Co-creation for the right customer approach

CO-CREATION Maxomedia and the agency at the airport developed a campaign to promote SBB's SwissPass that focuses on customer engagement.

The two agencies, Maxomedia and Agentur am Flughafen, collaborated on the development of the SBB campaign for the SwissPass.In August 2015, public transportation ushered in a new era of travel with the introduction of the SwissPass. This significant change calls for a new dialogue with customers. To this end, SBB has engaged two leading Swiss advertising agencies: Maxomedia and the agency at the airport. The two agencies succeeded in combining their respective areas of expertise into a unique and successful co-creation model.The idea behind the SwissPass is appealing: a single card for the GA or Halbtax and as many other public transit services as possible, such as Mobility car-sharing, PubliBike, SchweizMobil, or mountain railways. This new solution goes hand in hand with promoting the digitization of customer communication. The goal is less hassle and greater convenience for public transit users. For example, Halbtax and GA passes are automatically renewed unless the user requests cancellation. The SwissPass is thus intended to provide added value to public transit customers. But do they actually recognize this? To address this question, SBB brought in two experienced advertising agencies—Maxomedia and the agency at the airport. Both possess extensive expertise in their respective fields. Now they have pooled this knowledge and skill to work as a team and develop the right approach for engaging with SwissPass customers.While «co-creation» is a buzzword on everyone’s lips, it’s rare for two independent, renowned agencies to share their expertise on a project of this magnitude. Mutual trust and a great deal of respect are essential. Both agencies collaborated to develop the concept for the SwissPass customer dialogue. When it comes to process management, the agency at the airport contributes its creative and conceptual strengths in the analog realm. Four-fifths of customers still prefer to be contacted by SBB in the «traditional» letter format. The challenge is to creatively “bring these public transit users online.”Maxomedia, a contractual partner of SBB since 1999, focuses on the systemic-digital domain and also holds the lead role as well as financial authority. However, this does not hinder collaboration in any way. The two agencies spur each other on to peak performance.The co-creation effort has a clear focus: it’s about understanding the customers’ world in order to address them with a mailing that is as personalized as possible. This is a Herculean task, given that no fewer than three million people are regular public transit users—in other words, a large portion of the Swiss population. Added to the diversity of the target audience is the variety of subscriptions—and the options for switching from one subscription to another are just as complex. As a solution, the co-creation partners have developed a coding system with over 20 criteria. The mailing variations are determined not only by age, life situation, or type of pass, but also by the specific motivation for taking the train. A co-creation project requires the courage to be open. Many agencies still prefer to keep their bag of tricks under wraps. Maxomedia and the agency at the airport, on the other hand, demonstrate how combining expertise can create added value. And the success story continues: the integration of new partners and affiliates is scheduled for the coming weeks. Despite the co-creation effort, however, the two agencies remain independent, each with their own clients and projects.