-led or playful - delivered consistent brand messaging.
Our role focused on:
Campaign concept development - shaping timely ideas that aligned with cultural or seasonal moments while retaining clear service messaging
Content production - creating visual assets, including imagery and video, to support media storytelling and social amplification
Segmented media targeting - tailoring outreach across national, regional, lifestyle, sports and trade outlets to maximise relevance and coverage
Integrated social support - developing content plans to extend campaign reach beyond earned media
This structured approach enabled Heathrow Express to maintain brand consistency while delivering campaigns that varied significantly in tone and format.
Delivery
Working closely with Heathrow Express across multiple campaign moments, we delivered a series of distinct activations spanning purpose-led initiatives, topical stunts and seasonal campaigns. Each required different tones, timelines and media strategies, while maintaining consistent brand messaging throughout.
Diversity and Inclusion - “Everyone Has a Ticket to Ride”
For Pride Month, we supported the ‘Pride Ride’ initiative and the ‘London Titans’ partnership campaign, highlighting Heathrow Express’s visible commitment to inclusion.
We developed tailored press materials, produced supporting imagery and video content, and segmented outreach across national news, sports, lifestyle and trade media to ensure broad coverage. Alongside earned media activity, we developed a social content calendar to extend reach and maintain consistent messaging across channels.
Playful Storytelling - April Fools' Campaigns
We delivered two April Fools’ campaigns designed to generate topical media interest while reinforcing key brand messages.
“Henry Express” partnered with the iconic Henry vacuum cleaner to create the fictional “world’s first spring-cleaning train.” The concept playfully referenced familiar rail disruption narratives while reinforcing Heathrow Express’s reliability credentials. Supported by strong visual assets and humorous press materials, the campaign secured widespread national, regional and trade coverage.
“Moving Pizzeria” saw us collaborate with Pizza Express to create a convincing “restaurant on rails” concept. With a compressed timeline, we arranged a photoshoot centred on a strong visual moment and produced playful supporting materials to drive coverage across online, radio and regional outlets.
Festive Activation - “Elf Concierge Service"
To associate the service with the festive travel period, we delivered the “Elf Concierge Service” activation. This included on-site experiential elements such as branded installations and seasonal giveaways, supported by tailored press materials and targeted media outreach to national, regional and lifestyle publications.
Across all campaigns, we maintained clear brand messaging while adapting tone to suit each moment, ensuring that both purpose-driven and playful activity delivered credible, media-ready storytelling.
Real outcomes, real impact
Across multiple campaign moments, Heathrow Express maintained consistent national and regional visibility while reinforcing core service messages within earned media.
The programme demonstrated that purpose-led initiatives and creative, topical activations could operate within a single, coherent brand narrative - strengthening positive brand association while embedding messages around speed, convenience and customer experience.
By sustaining coverage across Pride, seasonal peaks and topical news moments, Heathrow Express extended brand visibility beyond traditional paid advertising into sustained earned coverage, securing measurable engagement across digital and social channels.
Results in detail
Diversity & Inclusion - Pride Campaign
310 pieces of coverage across the “Pride Ride” and “London Titans” initiatives
1.4 million total online coverage views
UK and US influencer partnerships supporting campaign amplification
This activity positioned Heathrow Express visibly within Pride Month coverage while maintaining alignment with core brand messaging.
April Fools’ Campaigns - Henry Express & Moving Pizzeria
Coverage across national, regional and trade media
24 pieces of online and radio coverage for “Moving Pizzeria”
293.5k total online coverage views for “Moving Pizzeria”
High levels of social engagement across Heathrow Express channels
Both campaigns secured broad media pick-up while embedding key service messages within earned coverage.
Festive Activation - Elf Concierge Service
42 pieces of coverage across national, regional and lifestyle media
12.3 million online coverage views
32.1k social media coverage views
The activation associated Heathrow Express with festive travel moments while maintaining visibility within a competitive seasonal news cycle.
Together, these campaigns demonstrate the effectiveness of balancing purpose-led initiatives with creative, topical storytelling to deliver sustained media visibility and measurable engagement.