National Rail launches immersive brand experience to promote 16-25 Railcard savings via Roblox in media first

  • September 19, 2023

National Rail has launched an exciting new gaming campaign with Roblox, featuring train travel as the key mode of transport between Roblox Games in the virtual universe, a first of its kind initiative never seen before by the gaming world.

Players will be able to go into 16-25 Railcard branded train carriages and be transported to other worlds within the game. Alongside the branded train carriages, players will be able to fully interact with a train conductor to learn more about the benefits of the 16-25 Railcard.

Led by Spark Foundry’s specialist gaming proposition – Publicis Play – the campaign will run from 11thSeptember -19th October and 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 – a division that offers clients an end-to-end gaming solution spanning media, production, data, commerce and creative. 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.

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. With a Railcard, customers can save 1/3 on their train travel for just £30 a year. Whether taking a trip home to see family, or some fun excursions with uni pals, you’ll have made back the cost in just a few trips. Roblox is a brilliant way to reach this audience with our message, putting it front of mind for students looking to make a saving.
Catherine Lyver
National Rail
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. 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.
Tom Higgins
Business Director at Spark Foundry

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