Amtrak Long Distance advertising

[dlagrua]

I was watching a movie on Tubi (streaming TV) last night and several Amtrak Commercials came up during the break. The ad showed onboard pictures but then implied that wherever you want to go Amtrak can take you. The video later showed people in the outdoors in a boat in a remote setting not in a city setting. This would seem to indicate a push for LD customers. The commerical cannot be posted here as its on my TV streaming app. Has anyone else seem this commercial?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I sometimes see local Amtrak advertising when I'm watching a basketball game played in a city along the NEC but that's about it. The last time I remember seeing Amtrak advertising outside of a train station it was those TSA shoe scanning sheets, but I think that campaign wrapped up more than a decade ago.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

The Phillies radio station has one that is hilarious if you know Phillies fans.

It says Phillies fans take Amtrak all the way to cities like Washington or New York.

I don’t know about Washington, but when Phillies fans go to see (and boo) the Mets, they take SEPTA to Trenton, crowd the platform, then take NJT to New York.

And it says they sit on the train in Amtrak’s comfortable seats and relax and dream of the sunsets at the stadium.

No they don’t. They dream of pummeling the Mets.

Don’t these advertising people ever go out into the real world?

 

[JayPea]

I know both the Mariners and Seahawks have radio ads, and, in the case of the Mariners, TV ads touting the Amtrak Cascades as a relaxing way to avoid the crowded freeways by taking the train.

 

[dlagrua]

The thing that was stange was that the commercial on Tubi seemed to promote Amtrak LD travel. Could it be that the National Network is now front stage with some on the Amtrak board?

 

[Chatter163]

Heard Amtrak ads on our local Atlanta radio WSB station last week.

 

[jebr]

The thing that was stange was that the commercial on Tubi seemed to promote Amtrak LD travel. Could it be that the National Network is now front stage with some on the Amtrak board?

Marketing pushes aren't often pet projects of the board. It's likely that marketing simply sees opportunities out there to advertise long distance trains as well and thus is creating some ads tailored to that. Ads on streaming services can also be tailored to very specific audiences, so they can create ads for long distance trains for demographics where they think that will be most relevant, even within the same area. For example, someone who's categorized as age 50 - 69, higher income, and perhaps has been searching for longer trips may see a long distance ad, whereas someone 30 - 39, middle-level income, and is a baseball fan may see ads for the Northeast Regional to take to another city (assuming both people live in the NEC.)

 

[Willbridge]

On-line I get Amtrak LD and generic ads, as well as Greyhound and Flix. They're picking up on my checks of PDX<>SEA and PDX<>SPK demand and pricing. The Flix ads are the cheapest productions, often using images of transit buses or European buses. Some Flix ads actually mention that they cost less or are faster than trains; apparently, they're paying to directly target people who look for train info.

 

[mlanoue]

Haven't seen the ads on Tubi, but it sounds like the TV ads that run every day on the morning news on NBC 5 in Chicago. They're 10-second spots, I think.

 

[dlagrua]

In the last few years Amtrak has emphasized planning for more corridor lines. I would believe that most of these would support a good amount of commuter traffic. Now if you examine what is happening today, commuter traffic can be a fraction of what it was pre-covid. An example of this is the NJ based DeCamp bus lines that served to commute workers to NYC. Their ridership has dropped from 6800 passengers a day to 1,250. If we examine New Jersey transit their ridership is between 55% to 70% of what it was pre-covid. The point that I am making is that new commuter./corridor lines may not be needed. The future may be in growing the long distance trains. Towards this end I see many Amtrak commercials on streaming TV (Tubi) every day that show the beauty of long distance travel in all outdoor scenes. Is Amtrak now prioritizing the LD service?