The Challenge
Tier One Partners was approached with the assignment to launch the LimoLiner, a new luxury motor coach service running between Boston and New York that was geared towards business travelers. Our goal was to create awareness of the new service as an intelligent alternative to traditional modes of travel, including the Delta and US Airways shuttles and Amtrak's high-speed Acela, and to ultimately drive ticket sales.
Among our challenges was redefining the "bus" experience for LimoLiner's potential business and upscale leisure passenger base (most of whom would cringe at the idea of riding a traditional city bus) while drawing comparisons between our service and the shuttle or Acela—not the bus. We also worked to communicate the message to the tough-to-crack Boston and New York media markets that the LimoLiner experience was not only luxurious, but enabled passengers to recapture lost productivity while on the road since the vehicle was wired for Internet access.
Lastly, our client asked us to successfully build buzz in the 60 days leading up to launch time while at the same time creating the public relations infrastructure, including messaging and press materials, from scratch.
Our Approach
Our strategies included the following:
Redefine the "bus" experience through smart communications messaging
Make our pitch relevant as both a local and national story: our targets included the key local publications in both the Boston and New York markets as well as the national publications most widely read by business travelers such as The Wall Street Journal.
Leverage the past entrepreneurial successes of LimoLiner's colorful founder and CEO to help convince reporters that the LimoLiner's business model was solid.
Break the LimoLiner news with a travel brief in the Journal to create interest and pull-through in other publications.
Pursue multiple story angles with our target outlets.
The Results
The campaign results exceeded our client's expectations exponentially by securing extensive print, radio and broadcast stories about the LimoLiner in both the Boston and New York markets, and in national newspapers and magazines. To date, we have secured more than 40 articles on the LimoLiner service, in publications and broadcast outlets including U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Reuters, AP, Fortune Small Business, Conde Nast Traveler, National Geographic and Frommer's Budget Traveler. We were successful in securing LimoLiner stories in both business and travel sections of Boston and New York's daily newspapers. We also received coverage on four television segments on local Boston and New York stations and three local radio stories. Twenty five percent of passengers who book via the LimoLiner's 1-800 reservation service cite a media article as their motivation for trying the LimoLiner.
