Uniting climate heroes through music

Every year, 1.13 million journeys to UK gigs and festivals could switch from car to rail. At festivals, audience travel can represent up to 80% of total carbon emissions. As official rail partner of Glastonbury, I came by train set out to shift behaviour by making train travel culturally desirable, not just environmentally responsible.

We partnered with 20 artists including Annie Mac, Sam Ryder, Self Esteem, Greentea Peng and Nova Twins. Rather than pushing brand messages, artists spoke in their own voice across their social channels, encouraging fans to pledge to swap one car journey for rail. By tapping into trusted relationships between artists and audiences, train travel was positioned as part of the Glastonbury experience itself. Activity ran across social, amplified by national and regional PR before and during the festival. The campaign delivered measurable behaviour change: 43% of train travellers said they had considered driving or taking the coach but chose rail instead, more than 20,000 festivalgoers travelled by train avoiding 82 tonnes of CO2. The campaign also delivered strong future intent: 85% said they would strongly consider taking the train again, more than 7,000 people pledged to switch a journey from car to rail in the next year and 61% of rail travellers were aware of I came by train. Collectively, the artists delivered 2.7 million organic social views with an average 5.21% engagement rate. Earned media reach totalled 528 million across more than 40 national and regional outlets including BBC News, BBC Radio 4, ITV, Lorraine.