Award marketing — love it or loathe it, it can help to get your product out there

Tom Quay
Tom Quay
Jul 21, 2017 · 3 min read

Our rapidly growing transport tech arm, Passenger, just received a big marketing boost by being shortlisted for the National Transport Awards 2017 as “Transport Supplier of the Year”.

National Transport Awards 2017 — Transport Supplier of the Year 2017 shortlist …and it’s only July.

Being a team of just 15, it’s things like this that make it possible for our technology to connect with future customers. In a procurement landscape that makes it incredibly difficult for small technology businesses to break through and get noticed in the sector (public transport), it’s the kind of recognition that will help to take us to the next level.

Those annoying Smart App Banners aren’t so bad when your app is receiving a lot of customer love in the App Store. (Screenshot of www.blackpooltransport.com)

Passenger customer, Blackpool Transport, were shortlisted too in the “Improvements to Bus Services" category, which is really well deserved. From what we’ve witnessed working closely with them this year, the team there are working hard to modernise and change the way the town’s transport network is viewed by locals and visitors within the resort. As well as the modernisation of the fleet, they’re putting the digital customer experience at the centre of everything and, as the app store (iOS/ Android) feedback shows, our collective efforts are going well ahead of what promises to be another busy summer season.

Blackpool Transport Managing Director Jane Cole speaking at UK Light Rail Conference in Manchester last week, and highlighting “Fantastic [passenger] feedback about website and App” to attendees.

For us though, the award shortlisting is testament to the consistent quality of our deployments, not just in Blackpool. We’ve taken care to understand the nuances of each geographic region, the different challenges that each operator faces and the quality of data available to each. From there we can prioritise our feature development and background systems to support them in delivering on their aspirations.

Whatever you think of the ‘business of awards’, getting your product in front of as many potential customers as possible is the lifeblood of letting you keep doing what you love; making it even better.


A section from our submission

The Passenger platform enables public transport operators to better understand their passengers and their transport network; in real-time, and without investment in hardware. It provides the capability to track a customer’s usage of the network via their mobile device.

Figures show that cash payments in the UK are decreasing at a fast pace and are expected to drop down to 27% from current 45% by 2025. With the prevalence of free WiFi and cheap access to data in mobile plans, customers can buy tickets wherever they are, whether at home or on the go.

The impact of deploying the platform is a behavioural change (privately-owned car no longer perceived as the most comfortable option), leading to reduced congestion, improved air quality via reduced emissions, energy savings (fuel), more predictable travel time, with positive impact on the economy and stress levels of travellers (as evidenced by customer reviews).

In the last year, we have successfully deployed Passenger to four different operators (Bournemouth Transport, Nottingham City Transport, East Yorkshire Motor Services and Blackpool Transport). All of them are not only experiencing a migration of users from traditional payment methods (cash and smartcards) to the convenience of mobile ticketing, but also are acquiring new customers that are being attracted by the real-time information capabilities.

Nottingham City Transport, East Yorkshire Motor Services and our first Passenger deployment for Bournemouth Transport

The 17th Annual National Transport Awards celebrates the successes that have been achieved on so many national and local transport projects. As always, these projects have shown the judges the tangible results they’ve achieved, improving the experience for their transport users and ultimately adding to the successful development of the nation’s transport infrastructure.

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Tom Quay

Written by

Tom Quay

CEO of @passengerteam. I make things.

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