Elizabeth Line: Meet TfL’s new advertising asset
When the Elizabeth line opened last month, the excitement across the City was palpable. From transport enthusiasts to keen commuters, the new line brought a new lease of life for the London Underground.
Aside from its swanky new look and fresh connections, the purple line also swapped its ripped plastered posters for glossy new digital display screens, which span across connecting platforms and escalator steps.
Speaking with City PM, Head of Commercial Media at Transport for London (TfL) Chris Reader said the Elizabeth line presented a “unique opportunity” for advertisers, calling the spaces “bigger, brighter and bolder”. The £19bn line, which runs from Reading to Heathrow and Abbey Wood to Shenfield, currently offers an estimated 329 advertising opportunities.
Indeed, the key difference between Elizabeth line and its older and less glamorous cousins is that it has been purpose-built into its architecture; “ they’re [ads] designed to be there”, said Reader.
With Google and Schweppes as just some of the early adopters, TfL’s key advertising partner Global reckons there will be 3.44m journeys a week once the line is fully integrated in the autumn, with an estimated 170m passengers a year by 2026 for the youngest London tube line.
This is great news for TfL, which continues to battle its own funding crisis, with the government’s fourth £200m bailout set to expire at the end of this month.
Not only did these emergency funds require TfL to commit itself towards “financial sustainability”, but the impact of tightening purse strings has already started to sting many Londoners, with dozens of bus routes scrapped just last week.
For TfL, which saw advertising revenue plunge 90 per cent during the first lockdown period, the Elizabeth line presents an exciting opportunity to claw back a vital income stream and carve out post-pandemic growth.
On top of this, the launch of a plush new line comes at a good time for the complicated advertising landscape, where the market remains disrupted by fast food ad bans, as well as the looming world of crypto regulation.
While TfL told City PM that it has been working with both the Financial Conduct Authority and Advertising Standards Authority to navigate these spheres, the fact is that transport giant needs to monetise on the new digital opportunities presented by the Elizabeth line and lure in luxury partners.
Director of Commercial Outdoor at Global Chris Forrester said that successful advertising comes with a better understanding customers.
“We came out of the pandemic and called it the ‘new normal’. Now I think we are at a point where we need to accept it as the ‘new different’”, he told City PM
He explained that the way people use the tube is now much more varied, with a larger number of people travelling outside of the regular morning and evening commutes tied to a 9-5 Monday to Friday working week. Ridership is now 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels during weekdays, and over 80 per cent at the weekends.
The consequence of this shift is that advertisers need to be more innovative with the way they use platforms, focusing on “data-driven” and customer-centric approaches, explained Forrester.
This means more experimental digital campaigns, as well as tracking popular customer journeys to serve ‘meaningful’ ads at different stations for certain events.
Calling the London audience “highly valued”, Forrester added: “London is the best opportunity anywhere in the world from a digital perspective. Very few brands are asking us if London audiences are back… we can see that they are back”, he said, emphasising the millions of people who continue to use the broader tube network every single day.
So while the Elizabeth line may have been 13 years in the making, the opportunity for both Londoners, brand partners and TfL may have been worth the long wait.