St Luke’s wins new 6m campaign for Eurostar

Eurostar owner London & Continental Railways has appointed St Luke’s to run a new 6m advertising campaign promoting the Channel Tunnel rail service.

Eurostar owner London & Continental Railways has appointed St Luke’s to run a new 6m advertising campaign promoting the Channel Tunnel rail service.

St Luke’s won the account after pitching against GGT, Bates Dorland and Young & Rubicam. The agency will create a campaign to promote a new fare structure being introduced this summer.

Eurostar operates the passenger-only service from London to Paris and Brussels, but losses have been running at 200m a year as the service has failed to meet passenger targets.

Recently appointed operator L&CR, a consortium of six companies including Virgin and National Express, will focus on promotional advertising to increase passenger numbers.

L&CR marketing director Mark Furlong says: “We decided that to achieve traffic levels, we needed a new budget. We will be increasing our spend in below the line, sponsorship and new media opportunities.”

He adds that some use will be made of the Virgin name in branding for the Eurostar.

The new campaign will run alongside the existing 6m branding push through Young & Rubicam. This is jointly funded by L&CR, the Belgian rail company SNCB and French rail company SNCF. The majority of its budget is spent in the UK.

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