It may not be the most eye-catching of headlines but Nexus are celebrating after winning a marketing award for their campaign encouraging those attended the Spice Girls concerts in Sunderland to use the Tyne and Wear Metro. The award was given at the North East Marketing Awards ceremony in the Best Integrated Campaign – In House category with Nexus said to beat off a strong field of contenders.
In making the award the judges said that it was given for the way that the in-house marketing team blended a mix of top quality marketing and public relations, ticketing offers and on the ground customer engagement activities. The campaign helped the Metro manage to move record-breaking passengers to and from the concert which took place at the Stadium of Light.
Huw Lewis, Nexus Customer Services Director, said: “I’m delighted that the judges recognised the unique aspects of this campaign that we ran for the Spice Girls concert in Sunderland. This campaign underpinned Metro’s core brand proposition to be ‘Part of Everyday Life’ – so the natural and trusted choice for travel to big events – by generating a feel good atmosphere, shared content and positive feedback. Marketing is only successful when it is supported by first class customer service. Our customer service team were a fundamental part of this marketing campaign, ensuring that our customers had a safe but also a fun journey to and from the Stadium of Light. Tyne and Wear Metro really was a part of the Spice Girls party.”
The in-house team were briefed to maximise revenue from the concert on 6th June 2019 by getting as many people as possible to use the Metro with the target being to double the revenue from the previous concert at the Stadium of Light and be in line with ticket revenues achieved for Ed Sheeran concerts at St James’ Park, Newcastle in 2018. Both these targets would be exceeded, with additional income from more than 16,000 passengers. This turned out to be a record for both passenger numbers and revenue from a single concert at the home of Sunderland FC.