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client on the train.
Amtrak folders are ideal for reaching vacationers
By Kathy Prentice
With summer here and families heading off on vacations, there's no better time to put your client on America's railroad cars. Vacationers are Amtrak’s best customers, representing nearly three-quarters of its 22 million annual riders.
As travelers head for holiday destinations, they usually carry with them good chunks of disposable time and dollars.
As they pick up schedules, check train times and show their tickets, these vacationers are a captive audience for messages printed on travel folders.
To find out more about putting your client on the railways, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts:
What:
Advertisements printed on Amtrak ticket folders and schedules.
Who:
Amtrak, based in Washington, D.C.
How it works:
Print ads can be placed on Amtrak ticket folders and timetables.
There are five panels available for advertising on ticket jackets, according to Thomas Violette, group manager of marketing operations support for Amtrak.
Ad space is also available on both the national and Northeast corridor timetables.
Creative is provided by the advertiser and can include text and art, Violette says.
Contact information—phone number and web site—is usually incorporated into ad copy. Amtrak reserves the right of approval for ad copy.
Timetable ads can be placed in black-and-white or in black-and-blue, in full- and half-page formats. The back cover is available in full color. The national timetable also has the inside front and back covers available in full color.
Timetables are printed twice annually, usually in April and October. About 600,000 of each--national and Northeast corridor--constitute each print run. Ads are typically 8 by 10 inches.
Ticket jackets are typically handled several times during the course of a trip. The ticket jacket is wallet-size, which increases the possibility of its being saved and referred to later, according to Amtrak. The jacket lists departure and arrival gate locations and holds baggage claims.
Ticket jackets are also printed twice annually. Four million jackets are produced at each printing. There are five panels of space available on jackets, Violette says.
Printed in full color, they vary from 3 1/8 to 3 15/16 inches wide, with a height of 8 7/8 inches on all options. The entire jacket is 4 inches by 9 inches.
Ads in Amtrak travel folders and schedules can be used in stand-alone or multimedia campaigns.
Bachmann Industries, a model train company based in Philadelphia, is using advertising in Amtrak’s northeast corridor timetable as part of a multimedia campaign that will also include ads in railroad trade magazines, says communications manager Robert Smentek.
Exclusivity is provided when a product is sold onboard.
“Amtrak has a relationship with Pepsi. We sell it on the trains. Therefore we obviously would not entertain selling an ad to Coke,” Violette says.
Ads from competitors in transportation, like airlines, aren’t accepted. Rental cars are an exception.
Ads for alcohol have not been accepted, but that could change, Violette says. “We sell alcohol onboard so we’re looking at it, but there’s no policy yet.”
Ads for tobacco aren’t accepted.
National companies most typically purchase ad space in Amtrak folders and schedules, Violette says.
“The exception would be the Northeast corridor timetable, which is geared to the schedules from Boston into Virginia and gets into regional advertising,” he says.
Amtrak’s busiest season is the June 15 through August 15 school summer break, followed by Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Markets:
Nationally, wherever Amtrak travels.
Numbers:
How measured?
“The number we print would be the best measure of impressions,” Violette says.
Eight million jackets are printed, with some packaging multiple tickets for a family or group traveling together.
Travel agencies often deliver tickets in their own folders rather than Amtrak’s.
What product categories do well?
Rental cars and other travel-related products do well.
Banks, credit cards, telecommunications, insurance and publications are also naturals for folders and timetables, Violette says.
So far two model-train companies have plugged into the ambience of riding the rails by promoting their replica trains on Amtrak schedules.
Research by BDN, a San Diego-based research and marketing firm, shows that print advertising to a captive audience reaps results 80 percent greater than general forms of print media like magazines, newspapers and direct-mail marketing.
A captive audience is defined as being immobile for an extended period of time, with restricted exposure to advertising.
Demographics:
A national travel profile from Amtrak’s marketing and brand management department shows that 48 percent of the railroad’s customer base is male, while 52 percent is female.
The age of the customer base varies, with 29 percent at 16 to 34 years old; 47 percent at 35 to 54 years; 20 percent at 55 to 64 years; and 4 percent at 65 and older.
Education of Amtrak’s customers also varies, with 3 percent having less than a high school education, while 20 percent are high school graduates, 24 percent have some college, 33 percent are college graduates and 20 percent have attended graduate school.
The average annual income of customers is $57,000. Those making under $45,000 come in at 43 percent, while 33 percent make $45,000 to $75,000 and 24 percent earn $75,000 plus.
Seventy-four percent of Amtrak’s customers are employed, 13 percent are retired, and 4 percent are involved in full-time homemaking.
The stated purpose of travel for 26 percent of Amtrak’s customers is business, while 65 percent travel for non-business reasons and 9 percent for both.
Demographics can be targeted to some degree by utilizing different Amtrak advertising products.
“We’re aiming our campaign largely at people with families,” Bachmann’s Smentek says.
Making the buy:
Lead time for ticket folders is a month prior to the twice-yearly printings, which are usually in January and again in July or August.
Lead time for timetables is six to seven weeks.
Lengths of contracts vary, though most often advertisers commit to one printing with an option for the next printing. Advertisers typically buy the whole market.
During the course of the campaign, advertisers can change creative.
The most significant factor that affects pricing is placement on the folder or schedule, Violette says.
Ticket jacket ads are sold in panels, with five panels available during each printing cycle.
RATES:
Panel A at $20 CPM costs $80,000.
Panel B at $12 CPM costs $15,000.
Panel C at $20 CPM costs $80,000.
Panel D at $20 CPM costs $80,000.
Panel E at $27 CPM costs $110,000.
Timetables are sold by page portion or cover.
RATES:
Interior full page at $12 CPM = $7,200.
Interior half page at $7.20 CPM = $4,320.
Interior quarter page at $4.20 CPM = $2,520.
Four-color covers:
Front inside at $16 CPM = $9,600.
Rear inside at $18.40 CPM = $11,040.
Rear outside at $23.50 CPM = $14,100.
Who’s already on Amtrak ticket folders and schedules
Bachmann Industries and Walthers Model Trains, Singular Cellular, Hertz, Bell Atlantic, Discover Magazine and American Express.
Web site info:
Go to www.amtrak.com for general information about Amtrak.
Contacts:
For information about advertising on Amtrak ticket folders and schedules contact Tom Violette, group manager of marketing operations support at (202) 906-4404 or tviolette@amtrak.com.
June 18, 2001 © 2001 Media Life
-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.
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