Swebus Jackpot
Issue 22 | March 2012
Agency
Akestam Holst
Creative Team
Creative Director: Andreas Ullenius; Art Director: Fredrik Josefsson; Copywriter: Adam Reuterskiold.
Production Team
Account Director: Magnus Hamberg; Account Manager: Marie Hoglin; Digital Producer: Jerker WInther
Other Credits
Web Productions: From Stockholm with Love
Date
December 2011
Background
Every year, SJ, the Swedish National railway comes grinding to a halt as soon as it snows. You’d think that they would have worked out how to deal with winter by now. For Swedish travellers, it means few will get to
their destinations on time and some won’t get there at all.
Swebus, on the other hand, is the most reliable and the most punctual public transport system in the country.
The challenge was to raise awareness of this fact and to get travellers off the rails and on the bus.
Idea
A game was created for travellers to play, "Swebus Jackpot". In December 2011, anyone in the country could bet on which would be the most delayed trains over Christmas. Those who guessed the right trains and the right length of their delays won bus tickets worth €100.
On the website, visitors could see which trains people were betting against and at what times as well as view listings of the country’s “favourite” delays.
Results
The average guess was for the train to be delayed by 1 hour and 38 minutes and according to the players, the worst train service in Sweden was the 13.13 from Malmö to Stockholm.
With no media spend, almost 50 000 people played the game during December and 100 free trips were given away.
Our Thoughts
This is so clever, bringing the joys (and the technology) of spread betting to public transport. It seems that in Sweden, as in the UK, the railways don’t give a damn a bout their passengers. Commuters simply have to put up with the service, no matter how poor. This mischievous idea allows commuters to vent a tiny bit of spleen as well as allowing them to share their pain. It is also a reminder to Swedish National Railways as much as to their passengers that they do have competition.